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No pain, no gain
When I first joined Team Virtus, I was a cripple. I had recently had ankle surgery and was unsure of my cycling and running future. Back in November of 2009 I was playing a simple pickup game of basketball when I came down on someone’s foot. My foot instantly bent out and I was in immediate pain. I felt my ankle pop and as I was rolling around on the ground in pain, I thought…”SHIT…I hope I did not break anything!”
The dr. said that nothing was broken and that it was just a bad sprain. But as the months went on and the pain did not subside, I went back for another look. Long story short I had an avulsion fracture and minor tears of my ligaments. I wore a boot for 6 weeks before starting PT. After 1 month of PT my ankle was feeling better, but not 100 % by any means. I just decided to see what would happen and gave it some time. By September of 2010 things were not better and not getting better. I made an appointment to see an ankle specialist.
An x-ray revealed an OCD lesion. Basically the avulsion fracture broke off and needed to be taken out. They wanted to do the surgery right away, but I pushed it off till November 1st.
This was the first look I had after the bandages came off.
From what I was told the surgery was a complete success and now it was time to heal. However the healing process has slowed for me. After 2 weeks off work of doing nothing but sitting on the couch with my foot up in the air I headed back to work. For those of you who have not been on crutches lately….THEY SUCK! My wife was basically doing everything for me and I could not drive. 2 more weeks went by and the doctor let me put my boot back in with crutches. After a month of the boot and putting no weight on my foot the dr. finally said I could start walking with the boot. Let me tell you….that first step was PAINFUL! But no pain, no gain.
A couple more weeks went by and I got better and better with walking I was ready to start therapy. My wife is a physical therapist, so I already know that PT stands for Pain and Torture. I was very tight so getting my ankle loosened up was the #1 priority. Pain and torture is not exactly how I would describe PT. I would describe PT with a bunch of 4 letter words that are not good to hear.
Therapy went on for a little over a month and I started feeling better and better. My last dr. appointment went like this: Me: “So doc, is it healed?” Dr.: “Well, not exactly, but it will just take some time.” Me: “How long?” Dr.: “Not sure, it is different for everyone.” What I wanted to say was…”Thanks asshole!”, but I didn’t.
So now here I am. Cycling is great. I don’t feel any pain. Walking is great as long as my foot doesn’t go down. Thanks to my teammates I have started running again. I have had to adapt my running style a little, because running is still a little painful. I am wearing a brace, so time will tell. I just need to push through and slowly work my way back. No pain, no gain. STRENGTH AND HONOR!