Living with a torn ACL is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Two summers ago, when I was 7 months pregnant with our youngest, Thor, I fell on my just-mopped, slippery kitchen floor, twisted my knee and tore my right ACL.

Living with a Torn ACL

It hurt like you wouldn’t believe. I could barely walk for the rest of the day. And because the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) is largely responsible for stability in the knee, I fell on numerous occasions afterward (twice while holding Thor when he was a newborn – don’t worry, he was fine!), and had to become super careful to avoid stepping on ANYTHING that would offset my balance (like a small toy). I was also left unable to run, jump, or do anything else that required stability in the knees (which is a lot of things!).

You hear about athletes tearing ligaments like this, not pregnant moms who just finished cleaning their kitchen floor, thought it was dry, then found out the painful way – NOPE! Not dry here yet!

I’m still mad at myself, and my husband still picks on me about it (he’s actually a good husband – he tells me I shouldn’t have been mopping the floor while pregnant…I should have been relaxing!). But actually – I’m quite proud of myself. I instinctively fell in a way that protected my belly – which was a good motherly thing to do, right?. Unfortunately, it meant protecting my belly at the expense of my knee. [Read more…]