My maximum recovery story

Well its been quite a while I know but the time has been well spent in terms of continuing to do all the things that I was able to do before the injury.  There are a lot of the every day things that I have been able to do again today with great ease. I am quite happy with this, but my main focus has now become pursuing a fitness that will enable me to get back onto the rugby pitch.

In my middle and high school years basketball and volleyball were my main sports, though through that time my cousins would also bring me to their rugby practices as well. Now basketball and volleyball are far cries from the sport of rugby, but after those sports were done for me I was drawn to the constant activity and excitement of the game of rugby.

So for the last 10 years I have been playing a game which most friends and relatives would be shocked whenever I mentioned that I played such an aggressive sport, coming from a more court sport background. Though nonetheless, and oddly enough I had never really sustained any real serious injuries unlike that of our dreaded ATR tragedies.

At this point and time the strength of my foot has returned but the ability for my tendon to withstand a constant constant pace jogging is still not quite there yet. This is what I am now focusing on in order to regain the fitness I had before my injury. I go for a “jog” these days for about 15  minutes. I say “jog” because I build up a pace that I can maintain until I feel discomfort and slow back down to a brisk walk.

Mentally I think I’m prepared but there is a physical obstacle in my tendon that I must get over. Actually I can sprint for several meters but its slowing down that still hurts. Nonetheless I am feeling great but getting back to sustained running is where I want to be.

5/29/10

Well folks, the hiatus of the ATR  community may have been perhaps a blessing in disguise of sorts for me (this is my first entry since the reconfiguration) as I have been able to get to athletic therapy regularly (2 days a week) to now going in only when I get really sore. I have progressed out of the rubber band exercises and into more agility and conditioning training that has made me quite happy on my road back to routine of physical activity.  What I can stress or perhaps CAN’T stress enough is… STRETCHING!!!

That is perhaps THE single most beneficial habit that you can perform as often as possible as many times a day, anywhere, in speeding up your return to whatever activities you had Pre-ATR. You can never stretch your heel enough  from now on  for the rest of your life, in my humble opinion.

My duration of time jogging has gradually increased and balance has been slowly developing again. It is SOO important not to be discouraged with any progression you are not happy with. If you couldn’t hit a particular range of motion, or perform a particular movement, don’t worry. Take it from me TIME DOES HEAL ALL WOUNDS though you obviously will never forget how you got them, but the same goes for progress of rehab (take your time). It goes without saying that million dollar athletes try and do bounce back from such injuries BUT THEY ARE PAID TO DO SO.

I think in our cases our recovery should be an even more vested interest because ;

1.  We are NOT paid athletes though our livelihoods depend on our recovery that much more AND

2. The sense of accomplishment and achievement; I feel is a more motivating accomplishment that may or will hopefully transcend into improving other  aspects of our lives.

Honestly, for those of you back on your feet (congratulations by the way) didn’t you at some point feel a sense of  “Will I ever walk again??” Come on don’t lie… But really, now you don’t even think about it anymore. Right?

The worst thing you could do is hurry your rehab/therapy, if you don’t really have to. It’s true, coming to grips with your new reality is the first step to ensuring you truly do give yourself a “FAIR SHAKE” in your rehab process, but listen to your body!

In all, I am quite pleased with where my “heel cord” has come thus far and the more I am able to do GRADUALLY and having it balance with new movements and more reps and more weight feels great! Really,  take it as it comes, stretch constantly and be patient…

7/3/2010

I hope everyone in the ATR community is doing well.  I haven’t been on here in the last little while as I have been finishing up my IV treatments and getting back to rehab. IT HAS BEEN AWESOME!!

The stretching, exercises (only for range of motion at the moment) and massage have been going really well and I have been given the ok to do some mall walking! (There’s still snow and ice on the ground here in Winnipeg)

1/22/10

Thanks to all of you for your messages of support throughout my ordeal these past few weeks. Well today was the best news I was fortunate to get this month. After 17 days straight of iv treatment with this last week through a PICC line, I was given my final dose of Ceftriaxone and the PICC line removed! Still, the wound left from the removal of the suture that gave me the staph unfortunately has a week or two yet to scar over before I am able to return to rehab/physio. Actually there was one visit I made to the surgeon and he had the nerve to call my case a “hiccup” to one of his nurses, what a jackass!!!

This whole experience has led me to one conclusion: THAT I NEVER WANT TO EXPERIENCE THE HEALTH SYSTEM WHATSOEVER AGAIN. The goal now is to fully rehabilitate and live as healthy and injury free a life as possible. The only time I hope to see a doctor is if my wife is expecting again or my daughter is sick.

Should the doctor have looked at my scar a little closer look at my scar during my last casting session? Who knows he doesn’t care, I suppose neither do I now. Pretty much the only thing he’s good for is giving notes for work and filling out my insurance forms. Otherwise he just wants my scar to heal over and forget it ever happened. Though I never ever will.

I hope nothing remotely close to my situation happens to any of you out there. For those of you newly injured,  just remember things could be worse just read my previous entries. Here’s to hobbling back into our active pursuits!!

01/9/10

This week, Tuesday January 5th to be exact was experiencing some fevers and chills after my therapy session and the AT working on me said to get the swelling around what I thought to be a dissolving suture site checked out. So that evening as the chills and fevers persisted the site actually discharged out of the suture poking out of my skin!!! WTF! Overnight it became worse and I admitted myself to the Urgent Care center. Four hours of waiting later I was told it “was infected”, well “Duh”, and that I needed to undergo IV treatment for five days to deal with the infection. GREAT. I quickly made an appointment to see my surgeon.

That day I told him about my ordeal and why I came to see him, that what I thought to be a dis solvable suture was discharging. So he “dug deeper” and as you can already imagine he found the leftovers of his handy work, nearly an inch and a half of suture left in my scar!!!!!! He then says “That would never have healed if that was left in there…” “What!?!?!?!?” (I said that in my mind) because I didn’t want to make a scene (There was a little girl and her mom in the next bed where they were working on me) Oh yeah NO APOLOGY!?!?!? He was probably mortified in front of the technician that was helping him… Needless to say I am VERY FRUSTRATED WITH THIS. I am behind in my therapy sessions and will probably miss the next semester for work ( I am a high school teacher) Nonetheless I guess I’m happy to be alive and have this as my own “unique” experience to this ordeal. I will probably dwell on this longer than the fact of getting injured. I dunno these professionals are paid to be perfect in more of the sense than professional athletes. I know people make mistakes but when you are on this end of the situation you have to really wonder truly “WHY ME?!?!???!”

12/26/09

Merry Christmas Happy Holidays !

The cast is off and the comeback is on!!!

Thanks for all the feed back but trust me the dwelling on regret is always gonna hit me each time I have an annoying or trying moment of struggle with an everyday situation. Yet at the same time the motivation to overcome any and everything on my way back to normalcy will be far more stronger.

The desire to get this rehab off to a successful start is a great feeling and I am thankful for friends and family that are willing to be a part of it. Yet, at times I feel like a spring fawn, or maybe a spring flamingo? (with all the one legged standing I’ve been accustomed to) I still find myself balancing on my left foot!?!?

Still its great to have my foot back and all of its nasty dead skin that has accumulated and seeing it all wear away as I wash it off makes me get the sense of feeling renewed. With this new year upon us perhaps that will be the time I forget about dwelling in regret and get over all my “Shouldn’t haves” and just become the successful comeback story we are all meant to be.

But who am I kidding I am going to probably go back and forth on every step forward  in progress and every setback in obstacle all the way until I truly “get back on my feet”. My first goal is to be with out any type of crutch or boot and as healthy as possible into just a pair of shoes. I guess I’ll find out my time lines at my first rehab session which is today.

Everybody stay on track and maintain your:

“BALANCED” (I know cliche, but so true) MIND AND BODY.

12/9/09

Why me? Why now!?!?

I thought I was “somewhat” fit given that I had only stairs in my workplace and was leading a “moderate” physical lifestyle where I was hitting the gym at least once a week. That night I was one of the first ones at the gym with the guys and didn’t even pick up a basket ball and mess around as a warm up. Instead I was doing man-makers (mind you at 3/4 pace to start) and limbered up quickly. Three games in and doing quite well as my team had won for the first three game of the night (we were playing king’s court) we finally lost and I was on the sidelines watching the next teams play. Trying to stay warm and did a few stretches until our turn came up again. I had a couple of other things that wouldn’t have put me in that situation but little did I know that the first “check ball” I performed would be my last.

All I could remember til this day was the “POP” and the impact on my heel that I had hoped was just a practical joke. In all the joke was on me and I had called a friend who was an AT to confirm my worst fear. I was only two months into my new job and had a 2 month old girl at home. This would not be news that my wife needed to hear after I was just recovering from a knee injury from rugby, which after my high school basketball career had become my main sport.

After confirmation of  my injury and coming to the realization that I needed surgery, I came under that deep sense of regret that still lingers to this very day. The injury was November 6, 2009, my surgery was a week later luckily and I am going to get my 2nd cast removed tomorrow and will hopefully be in a “Space boot” without crutches, we’ll see.

I am hopeful that because it was a partial tear, (as I could still move my toes) that this recovery process will be quicker than most which remains to be seen. Though needless to say all of the other arrangements with work and figuring out benefits has also compounded the ordeal.

If there is actually anything that will be the most difficult for me to recover from, it will continue to be my overlying feelings of regret.

12/11/09

Best Christmas present this year

So thanks for your comments from the previous post really helpful and great perspective even though that will always be in the back of my mind. Anyhow, today I got my last post-op cast put on, though I hoped to be back in the boot. The bright side is that it comes off on Christmas!! (Maybe I’ll put a bow on it!) Then, later tonight it was my staff dinner party at a nice restaurant that my co-workers on our social committee put on. They went the extra mile and paid for my dinner! If there was any more upside to this injury (aside from more time with family) it was that, thanks folks!

I can’t wait get rid of the crutches seriously, it snowing now and a wipe out to ring in the new year is all I need. For real though I can’t wait to get the rehab going. Ya know, we may have to go through all this life changing bummer stuff, but at least we’re not Tiger… (C’mon Tiger fans have a sense of humour)