It was the first day of school for students at Wabasha-Kellogg High School, and it was the first home match of the season for Emma Johnson and her teammates on the varsity volleyball team. Excitement for a new year was high. Little did Emma know that by day’s end, she’d be taken to the Gundersen St. Elizabeth’s Hospital emergency room, and her promising junior season on the team would be finished.
That night, Emma suffered a leg injury that would require a long and extensive rehabilitation process. As difficult as it was for her to accept what lie ahead, it was a little easier knowing she could get the care and attention she needed to make a full recovery through Gundersen St. Elizabeth’s sports medicine program, a growing service aimed at helping athletes recover from their injuries and get back in the game.
A big injury, a long recovery
Emma’s injury happened during a routine play when she jumped to spike the ball, but her landing felt anything but normal. She left the match and headed for Gundersen St. Elizabeth’s.
The following week, she went back for an MRI and other tests, which later confirmed what she had feared: a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus, and bruises to the bone in her left leg. Her volleyball season was over, and she was faced with a long road to recovery that threatened her senior season, as well.
Following surgery at Gundersen Winona Campus, Emma was matched with physical therapist Elizabeth Nofsinger at Gundersen St. Elizabeth’s to begin a routine of treatments that would help heal her massive injury.
Sports medicine close to home
St. Elizabeth’s has treated patients with sports-related injuries in the past, but it never had the orthopedic support to deepen that offering. Now, as a part of Gundersen Health System, it can tap into resources at the Winona and Onalaska clinics, which both have strong sports medicine programs.
“Being in a rural community, you have to see everything,” Nofsinger says. “But now we have the support of the other sports med physical therapists at Gundersen who we can communicate with and bounce ideas off of.”
St. Elizabeth’s affiliated with Gundersen two years ago and has been building sports medicine over the past year. People, especially young ones, have been coming in as word spreads about the availability of an orthopedic team who can see patients in a timely manner.
“We have seen so many more high schoolers here since transitioning to Gundersen than we’ve seen in the past,” Nofsinger says.
Many patients have come in for ACL tears and other knee injuries, as well as shoulder problems and concussions. Many don’t require surgery but need a sports medicine provider to get them back into performance shape. But comprehensive care is available for those like Emma who suffer the most serious injuries.
A program tailored to her
Emma started out slowly over the first few months because she couldn’t put any weight on the injured leg.
“I just tried to get my quad to function again because they took a graft out of it and I couldn’t flex it or anything,” Emma says. “(So it) was just building up that, moving my leg around and just getting my movement back.”
When Emma could solidly stand on her feet again, she moved to single-leg squats, then pivoting, then eventually sprint drills and volleyball movements. Much of the progress had to be made on her own using tools Nofsinger gave her. Emma rehabbed at the hospital just once a week, and on the other days, Nofsinger taught her exercises she needed to do on her own at the local gym. That routine was hard for Emma – almost too hard.
“For the first couple of months, my mindset was not there because volleyball was my favorite sport and I was still getting through the process of, ‘I’m not going to have a season this year,’” Emma says. “But seeing the progress of me going to the gym and going to test with Liz and seeing I improved really helped.”
Each person’s rehab is individualized to their injury, but it starts with getting pain to a manageable place, then working to regain function in the injured area. For Emma, they worked on reestablishing her range of motion and strengthening the affected muscles. Losing muscle mass is easy, Nofsinger says, but building it back is difficult.
“A lot of these athletes like Emma have never had to work this hard,” Nofsinger says. “She’s such a good athlete, so she can go out there and do things, and to get back to her sport, she had to work the hardest she’s ever had to work in her life.”
A successful ending thanks to sports medicine
Emma says she’s thankful she was able to recover from her injuries at a hospital in her hometown, especially during those first few months when her mobility was limited.
“It was really easy to just go there, do my PT, and then drive straight home. It wasn’t a problem,” she says.
Emma and Nofsinger gelled from the get-go, which eased her nerves going in.
“She works really hard on her patients because as soon as I had to start doing exercises, she would push me a lot,” Emma says. “Yes, it would hurt a lot, but in the end, it helped me so much, and I’m very grateful for that.”
In the end, Emma accomplished her goal and returned for her senior season of volleyball. Though her team didn’t make it as far as she hoped in the playoffs, she still won just by being back out on the court. And she knew she couldn’t have done it alone.
“I just kept thinking that I could not have done this without Liz. I am just beyond grateful.”
If you or your child suffer a sports-related injury, call Gundersen St. Elizabeth’s sports medicine department at (651) 565-5600.