If you’re an athlete, you WILL eventually get hurt. It can be as minor as a wrist sprain or as major as a broken back. There are two things to know ahead of time — and to remember after the injury occurs: There is going to be pain, and how you handle the pain will determine how well you do, or don’t, come back.
I don’t often share my own stories with readers, but this one is different. Two weeks ago, I broke my femur. That’s the bone in the thigh. It’s the longest bone in the body, and one of the most dangerous to break. It can be a life-threatening injury. But it is also likely the most painful bone injury a human can have.
I was ice skating when it happened. I was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where I had surgery. After five days in intensive care, I was moved to a rehabilitation facility. That’s when the real work of getting better began.
At first, it was too painful to even lift my legs from the floor to the bed. I was able to walk with a walker, but I couldn’t put any weight at all on the injured leg. The surgeon said that I could do whatever weight bearing was possible, but it was just too painful to take a step.
Then, almost like an explosive flash of knowledge, I realized I was going to have to work through it, bear the pain and keep bearing it without flinching away. Every muscle in my thigh had to be worked so the muscle fibers didn’t atrophy.
That was just over a weak ago. The first time I took a deliberate step and put pressure on the screwed-together femur, it was total agony. However, I kept taking steps with the walker (accompanied by a nurse) with focused determination, then went back to bed.
The next day, walking still was painful, but it didn’t hurt quite as badly. One movement I hadn’t even tried yet because it was so painful was lifting the injured leg, like one does when getting into a vehicle. But in line with that flash of knowledge, I also knew that the pain would be waiting for me, and if I didn’t accept it and work at practicing the motion despite it, I would be hampered for the rest of my life.
The first couple of days I worked on lifting the leg, I realized that I hadn’t really wanted to try it because even the thought was painful. But it improved quickly. Within three days, I could lift both my legs from the floor onto the bed without help, though there was still pain.
There is always pain from this injury. As hurtful as it is, I have to ignore that pain and do the conditioning that will help the bone heal faster and make the pain slowly ease away. I spend about three hours a day working out, being careful not to overdo it. Pain is also a warning of having overworked the injury.
As a sportswriter, I have watched hundreds of athletes with serious injuries work their way back to performing even better than they once did. I remember one Olympic medalist who broke her femur telling me that the pain facing her in each rehab session was like “a cold dark lake of water. But as badly as I wanted to take it easy and avoid it, I knew I had to dive in.”
If you don’t give rehabilitation your all and go through it at 100 percent, there is little to no chance you’ll ever approach your pre-injury athletic ability. Take heed of your doctor’s advice and push yourself through the pain on the way to recovery.
It’s easy to avoid something we don’t like. But forcing yourself forward physically, pushing yourself despite all obstacles, is what eventually makes a champion.
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Wina Sturgeon is the editor of the online magazine Adventure Sports Weekly
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