Well, it happened. Every soccer player/athlete's worst nightmare. Tyleigh tore her ACL.
She went to BYU soccer camp with some of her teammates (I know, I know - sending her to BYU was our first mistake 😉). She played incredible all week and was even named one of the All Star players of the camp. Ironically, she called me from camp that morning and wondered if she should leave because she had her club tournament later that night and was already exhausted. Her soccer camp team made it into the finals though and she wanted to be part of it.
She called me and said she hurt her leg, so I rushed down. A dad of one of the players asked me if she was okay because he heard a pop. I had no idea what that meant. We had a BYU athletic trainer check her out. They thought she had strained her hamstring and taped her up with KT tape. She begged to play with her club team. We drove over to the tournament and she started warming up. One of her teammates yelled for me because Tyleigh's legs had collapsed from under her.
We got her in to a physical therapist in Saratoga Springs who suggested we have her checked by an orthopedic surgeon. Our angel of a neighbor worked for one and had already helped Carsyn a ton, so he helped us get her in quickly. Dr. Carlson would quickly become more than just our doctor with all the visits we were about to have. He did some tests on her and was about 50% sure she had torn something in her knee. He recommended an MRI.
Being uneducated in the world of sports injuries, I was glad it wasn't a broken bone . . . little did I know that tendons and ligaments take 4 times longer to heal.
We got her in for an MRI and got a phone call that night that she had torn her ACL, sprained her meniscus and MCL and had some pretty major bone contusions.
Surgery was the only option.
On July 30, 2018, at only 13 years old, Tyleigh had her first ACL repair. Dr. Carlson intended to use her own hamstring to repair it, but discovered that her hamstring had been injured somewhere along the way and had some scarring that made it so he could only use part of it. He did a hybrid graft using part of her hamstring and part of a cadaver.
It was a long and emotional day, and marked just the beginning of an even longer and even harder journey back to soccer and life as Tyleigh knew it.
This girl's poor body does not like anesthesia.
Seeing her like this was SO hard.
Tyleigh will forever hate this knee brace and ice pack.
This is such a hard and painful surgery!
Our kitties took full advantage of her warm blanket and being her nurse.
You are the biggest trooper I know, Tyleigh Bean! No one could endure what you have with such an awesome attitude and determination to get back like you have. My heart will always hurt for what you've gone through, but you are the strongest person I know and will always come out on top!
