In my previous blog, I said that my girls and I are blessed that it isn't a cancer gene we carry. Likewise, we are also blessed that the type of O.I. we have is not the most extreme form. The Discovery Health Channel did a segment on children with O.I. and follows the jouney of some with with an extreme form of O.I. ( Children of Glass). For some, the signs and challenges are very pronounced and heartbreaking while for others like me it is not. I often remind myself of those who have suffered more but the reminder does not take the frustration away completely. The last three years have been full of injuries sustained from the simplest of things. Stupid things.
"So what?" you ask, "there are several athletes that experience multiple injuries throughout their career and they're not writing some self pity blog". Well true that. Ryan Villopoto (four time Supercross Champion) is in month five from his knee surgery and already back on a bike. Football players from the time they are in high school and on through the NFL suffer from repeated injuries so why the pity party? "Suck it up" you say. Here is the difference; athletes choose their path. Athletes choose a journey containing high risk of injuries and long periods of recovery. Their choice makes it highly probable that they will get injured...but it was their choice. My family did not choose this path; my parents did not choose to have their kids afflicted with O.I and while I chose to have children (not yet knowing that I could pass it down), I also did not choose to have my kids afflicted with it, nor did my kids have a choice in picking their DNA strands. We inherited this path and there is no walking away from it.
I choose to exercise and keep healthy hoping that my muscles will fill in where my tendons and ligaments fail me. I choose this because without being strong, I would need to rely on others on a more permanent basis. I'm blessed with an incredible husband who has been my crutch through all of the injuries but being an independent person, I get tired of asking for things; asking for a glass of water because I can't carry a glass and keep both my crutches in hand, asking for help to get out of bed because I've been weakened by the most current injury, asking friends and family to drive me to work because my driving foot is incapacitated, etc. If it's tiring for me to ask it certainly must be tiring on the people being asked to help. I don't want to tire anyone.
Had I not started this blog most of you who know me personally would never had known that I was afflicted with O. I. Perhaps you would have continued to think of me as unlucky or clumsy. With the exception of my small stature and the blue in the whites of my eyes, there is no exterior sign that would give anyone reason to believe that I am fragile. Some of my friends kidded around with me and said that exercise was too dangerous and used my injuries as a reason for them not to exercise. While I did laugh at their reasoning and joked along, inside I was telling myself that perhaps I should reconsider and join them. Little did they know how dangerous the exercise truly is for me but without it, I would be broken. Exercise gives me a sense of accomplishment; that Rocky at the top of the stairs feeling...I am not breakable feeling.
My path now is to heal the reconstructed knee without adding stress to the other extremities. The healing process becomes a balancing act for me; how do I maintain the upper body strength to remain on crutches for the next six weeks without stressing the ligaments in my wrist? How do I rely on my weak, left ankle to bear the majority of the weight while the right knee heals? How do I comprise the weight bearing to the left of my body without aggravating my s-curved back? Oh yeah, that's another trait...I have scoliosis of the back...a curve that would make most street bike riders happy to see on a mountain side road.
These last two weeks after surgery have been complication free but then again, the exercises up to now have been just about getting some movement back in the knee. I start physical therapy next week and with that may come new injuries to the other leg. The people at physical therapy know me about as well as my friends know me and they probably see me more than my friends see me. My path is one that runs in circles and the view is getting old but I am not breakable.
No comments:
Post a Comment