041. Aneesa On What to Expect After ACL Surgery, Restoring Function, and Optimizing Performance

27 Oct 041. Aneesa On What to Expect After ACL Surgery, Restoring Function, and Optimizing Performance

This episode features an interview with Aneesa, a Pennsylvania-born athlete who eventually re-located to Hawaii in order to begin her Ph.D. in tropical medicine. Aneesa shares a very relatable experience with an injury she had just before grad school. This is a great episode for anyone who can relate to having an injury, and at the same time, that drive to keep going. Aneesa shares her background as an athlete, participating in a wide range of sports growing up. Athleticism has always been ingrained in her life. As an adult, she began competing in triathlons. Yet, her injury didn’t happen during her normal athletic practice and training. It happened while she was running on the beach. She was working on an ocean rescue team in North Carolina around the Outer Banks. Something that could happen to anyone, she stepped into a dip in the sand while running along the beach and tore her ACL, unknowingly at the time. Just like many people do after an injury, she nursed it the best she could, and once she got to a functional level, she kept going on with her athletic training. Later, she began doing CrossFit after moving to New Orleans for grad school. It is very common for a lot of people who have had injuries and to stick with what they have been doing once they feel that they are at a functional level. What happens then is overcompensation in other parts of the body. Aneesa functioned with this injury for three years, until the pain and swelling prevented her from doing athletic activities that she needed to have ACL reconstructive surgery.

Listen in on Aneesa’s story, as she describes her recovery process, overcoming setbacks, returning to all of her activities, and most importantly maintenance to take care of her knee moving forward. She shares what she learned inside of the experience and how she did not expect the process to be as difficult or challenging as it turned out to be. This episode is an excellent listen for anyone who can relate to the injury recovery process, especially after ACL surgery.