Summer 2000- right ACL

I have always played basketball and loved it. When I was young I would jog three miles in the winter to a gym that someone had keys to and played for an hour or two, then jogged home. I would go all over to play, and really enjoyed it. I was always pretty good, just not really good. I was good enough to go to any park and hold my own. Good enough to sit the bench in high school, which I decided not to do and I think that was a mistake. Also, I am 5'8" on a good day which does not help. After college I found a league that a few co workers played in, rounded up a few of my buddies and we played for a few years. Summer league and winter league it was lots of fun and I met some great people. One summer evening, I was playing with two really good friends, one on my team and one I was playing against. The one I was playing against was a lot of fun to go at, because we pretty much knew each others moves. It caused is to play a bit harder throughout the entire game. Nothing sucks more than losing to your friends, and even more losing to a friend who is also your roomate. Well, the game was under control for the good guys (that's me), I drove thru the lane (blwoing by my buddy), and was dropping the ball in for a layup when I felt a hand on my hip. It pushed me just enought to put me off balance. I was in the air and upon landing my weight was all goofy. My right leg landed at about the ankle, with all of my weight in the wrong place. The consequence of this is my shin and femur colliding and my acl tearing down the middle. The pain was pretty rough and I remember my buddy CL standing over me, saying ' dude what do you need?'. All I could muster was ' help me.'. Yes, there I am on the floor, covered in sweat 9 grown men looking at me and all I could muster was help me, I surely would not hear the end of this for a long long time. They scooted me over to the sideline and finished up the game, at which point my friend drove me to the hospital. I don't think I had ever been in as much pain as that short car ride, every bump, every acceleration, every break was excrucitating. No more than an hour later had a wonderful ER attendent put a needle in my knee to pull out CC after CC of blood and who knows what else from my knee. The pressure release was unbelievable and the pain immediately deminished to hurt really flipping bad instead of borderline unbearable. The doctor sent me off with a wrap, a script for pain, a notice of this isn't good, and an appointment for an mri. I drove myself home from the hospital I remember having a stick shift and having to keep my leg straight to push on the gas and break as my entire right leg was in an immobilizer. Just as we thought I had torn my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament). The ACL helps to keep the knee stable.

Rehab is next.
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