Injury and Rehabilitation
Injuries linger in my body.
This year has been a year of injuries. January started out with my left knee still aching from a surfing accident last August. What I thought would last maybe two weeks, stretched on— X-rays, orthopedic specialist, MRI, knee specialist, then physical therapy. Nothing seemed to help. Months later, my knee was still bothering me. The strange thing was that it never hurt while I was running or being active. It hurt only afterwards. It's like my own body wasn't smart enough to give me feedback so I could moderate my activity. It could only grumpily punish me afterwards.
After my right knee started to feel better in March, my left knee started to hurt. And again, what I thought would last a couple of weeks, dragged on. Then in September, I hurt my shoulder in the climbing gym, reinjuring it two weeks later.
So it was my left knee,
right knee,
and somewhere in there in May, my heart (but that was injury of another variety).
This last year has taught me several things about injuries of any variety— be it shoulder, knee or heart:
1. Healing Always Takes Longer Than I Think It Will
Without fail, every time I hurt myself, I think it will be only a matter of weeks before my body is healthy enough to resume normal activity. Without fail, every time I am wrong. My body takes its own sweet time. It doesn’t listen to a doctor’s prognosis, and it certainly doesn’t listen to what I want. It does what it wants at the pace it wants to. I've learned that I have listen to my own body. It knows what it needs to heal.
2. Being Patient is Difficult
I am a patient person in many ways, but not with myself. Even after I get hurt, I continue to make plans, hopeful that I will be ready in time. I dwell on what I used to be able to do and push myself too quickly. As soon as my body starts to feel better, I go for a normal run or swim only to find my injured part reinjured afterwards. I am somehow only able to test my limits by going too far. So I’ve learned that when I think I’m ready to jump back into my normal life, by definition, I’m not. When I feel good, I need to wait a week, then another week because the injury runs deeper than I thought.
3. Even Though It Seems Impossible to Imagine That I Will Ever Be Healthy Again, I Will
I went to the climbing gym a couple of weeks ago just to run on the treadmill. While I was running, I watched folks bouldering and climbing. They were hanging off one shoulder, leveraging and shifting their body weight, and pulling themselves up with their arms. I couldn’t imagine my shoulder, that still felt so weak, ever doing those same things again. But as much as the possibility seemed so remote and difficult to imagine, there was something deep inside of me that knew. It was a voice of confidence that knew I would be climbing again. Resilience. It would be okay. I just needed to be patient.
4. My Injuries Make Me Stronger
Sometimes it is only through my injuries that I discover my weaknesses. I never knew that my knee issues might be related to weak hips until the physical therapist told me. The body learns to compensate temporarily for injury. Other parts and people step in to heal the weaknesses, until that part regains its strength. And in the end, all of the exercises made my knees stronger.
5. When One Door Closes, A Window Opens Somewhere Else
Isn’t that what the Reverend Mother says to Maria in one of the chessiest parts of the Sound of Music? When I hurt my knee, I couldn’t play tennis anymore because all the pivoting, starting and stopping were too jarring. That’s when I discovered climbing. Sometimes when you’re forced to turn away from one thing, you find something that you love even more.
6. Getting Injured is a Part of Life
I could wrap myself in bubble wrap and never try, never put myself out there, and never get injured. But the reality is that getting hurt is a part of life. It’s a calculated risk, I suppose.
This year has been a year of injuries. January started out with my left knee still aching from a surfing accident last August. What I thought would last maybe two weeks, stretched on— X-rays, orthopedic specialist, MRI, knee specialist, then physical therapy. Nothing seemed to help. Months later, my knee was still bothering me. The strange thing was that it never hurt while I was running or being active. It hurt only afterwards. It's like my own body wasn't smart enough to give me feedback so I could moderate my activity. It could only grumpily punish me afterwards.
After my right knee started to feel better in March, my left knee started to hurt. And again, what I thought would last a couple of weeks, dragged on. Then in September, I hurt my shoulder in the climbing gym, reinjuring it two weeks later.
So it was my left knee,
right knee,
right shoulder,
and somewhere in there in May, my heart (but that was injury of another variety).
This last year has taught me several things about injuries of any variety— be it shoulder, knee or heart:
1. Healing Always Takes Longer Than I Think It Will
Without fail, every time I hurt myself, I think it will be only a matter of weeks before my body is healthy enough to resume normal activity. Without fail, every time I am wrong. My body takes its own sweet time. It doesn’t listen to a doctor’s prognosis, and it certainly doesn’t listen to what I want. It does what it wants at the pace it wants to. I've learned that I have listen to my own body. It knows what it needs to heal.
2. Being Patient is Difficult
I am a patient person in many ways, but not with myself. Even after I get hurt, I continue to make plans, hopeful that I will be ready in time. I dwell on what I used to be able to do and push myself too quickly. As soon as my body starts to feel better, I go for a normal run or swim only to find my injured part reinjured afterwards. I am somehow only able to test my limits by going too far. So I’ve learned that when I think I’m ready to jump back into my normal life, by definition, I’m not. When I feel good, I need to wait a week, then another week because the injury runs deeper than I thought.
3. Even Though It Seems Impossible to Imagine That I Will Ever Be Healthy Again, I Will
I went to the climbing gym a couple of weeks ago just to run on the treadmill. While I was running, I watched folks bouldering and climbing. They were hanging off one shoulder, leveraging and shifting their body weight, and pulling themselves up with their arms. I couldn’t imagine my shoulder, that still felt so weak, ever doing those same things again. But as much as the possibility seemed so remote and difficult to imagine, there was something deep inside of me that knew. It was a voice of confidence that knew I would be climbing again. Resilience. It would be okay. I just needed to be patient.
4. My Injuries Make Me Stronger
Sometimes it is only through my injuries that I discover my weaknesses. I never knew that my knee issues might be related to weak hips until the physical therapist told me. The body learns to compensate temporarily for injury. Other parts and people step in to heal the weaknesses, until that part regains its strength. And in the end, all of the exercises made my knees stronger.
5. When One Door Closes, A Window Opens Somewhere Else
Isn’t that what the Reverend Mother says to Maria in one of the chessiest parts of the Sound of Music? When I hurt my knee, I couldn’t play tennis anymore because all the pivoting, starting and stopping were too jarring. That’s when I discovered climbing. Sometimes when you’re forced to turn away from one thing, you find something that you love even more.
6. Getting Injured is a Part of Life
I could wrap myself in bubble wrap and never try, never put myself out there, and never get injured. But the reality is that getting hurt is a part of life. It’s a calculated risk, I suppose.
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