Kannon Villarreal

How it happened: 

I just came back from battling overseas and I was training nonstop not giving my body much of a break. I entered a dance battle and then we get to top 8, 20 seconds into my round I bend my knee inward and slowly move to the floor executing a move I do quite often, about half way down I feel a big pop, my knee suddenly cant even hold my weight enough to extend back up to a standing position, I turn a round and collapse into some crew mates that were standing behind me.

What happened next:

I finally get able and hop to the car, we head straight to the ER. After reviewing the x rays they confirm nothing is broken so it may be muscular, so they send me home with an immobilizer brace which is a cast like contraption that wont let me bend my knee, it just keeps my leg straight and stabilized. I did the Physical Therapy for about 4 months and never got the MRI (not sure why) things started to feel better and the physical therapist said okay start to dance a little and see how it feels. I went to a competition in Vegas, knee was feeling good, made it all the way to the finals and in my very last round POP, it happened again, same pain, same feeling went through my body and i ended up back in the ER. This time things felt a little worse but they offered me the same process, I got back on the immobilizer and got sent to physical therapy but this time we did the MRI.  I had a Clean Tear of my ACL and a Contusion in my Meniscus, it was time to cancel Physical Therapy because they confirmed I needed surgery.

The dancing stopped. Everything stopped, i lost all of my booking over seas, I lost my two sponsorships, and I lost all my teaching jobs due to me not being able to perform my active duties. I did not have insurance at any of these times and my hospital bills for just being seen, for pain medicine, for x rays, MRI’s, and physical therapy were through the roof. Eventually had to apply for AHCCS to be able to under go the surgery I needed.
I went in for Knee surgery on January 5th, 2018. They did a full reconstruction of my ACL using my own tissue from around my fibula, and they cut out the contusion from my meniscus. Its been about 3 weeks post surgery and I am now back in physical therapy eager to get back on the dance floor.