Lindie: I was playing indoor soccer on a team that my dad was coaching when I hurt my knee. I was spinning on my left leg, trying to score from the corner, when I felt a nasty pop and my left knee just gave out. I gasped in surprise and collapsed to the ground. My dad ran out from the sidelines, and all of my friends crowded around to see if I was okay. I could tell that I had hurt my knee badly, but I wasn't in an incredible amount of pain. My dad and my friends helped me over to the sideline and someone gave me an ice pack. For the rest of the game, I sat on the bench crying-not because my knee hurt, but because I knew that I wasn't going to be able to play again for a while.

Mom: When my husband called to tell me that Lindie had hurt herself, I could tell by the tone in his voice that it wasn't just a scrape or a bruise. When your kids play sports, you come to terms with the fact that injuries are more than just possible-they're pretty much guaranteed. So you just pray that when they get hurt, it won't be serious. Lindie is always having something happen to her--three years ago she broke her arm playing soccer. But she has so much fun playing that her inability to continue participating always seems to bother her worse than anything pertaining to the injury itself. Girls play a lot of sports these days, and I think it's a great thing. You just have to accept that the injuries come along with the fun. Although as a parent it's easier to accept when boys get hurt, the fact is that sports are just as important to girls, and they play just as hard, if not harder.

"After dinner, Chris went right to the Internet. He spent several hours researching ACL injuries and the most common methods of surgery used in these cases"

Mom: That evening, my husband and I sat down to talk about what had happened. He had been coaching the girls for about ten years, and he had been through this plenty of times before. We were both committed to giving Lindie anything that she needed to be able to play again, so we called our family doctor to ask him what to do. He told us we didn't need to go to the emergency room, and instead recommended that we take it easy that night. He promised to call in the morning with the name of an orthopedic surgeon we could see.

After dinner, Chris went right to the Internet. He spent several hours researching ACL injuries and the most common methods of surgery used in these cases. Chris was really dedicated to understanding the situation and making sure we chose the best path, and by nighttime he already had some ideas about how to proceed. He told me that he felt comfortable with the idea of surgery, and he wanted Lindie to have a hamstring graft. He felt that the patella graft was harder on the other girls on the team who had torn their ACLs, and that it took them longer to be able to play again without having a lot of pain. Three days later, we went to see the orthopedic surgeon our doctor had recommended. We liked him a lot, and were pleased to find that the good things we had heard from the other girls on the team who had had similar injuries were true. He told us what we already knew-that Lindie had torn her ACL. But the news didn't make her very upset, because she had already told us that she was expecting to have surgery.

Lindie: The first thing that they told me to do while awaiting surgery was to start moving my knee again. They gave me a pair of crutches and told me to use them until I could walk without limping. It took me about a week to walk normally again. I did my exercises as often as I could. I lay on my bed at night, talking on the telephone, sliding my heel up and down and doing leg lifts. The exercises weren't very painful, and it helped me to focus on getting better.

Mom: Because the doctor told us that they don't operate right away, we had a lot of time to think about the surgery and talk it over. Lindie was fourteen at the time, and the doctor told us that she was almost finished growing. This meant that he could treat her the way that adults are treated, and that she could have the regular kind of surgery. My husband talked with him about the kind of graft that she was going to have and what was involved in rehabilitation. By the time they were done, we felt really comfortable with the whole process.

"The thing that scared me to death about surgery was the thought of getting an IV stuck in my arm."

Lindie: The thing that scared me to death about surgery was the thought of getting an IV stuck in my arm. Nothing else about it bothered me, but I was terrified of having them start an IV. I was so nervous on the day before surgery that I stayed home from school. And I hardly slept at all the night before surgery, because I kept tossing and turning, thinking about what was going to happen the next day. Thankfully, the actual day of surgery went by quickly. My mom held my hand when they started the IV, and I was so scared about the whole thing that I hardly noticed when they finally put it in. In the end, I can't really remember if it was painful or not. Then I said good-bye, gave my mom and my dad a kiss, and they rolled me into the operating room.

Mom: My husband and I were both nervous, but we knew that she was in good hands. The anesthesiologist came out to meet us before the surgery, and he recommended that she have a general anesthetic-that she go completely to sleep. I was glad, because I don't think that she would have agreed to a spinal. Our surgeon came out to see us just before they took her back. He was very reassuring and made us feel very comfortable. By this time we had both given up worrying about the technical details of the surgery, and we knew that she would be well taken care of. She has always bounced back quickly from injuries, and she has always been very active, so we both knew that she would take it in stride.

Lindie: The next thing that I knew, I was waking up and I was really groggy. I must have been in the recovery room for about an hour before they took me to my hospital room, but I don't remember anything about it. I didn't see my mom and dad again until I got to my room, but I was pretty comfortable. I felt so tired after surgery that I could hardly keep my eyes open, and I kept falling asleep…until the pain started. At about ten o'clock at night my knee started to hurt really badly. The nurses were really nice, and they gave me a shot and some pain pills, but it seemed like forever before they started to work. I wanted my parents to stay as long as they could, because my knee was killing me and I didn't want to spend the night in the hospital by myself. I finally fell asleep again at about midnight.

Mom: She handled the whole thing the way she normally does-none of it seemed to faze her. She slept most of the day, and I went home at about six o'clock that evening. My husband came home a little after midnight and told me she was doing fine. The next thing we knew, it was six thirty in the morning, and Lindie was on the phone telling us that she was ready to come home.

Lindie: The drive home was really hard. Every little bump made my knee hurt like crazy. I know that my mom was trying to be careful, but it seemed like she was starting and stopping too quickly, and it felt like someone had been out all night adding bumps to the road. When I got home I was exhausted again, so I went straight to bed. I had a brace on my knee and a thick dressing on underneath the brace. They gave me a couple of ice packs to take home with me, and my mom helped me put my leg on a couple of pillows with the ice packed in around it. The doctor told me to take the dressing off on the third day after surgery, and my mom and my dad helped me do it. When the dressing came off, my leg looked tiny, but my knee was swollen and huge. It felt really squishy and I didn't want to move it.

"My husband told me that the rehabilitation was the most important part, and it was what made the difference for the other girls on the team who had had knee surgery"

Mom: We went to see a physical therapist about five days after surgery. He looked at her leg and said that everything seemed to be healing well. He assured us that the amount of swelling that she still had in her knee was normal, and he started Lindie on her therapy. She already knew what exercises she was supposed to do, because they were the same ones that she had been taught before the operation. I could tell right away that she was going to remain dedicated to her regimen until she was fully healed. My husband told me that the rehabilitation was the most important part, and it was what made the difference for the other girls on the team who had had knee surgery. He said he could tell when the girls weren't doing their exercises, because he could see how much it slowed them down.

Lindie: I wanted to get back to playing soccer, so I was determined to work hard in therapy. But sometimes I felt like I just didn't have the energy to go, especially in the first three weeks. My mom would tell me that I had to go to therapy, and would secretly wish that I never had to go again. But the great thing was that every day I could feel that my knee was getting stronger. I had to use crutches for a while after surgery, but the doctor told me that I wouldn't need them for more than a week or so. We went back to see the doctor a week after surgery, and he told me that my wounds were healing fine and that the swelling would go away soon.

Mom: The first six weeks were really hard, because she had to go to physical therapy three times a week, and it took a lot of driving and organizing to get her there. The rest of my kids had their usual schedules and it was hard to find the time to drive Lindie to therapy and wait while she worked on her knee. I was glad when she started going twice per week, and it was even better when it became only once a week.

Lindie: I started playing soccer again at about four months. At first my dad made me wear a different color shirt so that no one would bump into me, but that only lasted for a few days. My leg felt kind of stiff when I would play, but it got stronger again really fast. At first I was really timid, especially with kicking the ball, but it felt so good to be playing again that I hardly noticed after a while. Still, I could always tell which leg had been operated on, because it felt different. Even after I stopped noticing any difference in strength, I could close my eyes and know right away which knee I had hurt.

"The surgeon explained that the braces were really optional, but if she felt it would help then he'd be happy to give her one"

Mom: It was amazing how quickly she got back to playing soccer. When our surgeon had told us that Lindie wouldn't need a brace, my husband was rather nervous, because almost all of the other kids had used braces after surgery. The surgeon explained that the braces were really optional, but if she felt it would help then he'd be happy to give her one. Lindie was perfectly happy to play without one, and I don't think that she would have worn a brace for more than a week or so anyway, so we decided to let her go without it.

Now that nearly a year has passed, when my husband and I think about it, we're both amazed at how fast it all went. A friend of mine hurt her knee almost ten years ago, and I think that she had an ACL reconstruction. It seemed like it took forever for her to be able to walk normally, let alone play tennis again. The way that they do it today seems so much better. It's always difficult when your kids get hurt, but there was hardly anything about the whole procedure that worried us or made us scared. I guess its because we know how tough Lindie is. We're all glad it went so smoothly. If you watch her out on the field now, playing just like she always used to, you'd never know she had ever been hurt.