Date: 9/29/02
Author: Marty "McFly" Head, Waterski Boats Dallas

Related Items:
The ACL Experience - Part II - MRI Results and Surgery Prep
The ACL Experience - Part III - Surgery
The ACL Experience - Part IV - Physical Therapy
The ACL Experience - Part V - Knee Brace and Last Doc Visit
The ACL Experience - Part VI - Guess Who's Back Wakeboarding

It can happen on anything; wakeboards, wakeskates, surfboards, tubes, whatever. The fact is that it can happen…and it happened to me, even though I knew how to avoid it. And I still can't believe it happened to me.

It all started on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon, July 31st, 2002. It was a crystal clear day, no clouds, very little wind, and a boat full of enthusiastic riders soaking up the sun and enjoying the large wake. It came my time to ride and I did my usual routine. I put the board on while standing on the swim platform with my back to the boat. Then I threw the excess rope out while holding on to the handle to ensure that the knots were out. I did my same stretches as the boat went into gear, then I turned around to double check the rope was properly secured to the tower. As I slid off of the platform into the water, I remember thinking of how lucky I am to have such a great opportunity to do what I do for a living. And, as the boat drew farther from me and the rope began to get tight, I said my little prayer asking for safety as I ride, and thanking Him for blessing me in the way that He has all of my life.

The ride started out as it usually does. Make a few slashes at the wake and surf around a little to get loose. Cross both wakes without getting any air and slash a little on the other side. Just relax and take a little time to warm up before I jump into anything big yet. Do a few wake-to-wake inverts and spins just to get used to the wake, and then start to hit it hard.

Today felt especially good because the wake was nice and rampy, just the way I like it. The water had a touch of chop to it due to a slight wind, but it wasn't anything to get worked up about. There were a few other wakeboard boats out sending rollers here and there, but we are all courteous drivers, so there were no power turn rollers to deal with.

After I was loose, it was time to start going a little bigger. I remember the boat was traveling south and I had just landed a Raley that took me out into the flats on the east side of the wake. I stopped to let the boat catch up before I rolled the board over to come charging in for a toeside front roll. I remember making the transition from my heelside edge to my toeside edge, and then I leaned over and cut in as if I were going to do a toeside Raley. As I came to the wake, I stood tall and stalled the roll like I usually do. However, when I popped off of the wake, a roller had been coming through the wake at the same time, thus bucking me a little higher than usual. No problem, right? Just roll the invert over and readjust myself by spotting my landing and slowing down a bit. So I did, and I looked down for the water once I was half way through the rotation. The problem was that it was evening time and my movement was in the direction of east to west. The harsh Texas sun that was beaming right at my point of landing immediately blinded me. As I shut my eyes, I remember thinking its OK. Just bend your knees a little more and feel for the water. But as I felt for the water, my front knee (left) locked into position. What ran through my mind next was a thought of myself telling everyone that has ever wakeboarded to NEVER lock your knees, no matter what the situation. I knew that if I didn't break this lock, I would be in a lot more trouble than I thought. However, I was a little too late.

The exact second that I broke the lock was the exact second that I hit the water. I remember landing stiff-legged and hearing a pop and feeling a tingle that was just to the lower left of my kneecap area. I immediately let go of the rope and floated back into the water waiting a few seconds for pain. The kicker was that no pain ever occurred, but I started shaking at the thought of what may have happened. I went ahead and kicked my right foot out of my binding and began to loosen my left binding. I put my right foot by my left heel and tried to push the board off with my good leg. I figured that if I had damaged the knee, trying to jerk the foot out of the binding could cause more injury than I needed.

I waited for the boat to come back around and Sean, the driver, backed the boat's swim platform right up to me and I hopped onto the platform. I was helped out of my binding to ensure that I didn't jerk the knee too much. I sat there for a few minutes, moving and bending the knee with my hands and still did not feel any damage. I stood up, bent the knee on its own, turned from side to side and still didn't feel any pain. However, I knew that the way the knee popped, I would have some swelling before long.

Approximately four hours later, my knee had swollen and almost locked. It was difficult for me to put weight on it, so I simply kept it elevated and iced. The next day the swelling had gone down a little, but the knee was unable to stand much weight. Each day, the swelling went down, but my concerns were still there. I knew that by Wednesday of the following week, if there was still swelling and restricted movement, I should seek some professional advice.

As Tuesday approached, I began to start reviewing all of my resources. There are so many orthopedic doctors that are now involved in wakeboarding that the odds are you either know one or know someone that works with one. I decided that I would call Scott, a riding friend of mine that has been involved with knee injuries for many years now. He immediately suggested Doctor Kerry Donegan, an orthopedic surgeon here in the DFW area. The thing about true friends is that they are always there to help you out. Scott told me not to worry. He said that Dr. Donegan would be giving me a call later in the afternoon.

At 6 o'clock on Tuesday, Dr Donegan gave me a call on my cell phone. He asked me about my symptoms and I told him that the knee was a little swollen, I did not have full extension (almost but not quite) and I could only bend the knee about 80 degrees. He said that he would arrange for me to visit him the next afternoon in his office for an exam.

At 10 o'clock the next morning, my phone rang once again with a secretary from North Texas Orthopedics on the other line asking me if I could make a 2 o'clock appointment with Dr. Donegan. At about 2:05 I was laying on the table while the doctor did the "examination." He tested my extension and my flex first. Then, he had me lie back on the table and slightly bend my knees. He took a firm grip with one hand just above my knee and then took another firm grip with his other hand just below the knee. He kept the top part of my leg still while he worked around the bottom portion of the leg. He found something wrong when he moved the bottom portion of my leg back and forth, from front to back. He then did the same thing with my good leg and noticed that my good leg did not have as much play as my bad leg. That was when I knew I had damaged my ACL. He then went to get a model of the knee and showed me exactly where the ACL runs. He said that my ACL was strained, and could even be torn completely due to the fact that my knee had so much play in it when he moved it forward and backward. The ACL, or anterior cruciate ligament, is the ligament that keeps your knee from hyper extending, which means bending forward. Injuries to the ACL include straining the ACL, partially tearing the ACL or completely tearing the ACL. We wouldn't be sure about mine until I had an MRI and, even then, he said that the MRI would only show us about 85% of what we needed to know.

Dr. Donegan set me up with an MRI appointment for the very next morning. I was pretty nervous going into the MRI, not because of the actual MRI itself, but because of what the results might say. Had I torn my ACL or was it still intact? What about other damage? My knee is pretty sore but it's getting better as each day goes on. Could it just be a strain?

As I left Dr. Donegan's office, I immediately called my insurance company to make sure that all this would be covered on my policy. I found out all the details of my policy and I made sure that I was aware of what would and would not be paid by my insurance. The MRI was covered by insurance, but I still had the deductible to meet. The deductible was not a problem and my spirits were lifted knowing that my insurance company was going to help me out through this long ordeal if, indeed, I did need surgery.

My MRI was an experience in itself. I walked back to the MRI room where it was dimly lit and very cold. My wife got to go in with me as long as she removed all of her jewelry before she entered the room. We emptied our pockets and put our valuables into a safe and I assumed my position on the MRI table lying on my back with my knee propped up. When the nurse left the room, the lights dimmed and the radio came across the speakers. I just relaxed and followed instructions to stay perfectly still as the MRI machine did its work. My wife sat right beside me and read a magazine.

I remember about 10 minutes into the MRI my knee started to tingle a little with a slight burn. I figured that this was normal because my knee was in an awkward position for such a long time with out being moved. However, the nurse came running in a few minutes later and asked me if I had ever had knee surgery before. I looked at her with a confused look on my face and replied, "No." Then she asked me if I had any metal on me anywhere and then asked me again if I had ever had knee surgery. I once again told her, "No." She then told me to pull up my short's leg a little more because that may be interfering with the reading of the MRI machine. I did as I was told and she once again left the room and I went back to my relaxed position.

No more than five minutes later, the nurse came rushing back in and said that she needed to take me to x-ray immediately. I had no idea what for, but I followed her into the x-ray room and sat up on the table. She immediately slapped a lead jacket on me, put the x-ray over my knee and took a top and then a side photo of my bad knee. Then she rushed into the room with the copy of the top x-ray of my knee and placed it directly over my knee. There was a white speck about a quarter of an inch long that had showed up on the x-ray that appeared to be something lodged against my bone. It turned out that when she matched the speck up on the X-Ray to my actual knee, she found a small scar. Apparently when I was little, a small piece of metal went into my knee and never came back out. Her concern was that since the MRI is just a super powerful magnet, it could pull the metal out of my knee, ripping through blood vessels and muscle during its journey.

She took me back to the MRI room and told me that if I felt any pain or burning in my knee to tell them to immediately shut down the machine. Of course, over the next hour, all I could concentrate on was that speck in my knee and if it was actually causing my knee to tingle and burn or if it was just my imagination. However, an hour and a half later I was good to go. The nurse actually showed me some of the pictures on her computer screen. But, what I saw and what she told me was not good news. Apparently the metal in my knee had distorted many of the pictures from the MRI. In many of them, the distortion actually covered the ACL portion of the picture, which is the most important part that Dr. Donegan would need to look at.

After I took care of my bill and left the MRI office, I thought to myself, "Well, I guess since the MRI will not show us a whole lot, Dr. Donegan will just have to go in and scope the knee to make sure his diagnosis is correct." I certainly didn't want to go on wakeboarding with a possible torn ACL.

Dr. Donegan requested that the MRI results be delivered to his office by noon the next day (Friday). He had already scheduled me to come in to his office to go over the results at 1:00 pm that afternoon. Thursday was a sleepless night to say the least.

Check out Part II - MRI Results and Surgery Prep for more of the story.

Part II - MRI Results and Surgery Prep

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