Recovery & Rehab: Mental > Physical
If you have been following my socials, you would know that I recently had a surgical procedure done not even a year ago. On July 26th, 2022, I had an inside-out lateral meniscus repair on my right knee. The past 6 months have been quite a chronicle, to say the least. Mainly I learned that recovery from injuries is more of a mental battle with self than a physical battle with the forces around you. Yes, you are temporarily disadvantaged and handicapped one way or another but only to the extent of how you are picturing it. During this time I cried, I failed, I grew, and many other things. There were moments when I found myself in that “dark space”, a strange headspace in which I found difficulty in locating optimism. It made me want to be alone, and talk and think negatively about myself. These things were detrimental to the goals I had for me until I understood that recovery has its physical aspects but it's a battle of the mind and you only win by being resilient.
Contrary to popular belief (IDK what yall be believing to be honest), I don’t consider myself a bodybuilder or a gym rat. Now there was a time when I was at The University of West Florida when I wanted to build up to a 200 lb body weight, which I accomplished but it’s behind me now. During that time I may have considered myself a gym rat but now I'm just a hardcore activity and fitness junkie. I just like to be active, whether I'm hiking, training Jiu Jitsu, snowboarding, or whatever. I just like to be active and with that, I don't think I'm some SpongeBob who's a member at Wenie huts. Nah, I definitely think I can get into the Salty Spitoon but I remember about 3-4 days post-surgery, I wanted to stop taking my prescribed pain medication. You're probably thinking that shouldn't have been such a huge deal but Doc gave me the stuff to take me to the moon (5 mg Oxy hahaha). Mane, I found myself bawling my eyes out around 6 or 7 PM, doubled up on all my meds just to get through and get to sleep that night. I also like to think that I have some pretty good balance and coordination. SIKE! Not while I was recovering and rehabilitating. I fell quite a few times to be completely honest haha. I remember one time I fell trying to get into the shower. It was already one thing that I didn't get the shower seat for about 2 weeks so I was leaning against the shower wall to wash, but I tried to swing my op-leg over the side of the tub and clipped it. Dawg, the shower was on and all, I did a spin and landed on the edge of the tub on my left hip. Nobody was in the apartment but me and I'm not a life alert subscriber so all I could do was get my mind right and keep it moving.
The majority of surgeries are going to come with prescribed therapy post-surgery. Some operations and insurances require you to do something called pre-rehabilitation (prehab) before the operation so that once the operation is done the patient can withstand any postoperative inactivity and associated decline. In my situation, I was prescribed 12 physical therapy sessions but only ended up attending 3 sessions, 4 at most. “Sooooooooo, you skipped PT basically?” No, I didn't say that, I said I only went to 4 sessions AT MOST. If you remember or have visited the Meet The Coach page you know I have my BA in exercise science as well as I’m a distinguished certified strength and conditioning specialist with the NSCA. Using my education I safely and efficiently rehabilitated myself from my knee surgery. Generally, people go to their physical therapy sessions to be led through their recovery plan. I on the other hand only went for measurements, some more advanced exercises, and recovery modalities (which they never gave me). The recovery modalities in turn influenced my decision not to go the most hahaha (*Ye Shrug*). I remember my first therapy session on September 1st I attended that kinda set the tone and let them know what kind of animal they were dealing with. Keep in mind this was like 5 weeks post-surgery, still on crutches, no weight-bearing, the whole 9. The therapist measured me at 110 degrees of flexion on my op-leg compared to 124 degrees on my unaffected leg. Telling me I'm good to lose my crutches as well. I'm saying when I went to PT I went for consultation and advice. I was following my recovery plan 3 to 4 times a week on my own, adding some of my flavor a lot of the time. Did it hurt? Of course but that's where it became a mental battle.
Let's be honest, it’s rehab. Everyone who has experienced it knows it hurts, they know it sucks, and they know it’s a pretty miserable time quite frankly but it's something that if you are tasked with, you need to be adamant about getting done for your own good. It’s one of those activities that falls under the group of things that you do because you have to do it, not whether you want to or not. If you are given rehabilitation post-surgery and don't take it seriously, it could lead to more surgeries, mobility and ambulation issues, and slower recovery. My Nana along with my Auntie both had knee operations. My Aunt had a full reconstruction done and my Nana had an operation on her meniscus like me. They both had rehabilitation prescribed but approached it differently because well (elephant in the room) they were completely different operations. While they both hurt and sucked, my aunt was less inclined to do her recovery plan because of the amount of pain she experienced which is completely understandable. Nana on the other hand wanted to get back to that carefree, active, senior lifestyle so she was able to push through a little better than my Aunt. They both can walk and move so it's not like they are using canes or walkers but my Nana’s mobility and ambulation are significantly better of the two, and just solely because Nana was able to stay on top of her recovery plan despite the ongoing mental battle within herself.
Consistency, determination, and dedication are what powered me and kept me trucking during my recovery. With my hard work, I was back on my snowboard at the beginning of the 23/24 season, October 25th to be exact, not even 3 months post-operation. I was back on the mats rolling at my home academy Easton Training Center - Littleton a day after my 3 months follow-up with my surgeon. From July 26th to October 25th or even the beginning of September, it felt like a decade of limited activity, people telling me I was pushing too hard or too much contrary to that a lot of people have told me my recovery was superhuman, accelerated, maybe even “rushed”. We’re now in February and I've gone back for my 6 months follow-up about a week ago. The doctor still thinks my knee feels and looks amazing post-surgery and concluded our appointment with “whatever new activity I can come up with or decide I want to do, have at it”. I’m still dealing with some quadricep tendonitis which I'm taking care of through prehab exercises. It was and still is a marathon, not a sprint. What has helped me this far in this marathon is recalling why I had the surgery and the goal of all this torture I was putting myself through. Thinking of my friends I board with, and train Jiu-jitsu with. Thinking of how badly I wanted to be active again. That's what got me through.
