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!”

Bad sprain my ass

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!