Perspective

Perspective is a funny thing, sometimes you lose it and sometimes you find it, but it is always there. This weekend I regained some perspective, but before we go there lets step back 4 months.

48 hours after I broke my leg Mark from PMR came by my house to drop off my climbing gear that he graciously collected after assisting me off the mountain. In his visit he wanted to convey a message of patience to me. He told me a story of how he was nearly killed in a mountaineering accident on Mt McKinley (Denali) in Alaska. It took 24 hrs for rescue, months of surgery, and 5 years of rehab before he returned to life as we consider normal. As I sat there listening to him tell me to take my recovery one step at a time and stay positive I thought to myself, "this is a bit dramatic, I only broke my leg."

Six weeks into my recovery, lets call that the beginning of phase 2, I was ecstatic to begin modified walking with crutches (upon blog review, I was tired of my "situation"). None the less, I felt like I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, I was beginning to walk. It would only be a short time before I would be free of my cast and back to life as I knew it, or so I thought.

Halloween, Michael Scott post George Foreman Grill

A month or so later, I got the go ahead to ditch the boot and begin full on physical therapy. This is where perspective was lost. I had heard in the hospital that I would be laid up for a couple months and that it would take 6-8 weeks for my bones to heal. I emphasize that I "heard" this, I don't really know what the message was, but that is what I heard. Well as you can imagine, when I wasn't immediately up and running the day after I took the boot off I was a bit downtrodden.

Fast forward another six weeks; I just had a pin removed, my strength was returning, and I had a little more mobility in my ankle. However, I still couldn't walk Kona and it was still painful to stand for any prolonged period of time. I began to ask, what is the major malfunction here, I should have been 100% a while ago.

Phase 3 of my recovery started yesterday, I went for a bike ride; it was my first time on a bike in 4 months and it was the first team ride of the year. It was super important to me that I be there, I needed this to feel like I was making progress. I'm not sure how my surgeon would have felt about it since he wanted me to wear my boot for a couple weeks after taking the pin out for "extra protection". Well I couldn't go back to a boot, I tasted freedom and I like it.

Look close, I'm in there

My team gave me back my perspective; other than Drew nobody knew I was coming on the ride, they were surprised and excited to see me there. It had been quite a while since anyone had seen me and the resounding chorus was how remarkable it was that I was already back on my bike after such a serious trauma. After 25 miles I returned to my car and smiled as my comrades went for another lap around the island. I was exhausted but satisfied and furthermore I had realized I have come a long way over a short period of time.

Tonight, I walk Kona!