I don’t want to keep writing about my knee and boring you all to death with details, but they say, “write what you know” and right now, rehab is what I know. So, here’s what I’ve learnt a month after my injury:
1. Learning to walk is HARD but getting your leg straight is HARDER
This is probably the biggest learning I’ve had since my injury. I was naïve in thinking I would automatically be able to walk normally and do everything I could pre-surgery as soon as my knee felt better. But no, you actually have to learn how to walk again. My extremely wise strength & conditioning coach told me that “it’s a brain injury just as much as a knee injury”. While this wasn’t the most comforting thing to be told, it made complete sense. Your knee has to learn how to work with your brain again and vice versa. This has involved completely breaking down the ‘art of walking’ into small parts: shifting weight from one foot to another, lifting onto your toe, swinging your leg through, pushing your heel into the ground with a straight leg and then putting everything together. It’s hard and it’s complicated and every day you have to keep practicing this before it all finally connects back to your brain and you can do it without thinking. How amazing is the human body?!
So while walking is mentally hard and requires a lot of concentration and focus, getting your leg to straight is even harder, mostly because it hurts. For some medical reason which I’m sure I’ve been told before, the muscles around the knee don’t seem to want to relax and the joint doesn’t want to go straight. So you have to sit in all sorts of uncomfortable positions just so your knee will finally go straight and the hardest part will finally be over. And then you wake up the next morning and it’s stiff so you have to start all over again…
2. Muscles take no time to disappear but FOREVER to come back
One of the biggest worries people often have when sustaining a long-term injury is the fact that you can’t do much physical activity and therefore fear you will turn into the size of a house. Well that’s what I was thinking, anyway. But it’s the complete opposite. I’ve spent the last 9 months in the gym four times a week doing weights, trying to build muscle and get into the best shape possible to play. And then I spend a week away from the gym, lose over 3kgs and it’s all muscle. Now my leg resembles some sort of warped match stick. And this isn’t one of those “omg poor me I’ve lost weight while other people would kill to lose it that easily” times, it’s an “I haven’t actually lost weight I just don’t have any muscle left”. So brb, going to the gym to get ripped.
3. People with disabilities are HEROES
Walking, bending down, kneeling, running across the road, climbing stairs – these are everyday things that I took for granted. I feel extreme jealousy when I see a kid playing on a playground, someone run for the bus or bend down with ease to pick something off the floor. This made me realise how difficult life must be for people who live without the use of their legs. I understand I’ve only experienced the most miniscule end of the scale and was only on crutches for two weeks, but it was enough for me to have a new appreciation for the strength and resilience of those in a wheelchair or with severe leg injuries. Watching Dylan Alcott win his 12th Grand Slam title at Wimbledon last week proved why he is such an inspiration to people all over the world. In his winning speech, he thanked those who broadcasted his match, saying that “not only does it change our lives, but it changes the lives of a lot of little kids out there with disabilities who see people like them on TV for the very first time.” It was an emotional speech which made anyone who watched it realise what heroes Dylan and other elite wheelchair sportspeople really are.
4. Rehab is EXTENSIVE
It’s funny how people think that when you have a long-term injury it means you’ll suddenly have a whole lot of extra time on your hands. And while that was true for maybe the first day or two, it’s been the opposite since. Rehab is extensive. Especially when you still want to be part of the team. That means coming in early or staying late so I can do my own rehab and conditioning sessions while still being around for the team trainings. There’s also the endless amount of icing, the strength and mobility exercises and physio appointments. But don’t worry, I’ll still have time to write a third book.
5. Everything is a hazard
I recently tweeted about some “market research” I had been conducting into the most dangerous places for people with knee injuries to visit and these were my findings:
1. Supermarkets – trollies are weapons
2. Anywhere with kids – crutches are magnets
3. Football games – legroom is non-existent
However, after discussions with other sufferers and further research of my own, these can also be added to the list:
4. Kids with scooters – the combination is lethal
5. Public transport – people are selfish
6. Anyone walking on their phone – zero peripheral vision
7. Walking while on your phone – phones are not made of glass
8. Birks or any other form of non-sneaker footwear - they do not agree with uneven surfaces
9. Swimming pools – slippery floors, jumping kids, people learning to swim… it’s a disaster
The key to avoiding any of these hazards is concentration - something I sometimes (okay, often) struggle with. I guess my teachers were right when they told me I was “easily distracted”. Oh well, just another skill to learn and develop over the next 11ish months of rehab (or reconditioning as Lukas would call it).
Thanks for reading and hopefully next week I might be able to write about something other than my knee… not making any promises though.
Maddy x