It comes out of nowhere, always completely unexpected – one second you’re dribbling a ball or passing to a teammate or, in my case, jumping to catch a Frisbee – and the next you’re on the ground. Maybe it’s your arm that suddenly feels a sharp pain, your ankle, or your knee, but regardless of where you’re injured the fact remains is just that – you’re injured. And it sucks.
As an athlete, you know that there’s some degree of danger in participating in any organized sport – you just never expect that it could happen to you. I know I definitely didn’t expect to tear my ACL and meniscus playing any sport, never mind during an Ultimate Frisbee practice.
The first stage is denial. Denying that you’re injured. Telling yourself that it’s not as bad as you think – you know, walk it off or rub some dirt in it or something. You’ll be able to go back to practice in a few days, maybe a week tops.
The next stage? Doctor’s appointments. Followed by more doctors’ appointments. Followed by some more doctors’ appointments. I went to an amazing orthopedic surgeon after my injury and I found some tweets I had written about my time there:
I’m not sure if everyone experienced this while waiting for their appointment, but it definitely was the highlight of my visits!
If you’re one of the lucky ones you can avoid surgery, but for those who can’t, the road to recovery is a long one. First comes the actual surgery bit (which isn’t fun) followed by the recovery after the surgery (probably even worse). Not only is it extremely painful and inconvenient (showering after knee surgery was terrible and embarrassing) but there’s also a long period of boredom. Luckily for me, I was able to watch four seasons of White Collar in a week. Thank god for Matt Bomer and his strong jaw-line, right?
For me, the crutches were the absolute WORST. No matter much I padded the top, I still ended up with bruises on the sides of my body and underneath my arms. Since I was strapped into a full-length leg brace that didn’t allow me to bend my knee, the crutches unfortunately were necessary to moving around . . . and Bentley is definitely not an injury-friendly campus.
Physical therapy follows surgery and after several months of stepping on and off boxes, graduating to walking without the use of crutches, and attempting to walk without limping, you start seeing some improvement. Strength starts to return and the doc gives you approval to start playing soon.
You can’t wait to get back on the field – you’ve waited long enough, right? When you finally get the all clear signal you lace up your cleats, head down to the field, and stand on the sidelines as you wait for your turn.
No one tells you how scary it is to get back out there. You spent months rehabilitating your arm or your leg or your knee, only to put yourself back in the same situation that injured you in the first place – seems kind of crazy, right? But you do it out of love: love for the sport.
Not everything about the process is completely terrible – the best part about the experience for me was the sudden appearance of human kindness. Random strangers would hold doors open for me, offer to carry plates and drinks at Seasons, or ask me if I needed anything. It was good to see that side of people – I feel like it’s a side not often seen towards strangers on an everyday basis.
Another good thing about my surgery? Now I have a cool scar that resembles a smiley face – I don’t know if I hold the majority opinion, but I think that scars are cool! They tell a story.
I’ve been out of surgery for a little less than a year now and I’ve yet to feel completely comfortable putting myself out there on the field. I hear that’s normal – someone told me that it takes two years before injured athletes forget about their injury. Until that day comes, I’m okay with being the benchwarmer, the number one cheerleader. As much as I want to begin playing, I would never want to experience any of this again.
Sources:
http://www.davis.k12.ut.us/cms/lib07/UT01001306/Centricity/Domain/8020/Images/Clipart/4092831.jpg