My skiing accident was a doozey that wrenched my back, resulting in a pretty nasty back injury but also tore, ripped, snapped, stretched, strained and pulled every ligament and tendon in my left knee. My back just needed some rest from the trauma but my knee- well that's another very painful story.
Sitting in the emergency room writhing in unbelievable pain, crying and yelling, the surgeon came in and explained that I'd mangled everything in my left knee that could be mangled. My injuries were serious and three, almost four hours later I woke up from surgery.
Recovery hurt but went well. I went from a wheelchair to crutches to a cane in about nine weeks. I went to physical therapy four days a week as prescribed by the surgeon and began the slow process of strengthening the tendons and ligaments that so easily tore apart. It wasn't easy and it caused a lot more pain but I was told this pain was part of the process of healing.
To heal the original injury and avoid re-injuries, the physical therapy had to go slowly and I had to work hard, which I did but the hardest part was being patient with my injuries and gentle with myself. Re-injures could be worse than the initial injury if I wasn't careful. For a Type A personality like myself, this was the hardest part of recovery. Though the surgeon said a full recovery would take a solid nine months before I wouldn't walk with a limp, in my haste and youth, I gave it only a weak seven months. I thought the limp was mysterious and worldly and would make a great conversation starter.
He made me promise to stay on the bunny slopes and after a series of stress tests which showed everything was strong and in good working order, he released me and wished me good skiing. He said he liked working with me but didn't want to see me ever again - oh ha, ha.
However, and this astounds me even to this day, on the first day and on the first run I fell and re injured my knee all over again- all over again. I had re-injured the original injury and it was, in part, a much worse injury. And this can and will happen if you don't take all the time recommended to heal your original injury. Estimated recovery time on the re injures? Six months maybe more. I sealed my fate as one who will forever walk with a limp.
So the lessons here are easy. One, when you've been in a serious accident you're going to have serious injuries, take them seriously, don't be brave or, like me, stupid. I'm used to the limp and ironically it's not a conversation starter, people are polite and don't ask.
Author Resource:-
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