AST Athlete Journal: Aidan Kometz

It’s a new year with a new knee! For any unfamiliar readers, my name is Aidan Kometz and I am an Alberta Ski Team athlete who is recovering from knee surgery. My first journal of this season described my situation, so I will treat this one as a thorough update. A lot has changed over these past months, for me and the team, and I hope to share my story. 

The surgery was a success! My amazing surgeon, Dr. Heard, used a section of my quad tendon to reconstruct my ACL. So now my body is securing and healing this graft, which acts as an ACL, in place. He also repaired both my torn meniscus’ which are essential C-shaped discs that help cushion the knee. Due to the root tear of my lateral meniscus, I couldn’t bear any weight on my leg for 6 weeks to ensure it fully healed. After several rest days post-surgery, I started my physio and my long return to skiing. I progressed well for the first 6 weeks; my swelling decreased, my mobility came back, and my quads activated. I was gaining more and more range of motion in my knee by doing lots of exercises with my physio, Kevin. Some of my exercises included biking frequently paired with BFR (Blood Flow Restriction) training to help strengthen my leg muscles.

The first week was the hardest. The pain is pretty bad as your swelling increases, and your quad muscles start to ‘go to sleep’. You try to flex your quad and it just doesn’t move. You try to raise your leg straight but your heel drags along the ground. As the swelling drops you can begin to do more exercises and use EMS (Electrical Muscle Stimulator) to reactivate the quads. Unfortunately, your legs begin to atrophy and lose muscle mass, essentially shrinking. My right leg is now very visibly smaller than my left. The great thing is that you can always build the muscle back which is another reason recovery can be so long. My quad is now fully active and flexing, getting stronger by the day. A whole new world of exercises was available once I could bear weight making my progress much more obvious.

With how everything was going I felt amazing. I hadn’t faced any problems and was progressing pretty perfectly. I arrogantly mentioned to my trainer, Nate, that I didn’t think I would face any setbacks. He assured me that no road back is straight, that every recovery has ups and downs. I didn’t believe him. Now whether this was karma or coincidence, the next day I faced a setback. I was distracted and then fell down some stairs. At first, I didn’t have much pain so I assumed I was fine. However, that night my knee began to squeak and creak. Then the following morning I was getting sharp pains in my knee. I started to panic thinking I messed up my knee over a stupid mistake. There was a chance I tore out my root repair. I was devastated at first because this would mean another 6 weeks on crutches, but we didn’t have a verdict. Later that week I met with Dr. Heard and we decided that an Arthroscopy would be the best option and we could decide from there. A camera scope goes into the knee to see if anything is injured, and then they either fix what’s broken or see that everything is okay. 

I had my second surgery on January 20th, exactly 2 months after my first one. Luckily, I hadn’t torn out my root but rather strained it. This shifted the artificial sutures around in my knee causing the squeaking and possibly some pain. The surgeons removed all the sutures because my scar tissue had formed and secured my meniscus back to its root. This was the best possible outcome and I feel very lucky. The weirdest thing about this surgery was I had a spinal anesthetic instead of a general anesthetic, which means I was awake and watching my surgery on a TV. My epidural was fairly perfect because I still had some motor control in my major muscle groups but couldn’t feel any pain. I could feel the scope going into my knee, the surgeon’s tools in my knee, and the snipping and pulling out of all my sutures but had absolutely no pain. This was my first setback and I learned a lot for the future, it was a lesson I needed. I just missed 2 weeks of progress but am eager to get back to rehab.

Our team had a very unfortunate and dramatic change in late December. Two more of our athletes injured their knees. Caleb Brooks crashed in a Christmas slalom race and dislocated his kneecap, tearing his MPFL. He has since had surgery and is on the road to recovery already. More recently though, Jamie Heisz crashed and blew out her knee too. She tore her ACL and a couple of other ligaments and is awaiting surgery. I was so shocked when I heard about both these injuries because I know how horrible it can feel especially the struggle associated with surgery. However, Jamie and Caleb are two of the strongest and capable people I know. I have no doubt in my mind they will recover and be a better version of themselves. I always believe in a silver lining. While I wish this never happened to them, we will all be recovering and rehabbing together which is so much better than doing it alone. I hope I can help them with my experience and learn from them too. 

I even got to go watch the Panorama and Norquay FIS race series. It was awesome seeing and talking to so many people. I hope to come to as many races as possible and see teammates, future teammates, and friends race their best race. The best way I can end this is that I am hopeful for the future. I believe this recovery is something I needed. I get the opportunity to work on myself both physically and mentally. I am determined to come back stronger and more prepared for the next season. My biggest goal is to come back and compete at the World Junior Ski Championship next year. This forced absence from skiing has opened my eyes to how much I love skiing. There hasn’t been a day where I haven’t wanted to carve a perfect GS turn, kick out of the start, or feel the cold air on my face while I tuck. The lack of skiing in my life has made me want to race so much more.

I have so much gratitude for everyone who asked about me and how I was doing. I am extremely thankful for the Alberta Ski Team and for all our team’s supporters and behind-the-scenes workers. I am very excited to work much more closely with our amazing sponsors GMC Dealers of Alberta, Karbon Sports, Genstar Canada, Mountain Fire Foods, and Gearup Mountain Sports. The impact you have is much more than you can understand.