Hurt arm doesn't get in way of his feet

Cristian de la Fuente reveals that he had moments of doubt during the tango, his first dance in the Monday competition episode of ABC's

Dancing With the Stars

.

After rupturing a tendon in his left arm the week before during a samba, the Chilean actor had every reason to be nervous when he took the floor with professional dance partner Cheryl Burke.

"We were dancing through the tango," he said in a phone interview the next morning, "and there were a couple places where I made a mistake, because I was afraid. I was never perfect-perfect.

"We were getting to the end of the dance, and there was a point where I looked straight into Cheryl's eyes, and she looked at me, and she gave me a wink. I was like, 'OK, we're doing a good job.'

"It was just the last promenade . . . that was the only part left. But it was really nice."

Even better, the dance earned 28 out of 30 from judges Carrie Ann Inaba (who gave it a perfect 10), Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli. Burke and de la Fuente then returned for a mambo, which earned two more perfect 10s, winding up with 29 out of 30, leaving the duo on the top of the judges' leader board.

"I'm still shocked," de la Fuente says. "I'm still surprised. My only hope was to be able to dance, but the fact that we did a good job and got great scores, that was shocking to me - shocking in a good way."

According to de la Fuente, the 24 hours between his injury and when the viewer votes kept him in the competition April 28 were a "roller coaster of emotions."

He says, "When you're in a competition or a challenge in your life, you want to at least finish it."

The immediate word was that de la Fuente had a severe cramp, but tests later at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles revealed that it was actually a ruptured tendon.

"I asked [the ER doctor] what that means in plain English," de la Fuente recalls, "and he said, 'Your biceps is no longer attached to the bone, so you need surgery.' "

It was then that one of de la Fuente's former competitors in the show stepped in to help. "I got a call from Steve Guttenberg," de la Fuente explains. "He said that he found the best doctor for my type of injury. He was Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who is the head doctor of the Dodgers."

At the last minute Tuesday, de la Fuente says, the orthopedic surgeon agreed to delay the operation and gave consent for the actor to continue in the competition.

"When [host] Tom Bergeron asked me, 'So that means you're staying? You're going?' Then I said, 'I can stay.' That decision was made five minutes prior to the question. It was a crazy day."

Then it was up to Burke to choreograph around the injury, and for de la Fuente to not do anything to aggravate it. Adding to the stress was the judges' decision to finally allow one lift each in the dance.

"We did everything they asked us to do. That's why we got the scores that we got, because we worked very hard.

"I didn't want anybody to say, 'Oh, they gave him a good score because he has an injury.' We fought and did everything like anybody."