Seems like I have more drama lately than a episode of a soap opera. My newest drama is that I have found out that I need ankle surgery again to repair complications from the first surgery. Everything with rehab was going great until I noticed that my tendon behind my ankle bone started to snap over the ankle bone itself. As you can imagine that this is getting very painful and unfortunatly isn't getting better and I have been informed that it will not get better as long as the subluxations keep happening. So how does that happen? Surgery of coarse. At first it looked like it needed to be done sooner than later, but after seeing a ankle specialist we have made the decision to wait as long as possible (like after cross season) to fix it. There is the small chance the pain will subside, in which case surgery can be held off, but with my luck I'm not expecting that.
I will be honest, there has been lots of tears, anger, and F- bombs thrown around, but I think I am coming down from all that a little and now am trying to focus on moving ahead with the season. The problem is that the tendon could rupture at any minute from the friction so the season could be over at any minute. I guess we risk injury everytime we swing a leg over the saddle, so I am going to try and not let this slow me down mentally.
Here's the thing about a injury as a cyclist. We aren't in the NBA or NFL where every step of a athletes life is exposed (and thankfully so). As cyclist we live in our daily grind and a lot of times are isolated from others in training to accomplish our own workouts. What we do in the off season is alone a lot. Having a major injury is overlooked simply because there is no one there to look at it. The pain and struggle of just trying to make it to work is not seen, the countless trips to physical therapy and multpile home therapy seasons are personal. The trips to the doctors, the stress of being off the bike, the mental abuse that occurs becuase of it is only appaerent to those closest to us. So when the season begins in the spring and everyone is ready to race, the injured person is just seen as another two wheels in the dirt. That is true, but I think we often underlook the struggle that may be going on in the off season, be it illness, family life or major surgery. Everybody has their own personal challenges they must overcome in order to continue the daily grind of cycling. We should all try and recognize that and when those challenges are overcome that makes the accomplishments of that athlete even more spectacular.
Personally, I'm not planning on slowing down much, I am working on overcoming this challenge because it is what was handed to me. I didn't want it, but we can't really chose the types of challenges we get. I will choose the challenge of racing and will cherish everyone of them until I end up in a cast again.
5 comments:
Wow, I am surprised at how intense and overboard you took the post. Actually, I'm a little concerned at your harshness to all people in general. I'm sorry that you misunderstood the posting and perhaps you are internalizing this into something that is not there. The point of the post was that we should celebrate everyone as cyclist because we are not in the everyday mainstream sports arena. The point is to celebrate how each of us overcomes our battles to then lead healthy lifestyles when the majority of the population does not. Instead they chose to do no activity when life throws them a bad egg... Not have pity parties for each other. As I also blogged, I am not making excuses for my riding because of my recent injury, but rather moving on mentally and physically.
I have been a successful, high profile, female athlete in the region in basketball and cycling for over 25 years. I am well aware of the political surroundings a female must face and how they are viewed by organizers of events. I will not make any comment to the lifetime of "quiet pride" that I have done in all my realms of life. I do not feel that someone who casually knows me or reads a blog post has an appropriate invitation to post a comment that is as personally directed at me as yours was. Perhaps you did not mean to do as such.
Being a healthcare professional I have seen situations that no person and family should ever have to face, that is very much reality and very much a life struggle. I care for all of these people and never "feel sorry" for those I take care of because that isn't what people need to help them overcome their struggles. I don't treat people that way and I don't expect it in my situation either. Please do not lightly comment towards my profession with little understanding of what it is or how I practice my profession.
If you would like for me to outwardly recognize that you have struggles yourself, I already have and that's the point of the post. I have not thrown you a pity party, but I am celebrating that you too overcome and show up to ride. I wish you the best of luck in the future and hope you rethink what you are doing when you post such comments.
Yeah, I agree it was extreme, and it wasn't as personally directed as it probably might have seemed, when I said "you," it was like people, not just you, so I should have written it as such. Eh, I was a jerk either way.
Also, sometimes, without feeling strongly about something, I will bring up the flipside, just because alternatives exist, so I don't even think I feel as strongly about anything as it seemed I did in my comment
This sounds much more reasonable, thanks for the rethought. I can see your frustration with some people, but that's just not me.
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