Kicking Her Way to Victory

Jackie Forrester gained so much more than a second place win at her first post-surgery karate competition.

 

"It was the first time that I truly felt that I was going to get my life back," Forrester said. "With some modifications."

Forrester's saga began in February of 2009 when she fell on the ski slopes, severely twisting her knee. The ski patrol that rescued her assumed it was a sprain but Forrester began to think differently when she still couldn't put weight on it days later.

A trip to the doctor and an MRI revealed she had damaged her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), her lateral collateral ligament (LCL), her medial collateral ligament (MCL) and the posterior lateral corner.  The somber diagnosis was that she should expect that she would leave surgery with the same range of motion she had going in.  "I couldn't really move my leg at all, " Forrester said. "I was devastated to think I'd lose almost all range of motion."


Orthopedic Specialites of Spartanburg surgeon and knee specialist Dr. Thomas Leong scheduled surgery as quickly as possible to save the existing LCL ligament in her knee. A month later, he performed a second surgery, replacing the ACL ligament with one from a cadaver. "That entire time I was in a brace that had my leg locked straight," Forrester said. "I couldn't do anything, it was a total loss of my identity, really." Forrester struggled with the fact that the things she loved: karate, yoga, aerobics and riding her motorcycle had probably been taken from her forever. Nearly two months after her surgeries, she began physical therapy with the ATS staff at Orthopedic Specialties of Spartanburg.


"I screamed and cried as we worked on the knee," Forrester said. "It was the most painful thing I've ever gone through, but the whole staff was so compassionate towards my pain, and so supportive. I felt like they were the only ones who really understood what I was going through."


Her therapists marveled as they watched Forrester push through obstacle after obstacle, fighting pain and discouragement as she fought to regain her quality of life.
"I think the most helpful parts for me were the Cybex machine, but especially the pool sessions," Forrester said. "In the pool, I started to actually feel like I could do things again, because so much of this was even mental. I started doing my karate kicks in the pool and felt like I could do some of the things I loved."

 

Her hard work paid off when at the culmination of her time with ATS, she had regained substantially more range of motion than anyone had predicted. "One of the biggest things they taught me at ATS was that I could still do the things I loved: with modifications," she said. "That's why when I knew there was a tournament coming up, I decided I wanted to compete."

At first, her instructor tried to dissuade her, encouraging her to wait till she was sure she was 100 percent. Forrester disagreed, telling him that she didn't need to win, that the event was as much about celebrating the fact she could still do karate and to do it to the best of her ability was all she wanted.


Despite the fact that only 8 months earlier Forrester had been bed-ridden, she took second place in her division in the competition. "I needed to have that renewed confidence in myself," Forrester said. "And I couldn't have gotten there without ATS. Physically and mentally, they helped me rally to regain my life, which, I appreciate even more now."