Injuries

This past week, I found out I tore my ACL. This requires surgery and an approximate recovery time of 6 months. This is probably the worst thing EVER. I've been playing sports for 11 years and not once have I gotten more than a scrape.

The thing with tearing your ACL is that it is relatively easy to fix. It is becoming an extremely common injury among athletes. The doctor that I'm going to is the lead orthopedic surgeon at Georgetown University. He says that he's had 2 women's soccer players tore their ACL this season and he performs over 300 grafts for ACLs a year.

One would think that there would be a way to prevent major injuries in sports. But, they're sort of unavoidable. Wearing a brace might help, but that just makes you reliant on the brace and you may soon find you can't play without it.

As the number of sports injuries grow, so must the knowledge of them. More and more doctors nowadays are specializing in "sports medicine". When you think about it, it makes sense to have sports medicine as it's own field because injuries caused by sports occur differently. Also, most people who suffer from injuries want to get back out and play as soon as possible. Sports medicine doctors can make that happen.

But a lot of times, athletes think they're ready to play when they really aren't completely healed. There are tons of cases where an athlete gets surgery and rushes the rehabilitation process, only to re-injure it. Now this injury is definitely preventable. Ya sure, the pros probably want to get out there immediately, but there's no need to be stupid about it. Is it worth risking your whole career for one more month of rehab??

I believe the medicinal field is extremely prepared to deal with sports injuries. The technology is state of the art. The knowledge is extensive. The doctors are competent.

What it comes down to is the inevitability of getting severly injured. There's really nothing we can do except take the proper measures to heal correctly. You can't help it. You owe it to yourself to get back out there and keep doing what you're doing.

Well, this is at least what I keep telling myself as I sit and wait for surgery.