Perspective

I've been wallowing in self-pity on and off again for the past 5 1/2 months. Not being able to consistently exercise in any way has been very hard. I've been walking, but it does not have the same stress management effect as a cardio burst. Which is why I was thankful for the perfectly timed Happy Trails pep talk! "It's ok to do only what I can do."

With that, I got on the dreaded stationary bike and did what I could do. Turns out, I got in a pretty good 30 minute intense (at least the current definition of it) workout. Adding my core work and an hour walk helped out a lot.

Another good step - Steve talked me into driving 90 miles to see an A.R.T. doc that he highly respects. The visit was sooo worth it. This guy explained more about my injury and lull in recovery than I had learned from an ortho surgeon, sports med doc, podiatrist and physical therapist all together. What these providers did not and may never get, is that it helps to give a patient information. Information like what exactly broke, why it's not feeling right, and what specifically they are doing to try and fix it.

I learned where the retinaculum is, where it tore based on the large amounts of scar tissue I've got, how the scar tissue works, why I need to work on the scar tissue before continuing physical therapy exercises, why my leg feels so tight I'm scared to move, and some possible biomechanical issues that might have caused it in the first place. Most of all, I was given a little bit of hope which goes an awful long way when you are sitting at 6 months post injury!

5 months

I THINK my tendon is finally healing. But, then, I've thought that before. Two weeks ago I saw my sports medicine doc for the final time. When I said that this was the weirdest injury I've ever had, he looked at me with some concern and said, "It's not just weird, it's the worst kind you can have." WHAT? Then he said, "I hope I never led you to believe that the recovery was going to be quick and easy." Well, no, but I wasn't ready to hear "It's also very likely to happen again." I guess once you dislocate a tendon, it likes to visit its new place periodically. Oh well, I'm going to choose to hope for the best.

One thing is for sure, I was secretly thrilled that I got the OK to stop physical therapy. It's not that I hated going, I just felt like the last few appointments had not really been worthwhile. If anything, the appointments left me frustrated. Especially when I had to leave work to go. Once you've got a series of exercises, you can do them at home.

The second reason has to do with personal bubbles. We talk with students about bubbles a lot at school. I'm a person who does not like my bubble invaded by anyone, especially without warning. My therapist was a bit of a bubble breaker.

I do have some exciting news though. More to come...