It has now been 6 weeks since my surgery and I’m doing fairly well. It has been an up and down journey as you can imagine. It was absolute torture to watch my team lose last Saturday and not be able to go in and help. I will say though that I’m making progress and time is flying by now at a faster clip then when I had first gotten home from the hospital.

During the game last week I found out that the little plastic ends of crutches do in fact have a shelf life as I discovered I had crutched so much that the metal of the crutches had split through the plastic ends, making it like crutching on ice. I was able to have teammates tape the ends for me and the next day, my ever supportive girlfriend went with me to Walgreens to buy a set of crutch accessories. Such is my life. Accessory crutch shopping on a Sunday.

I was happy to spend some time in Portland, which had been my home for 5 years, and I suggested to those who remained in town on Sunday that we go to one of my favorite breakfast places, the Tin Shed. Brunch is an event in Portland. There are many fantastic places to get brunch but the downside is that the waits are usually very long because it’s the thing to do. We waited a good hour to hour and half to be seated but it was worth it. The Tin Shed has great food, refreshing drinks, and is dog friendly. So dog friendly, that you can take your dog to your table and order it dog food from the dog food menu which includes doggy ice cream.

Being in Portland for a weekend helped my spirits as it has a different soul to it and I went home feeling refreshed. I’m fairly certain the Portland Tourism office owes me a check for all this love. Please message me here for my address people.

This week was the week of my 2nd post op appointment which gave me some nerves. I felt like I was doing well. I could feel more range of motion and more strength. I could stand more normal for longer periods when needing to maneuver around in the kitchen for example. But you never really know right?

I went to my appointment yesterday anxious for news of my progress. The ortho came in and first looked at the incisions. They looked pretty clean he said. There was a little scabbing but he said that’s normal. He then tested my hamstring by extending my leg and thought that it felt solid. He then tested the ligaments and stated they felt very good.

He moved my leg to see how much range I had and stated I was about 70 degrees before I got too stiff. He said that is normal and we can work through that. He looked at my quad which has definitely atrophied and said that it looks like I listened and stayed off of it which is what he wanted and that we can build that back up.

I then went back for a couple of xrays so they could make sure the screws were holding in the same spot. Sure enough they were. He showed me a tiny tiny bone fragment from my fracture that is hanging out randomly and said it should eventually disappear.

Overall, I’m healing well and right on schedule. I start physical therapy on Tuesday and will go 2 times a week with goal of getting off crutches within 2-3 weeks. This makes me ecstatic as my life would dramatically improve if I can have use of my hands other than crutching.

He also stated with a smile that my February goal is still a valid target and I left excited.

Today, I returned from my lunch break to see the Aflac rep for my work. Now, I’ve had Aflac a while but this injury they have really helped me. If you play football, I recommend the accident version of it because it’s fairly cheap and it’s really helping me. You know at some point you will deal with injury with football and you might as well get some payment for it.

The funny thing he was just checking on me. He let me know that when he read the medical codes I got from the hospital to send to him to process my claim, that he was astonished at how much damage I did. This kind of made me laugh as I sometimes am too.

Also of note, as previously stated, I listen to audio books a lot while driving to and from work. I love reading but don’t have much time for it anymore so this is my solution to that.

I’ve been listening to the book called “Keep Moving: And Other Tips and Truths About Aging” by Dick Van Dyke. For those of you that don’t know, he is that famous musical actor star that was in such hits such as Mary Poppins (my favorite childhood movie) and Bye Bye Birdie. He truly has had a lifetime of success and is very talented.

I got the book because I was curious about what he had to say. I always loved the energy he brought to whatever he did. He just seemed so happy and full of life and I love positive people. As a positive person, I feed off that energy. Yes, I know that I’m 32 and probably wasn’t the initial target audience for a book geared towards people in their 70s and beyond.

However, I actually learned a lot from listening to his take on aging. An injury like this, kind of does remind you of your mortality in that you aren’t as invincible as you normally think. His main advice centers on the idea of “keep moving”. Just because you age and might not be able to do everything you once did, doesn’t mean you can’t keep moving in something else. He equates his life of 90 years and good health to the fact he kept positive and kept moving and still dances till this day, even if it’s modified.

This struck something me. This is exactly my mentality with this injury. I have adhered to my restrictions but I have kept moving, in a modified way. I still get up at least 2 times a day at work to crutch around the building. I make mini upper body work outs for myself in my bed. I crutch on the sidelines at the games usually over 3 miles a clip. I haven’t let my injury stop me from living my life and I think this has helped it heal in a way.

It is amazing how much your mentality sets the tone. The Aflac guy looking at me like, Oh my god, the things you have been through, made me laugh because I’m still moving.

Onto PT!

By the way, as a child I used to try to snap my fingers in my room and get so mad when it didn’t instantly pick itself up like in Mary Poppins. One day, I’ll make it work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRFHXMQP-QU