>> Go, go, go.
>> Nice.
>> I was going from yellow green belt to green.
It was the very last kick of the very last one step.
It's a back leg side kick.
You're supposed to pivot on the standing foot.
I didn't pivot on my foot, but I pivoted and something had to give.
I stepped off to the side again and it buckled.
And I thought, I don't know what I did but I did something.
I called a doctor friend of mine, I said hey, where do you go for MRIs?
Cuz I'd never had to have one in Asheville.
They did an MRI and sure enough they said you know, you tore your ACL.
I'm a woman in her late forties.
I'm very physically active.
And the words I was hearing from local doctors, I don't think
they took me very seriously in terms of just how active I was and
intended to remain.
I wanted to work with a doctor who understood that even though I
wasn't a professional athlete that I'm not a couch potato and
I wasn't about to become a couch potato.
I thought, am I overreacting by looking outside of my community for
an excellent doctor?
Because there were plenty of surgeons here who came highly
recommended.
If I can control the surgery like who I'm going to see,
then I'm gonna do all that i can to find the best doctor.
And I will go to that person no matter where they were and
get this done.
When I went to Hopkins and met Doctor Cosgarea, I was, one,
blown away by his demeanour, and, two,
that he'd worked with martial artists before.
>> What has happened since we last saw you?
Michelle had a very serious injury.
She tore the main ligament in her knee,
the anterior cruciate ligament.
That's the ligament that supports the knee and
allows athletes to cut and pivot without the knee collapsing.
The whole goal in treating athletes is getting them back to their
pre-injury level of activity.
For an athlete there's nothing acceptable less than
getting back to that same level of activity prior to the injury.
>> This is a scar that was from falling skateboarding when I was 18.
So your incision points, I don't know where they are.
>> Not every ACL needs reconstruction.
But if we choose to do an ACL reconstruction, if it's the right
thing for that patient, it has to be done perfectly.
An important part of being a sports medicine specialist is understanding
enough about every single sport that you can relate to your athletes.
I chose to go into sports medicine because I like taking care
of motivated, hardworking athletes.
And because of patients like Michelle I have the perfect job.
>> When I got back to Asheville from surgery, I knew that I
just needed something also like a light at the end of the tunnel.
If I keep coming here and doing what I can,
then I know one day I'll be back on the mat.
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You have to know all of these forms, you can't forget them.
It was fun to begin moving again and to see what I could do and
what I couldn't do.
A lot of people quit right after they get injured or
even if they're sick.
They might take a week off and then they never come back to the mat.
And I said well, to me this is the perfect practice for
martial arts, you know?
How you're gonna show up in an injury,
how do you show up in your life?
Dr. Cosgarea and the way he delivered, really blew me away.
To know that I can be back out there,
at the very place that I tore my ACL and that I would be fine.
In fact that I could probably be stronger than where
I was pre-surgery, that lit a fire under me.
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