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Injury Diaries, part four. Encouragement from other people’s injury/recovery stories.
Last Sunday, in the lobby after church, a guy came up to me and asked me about my cast. I remembered that he’d been on crutches last summer, showed up to our children’s ministry in a boot and mentioned to other volunteers that he’d broken a bone without even knowing it. (Me too, apparently.)
I gave him the general rundown: long history of injury, what my surgeon did, expected timeline.
“I’m six months ahead of you — it gets better,” he said.
I started asking him questions, all the questions I’d been wondering about my future pouring out.
He told me he’d had the same basic surgery to tighten up connective tissue, though no bone spurs or anything like that. I asked him where he had his surgery. His answer was the same place and same surgeon as me. He was on crutches for two or three weeks, so I’m not a special case.
How about recovery?
He told me when he started physical therapy, he knew it was really important, so he found a place close to his work and went twice a week. Now, he’s back to his normal activities: CrossFit, lifting, squatting, etc. “I don’t do box jumps, but that’s just because I’d rather not take the risk,” he said (paraphrased).
This week has been banal and frustrating. A third week mostly stuck in my basement apartment (because stairs are too hard to leave for small reasons), polluted by either food poisoning or a stomach virus that hit me hard Tuesday night, forced me to scoot around my apartment like a baby, and left me a shell of a human being for 30+ hours.
Suffice it to say, I’m tired of not being able to walk.
I’m tired of not being able to comfortably cook a tasty meal. I’m tired of only taking 5-minute seated showers because who knows how long the plastic bag and towel around my cast will hold up. I’m tired of the piles of stuff growing in my apartment because I can’t easily move things from where they are to where they should be.
If I hadn’t gotten sick on Tuesday, I would have attempted a seated workout on the floor outside my sport closet, which contains a couple kettlebells, two sets of light dumbbells, and the odd lacrosse ball, but alas. This is my pity party. Aren’t you glad you came?
That conversation on Sunday was a bright spot. It sparked hope at the beginning of my week, helped the whole recovery process seem less daunting. This is only temporary. I’ll be back to my normal programming before long, and this will seem like a blip in the past. But object permanence — or rather, hope permanence — is hard sometimes.
Last week, I interviewed a pelvic floor physical therapist for an upcoming edition. She shared how her journey into pelvic floor therapy started with her own devastating cliff jumping injury. The time she spent rehabbing her pelvic floor with a physical therapist not only restored her to normal baseline function and changed the focus of her career, but also enabled her to return to running, one of the activities she most enjoys.
I’ve heard stories like these before — a devastating injury that looks life-altering is somehow rehab-able. Another person overcomes the odds. I’ve also heard stories of injuries that are life-altering — lifting accidents that cause paralysis, neurological damage from surgery — and yet, people carry on with life and fitness, finding new ways to express their full selves despite what they’ve lost.
Stories like these are encouraging. They show that coming back is not only possible, but likely. The body, though fragile, is also resilient. But these stories also, honestly, confront how much of a spoiled baby I can be. Oh, poor Meredith, she has to be on crutches for a measly three weeks. Get over yourself. Point taken. Yes. Enough whining already.
So maybe that’s all I’ll say for this week. Being sick when you’re on crutches is legitimately awful. I don’t recommend it. And I’m looking forward to replacing my cast with a boot. When that happens, I might make myself some tikka masala to celebrate.
Recommended Reads
How does exercise improve brain function? (BrainWise; I wrote this one!)
The Truth Behind the ‘Runner’s High’ (BrainWise)
What’s coming next?
More Injury Diaries