My Road to Recovery: Part 6 “Final Edition”

This is what my ankle looked like 3 days after the break.

It has been 5 months and 2 weeks since I broke my ankle.  I’m sure you can tell through my previous 5 parts on my recovery that it hasn’t been easy.  From being unable to walk, having trouble getting to the bathroom and gaining a lot of weight, it was definitely a mental toll.  The hardest part was not being able do the things I took for granted.

People just don’t realize how great we have it, especially healthy, walking, talking, having all your extremities and just having fun.  When you lose the ability to do something you’ve done your entire life it really causes mental damage.  I know mentally I was going crazy for the first few months of my recovery.

Looking at the picture, you can see that I caused some serious damage and the picture was taken 3 days after it happened.  The swelling went down quite a bit from the time the ER put my temporary cast on to the time of that picture.  The best thing about life and many cases, things heal with time as did I.

My ankle today looks much better. All the imprints are from my ankle brace that I wear and my sock.

I am happy to say that after 5 months I am walking still without a full comfort level, but I can get around.  I can run around, play basketball and workout as well.  The best part of all, I am able to do everything my kids want me to do…..no more feeling like a horrible father, which is the best part about being healthy enough.

I can say that I am still not 100% and I can also admit that I haven’t been the hardest worker when it came to rehab.  I have been a super slacker, but not exactly by choice.  My kids and their needs trump everything else and since I was healthy enough to handle business, being 100% wasn’t necessary.  Now I can focus more of my time to myself and getting myself back to where I feel comfortable (everyone says my ankle will never be the same, especially those who’ve had similar injuries).

Today my ankle looks much different from the way it did 5 months ago and I’m thankful to all of you who had such kind words and well wishes.  It is a great feeling to know that someone cares and is pulling and praying for your well-being.  The saga will continue with rehab, but I am happy to let you guys know that I AM GOOD!

You can also check out my process in Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

My Road to Recovery: Part 5

As I mentioned in My Road to Recovery: Part 4, I grew to 213 lbs and almost had a nervous breakdown.  I still can’t run yet, but I walk much better that’s for sure.  The problem with me now is after 15 minutes of sitting, my ankle completely tightens up and I have to fight through the pain for a minute or so to get some movement back in it.  It’s very annoying, but hey I have to continue to rehab it like I once was…..can’t lie, I’ve been slacking.

I have some good news and some bad news: I am down to 206 lbs and I got there without working out, but it was from having a stomach virus and I couldn’t eat or drink anything, nor could I move without getting sick.  I feel good now, so I guess it’s all good news at this point huh?  Either way you look at it, it’s a good sign that once I am able to start working out again the weight still comes off easy for me.  It’s noticeable weight loss too, because my stomach just started looking like I was going to audition for Santa Clause this December. Phewwww……

I think this week I’ll start doing push ups and crunches and hopefully start riding a bike or something.  I think my ankle can handle a bike until I can start to put complete pressure on it to run.  Next week I plan on getting back in the gym and swimming as much as possible as well.  I also want to start doing some calf exercises so than both of my legs are identical again.  The 2 month period of no moving had my calf smaller than my shin and that just wasn’t a very good sight to see, especially from someone who have pretty nice sized calf muscles.  I’ll get it back the way I want it and there is no stopping me.

Now back to trying to become one of Philadelphia’s top sports writers/journalists…..the sports takeover is in effect, who’s going to stop me if I don’t stop myself? NOBODY!

My Road to Recovery: Part 4

After the longest 13 weeks of my life, I am finally walking again with no assistance.  No crutches, no cam boot….nothing.  Just my left shoe and a tight, painful ankle! SMH!  I have been rehabbing, but probably not as much or as hard as I should be.  I just basically have muscle tightness right now, specifically for not using them so long.  I have to stretch them back out and keep doing the positive things to treat myself.

Just for the record, this was a 6-8 week healing process that I managed to drag out 13-14 weeks.  How, you ask??!?!!  Simply because I was(am) hard-headed and have some sort of life that needs to be taken care of everyday.  I could not just sit in the house all day everyday with my leg up in the air.  I did it for well over a month, but the swelling would not go away.  I started walking in just the cam boot and got rid of the crutches and it started to feel a little better, but the swelling still would come.  I’m out of the cam boot now and the swelling still is here and I’m just barely able to get my foot into my shoe because of it.

Oh well, ice and warm compresses when I’m not doing anything is gonna have to fix the rest of my situation, as well as my pool therapy that has helped so immensely.  I will be back in the gym tomorrow working on my ankle and starting the process of getting my body back to the form I want it.  I’m naturally around 185 pounds, but after I hurt my shoulder at work last year I began to sit around getting lazy and not working out in the gym, for good reason.  I grew to 208 pounds in that time off and once I got back in to the gym I dropped down to 203 pounds in only 8 days.

From the day of my injury until today I grew to 213 pounds and I don’t like it too much…..must have been that depressed I can’t walk beer I’ve been drinking.  No more, no more…..gotta get out of that mindset and get back to work.  Swimming and pool therapy with some crunches and light weight-lifting until I can begin running again and then I am gonna get back to about 190 pounds.  I think that will be a solid weight for me at this point in time.  I don’t want to get too skinny, I have to keep some of my muscle there for the public to see! LOL!

Anyway, I’m signing off of this for now.  Part 5 of my Road to Recovery will be published when I’m fully healthy and running around on the basketball courts again.  Stay tuned and thanks for checking out my blog!

8 days in….back out the gym!

It was only March 5 that I finally got tired of being lazy and decided to get back in the gym.  I once was a gym rat, going every day during the week after work.  I was on the 2nd shift (no life shift) and when I got off at 11, 12 or 1 a.m. I would go to the gym for my workout.  The best part about going at those hours was that there wasn’t many people in there.  I could go and do my routine and get out without any hold ups or waiting for other people to finish.

The bad part about that situation is because it was July when I last went on a normal basis.  I messed up my rotator cuff and lifting weights was the last thing on my mind.  I received advise from quite a few people, both friends and medical personnel, about possible surgery.  Everyone said that my shoulder is going to hurt whether I get surgery or not, so I decided not to do it.  I figured if it’s going to cause pain either way I’ll just man up and just not over-do it.  So I just ended up doing nothing at all and my body noticed it.

Fast forward to February.  I’m starting to notice my stomach is getting a bit bigger.  Everyone else is starting to notice as well and so the jokes and pokes begin raining down on me.  Instead of curling up into the fetal position and laying in the corner crying about it, I decided to make a change.  In my life I was never a lazy person and I’ve always stayed in pretty good shape, whether I was running, lifting weights or playing basketball.  Oh, did I mention I didn’t even play basketball since last summer as well?  I realized that I’m getting older and have to stay on top of things better.

March 5 I made the choice to get back in the gym and change the path that I was headed on.  I have always weighed between 180 and 190 since I was in high school and that is the weight my body is comfortable at….but when I stepped on the scale and it read 206 lbs I almost cried! LOL!  That is the highest I’ve ever weighed in my life, so it was obviously time for me to go hard or stay home.  I ran that day and did a little bit of lifting, but my lower back said I did too much.

My lower back seems to give me problems on a normal basis and not just from lifting which I’ve actually known for some time now.  So I have to stretch it out and do specific exercises which is ok with me.  I know I’m not in the greatest shape and I know what it takes to get back.  March 6 I had an appointment with a personal trainer at the gym and he put me to work.  It felt great to go hard especially with someone right there motivating you and making sure you don’t quit.  That’s an important part to working out…..it’s not the easiest thing to do alone.

March 7 I ran a good mile and then I played basketball for about 2 hours.  My lower back was killing me.  It was stiff, tight, sore and probably any other word to describe it.  I could barely stand.  I shifted my attention on strengthening my lower back with different exercises, stretches and workouts aimed at my back.  It started to work very well.  My exercises mixed with my transition to eating healthy again paid off very fast.

Three days of going hard and aside from my lower back, I started to feel better.  I was sore, but that’s a good thing when you’re working your muscles correctly.  My lower back wasn’t hurting as bad so it started to pay off.  March 8 and March 9 I relaxed and ate healthy foods and got ready for the next week.  March 12 I returned to the gym and I ran hard and long.  15 minutes of an intense session on the treadmill.  Afterwards I stretched, did abdominal exercises and lower back exercises.  I felt amazing, so I decided to play basketball again.  My back wasn’t hurting and I looked like I never took a day off from playing.  Shots raining down from all over the court and I’m looking like I belong in a league somewhere.

It wasn’t until the 3rd game that my back starting tightening up again.  I finished the game and stretched a bit and that was my day.  After about 20 minutes my back felt normal again.  That was a great sign for me knowing that once my back is healed I’ll be back to my old form in basketball and can work out without any setbacks.  7 days down and feeling better about where I was heading, I was ready to attempt the numbers game and stepped back on the scale.

March 13, the 8th day I’m back in the gym feeling good.  I step on the scale and the number reads 202 lbs.  I was excited that in 7 short days I lost 4 lbs, plus I noticed that my pants fit a little bit better as well.  So I go on the basketball court and started running laps and was feeling great. I decided to play a quick 1 on 1 and then it happened….my back started acting up again.  I finished the game (won of course) and stretched hoping it would feel better.  So we played a rough house and the back got worse somehow, but I continued playing (won again of course).  I just laid down and did more stretches and exercises.  I was about to call it day, but before I left I wanted to take a few shots.  That’s when all these dudes started coming in the gym and they wanted to play a rough house.

I probably should have left, but I stayed and started playing.  And like some sort of miracle my back had absolutely no pain left at all.  So I was running around feeling great and nothing or no one could stop me.  After I won that game as well, they wanted to play a 3 on 3 and I was down for it.  My back felt great and my shot was on.  Everything came so easy to me that I wasn’t exerting much energy at all and just let it flow.  I wasn’t running hard, jumping hard nor was I even tired or hardly sweating.  I was in a zone and as comfortable as I’ve been since I was in college at CCP.

We finished the first 3 on 3 and they wanted a rematch and I was all for it.  The second game they made some switches on who they were guarding and they made an early run.  They were up 4-0 and then I used their plan and took advantage of the mismatches.  We came back.  The score was 4-3 and that’s when it happened.  I went up for a rebound and two guys came up under me.  I landed on someone’s foot and that was all she wrote.  I felt it right away and I heard something too.  I looked at my foot and it looked like a boulder hanging out my shoe.  I couldn’t walk and refused to put any pressure down on my foot.  It looked deformed and the ER confirmed.

After only 8 days being back in the gym and finally getting my legs and back in sync with my mind and where I feel I should be, a matter of moments took me back out the gym.  My ankle is broken, but I’ll be back in the gym!