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(FOX 2) - Roller derby is a sport filled with personality, passion, athleticism, and collisions - and unfortunately sometimes, bumps, bruises and broken bones. And back in January, FOX 2's Robin Murdoch took a hit during a match that left her almost unable to stand.
"I just went to my coach and I said I gotta sit down, so I pulled myself out to the game," she said. Soon after that, x-rays and doctors revealed the painful truth.
"As quickly as I could I got an MRI and that's when it was determined I tore my ACL as well as my menicus in two different spots," she said. "So I could tell I hurt myself, I just didn't know how bad and I was just hoping it's not as bad as it was."
The ACL is tissue that connects the thigh bone to the shin bone at the knee. Repairing a complete tear is tough.
"Once the ligament's torn we can't sew it back together unfortunately in that part of your body. So then we have to use another part to make up for that ligament," said Dr. Klajidi Sinai with Novi Doctors of Physical Therapy. "So in this case, we take one of the tendons around the knee joint, and then we drill holes in the two bones where that original ligament was previously attached, and then we attach that tendon to those bones and we fixate it."
The initial pain during recovery led to countless sleepless nights, plus Robin couldn't do anything for herself or her three children.
"It messes with your mind, you know, not being able to do the simple things that you want to do. It was tough and with this injury, too, it doesn't help that you don't sleep a lot," she said. "It's very mentally and physically exhausting."
After a month Robin started physical therapy and now is trying to relearn how to walk and trust her right knee.
"Just tyring to put all of my weight on my right foot when I get up, because for the longest time when you're on crutches I would just use something to get up," she said.
Slowly, life is returning to normal. A complete recovery will take several months. Robin hopes to one day return to roller derby, but until then she and her three little ones are just glad mom can drive again.
"When I picked them up from school and I was in the driver's seat and they ran up and were like, 'Oh my god mommy! You're driving!' So that was so great because it was a huge deal for me to drive but I didn't realize what an impact it meant on them as well."
Robin is waiting to get the okay from her surgeon to come back to work.