Lucky : Live & Learn...

Pain

It’s strange how you never fully realise how much you use and rely on a certain part of your body until it’s injured.. The lacerations in my elbow joint burnt 24/7 and any kind of arm movement was cringe worthy. The muscle strain in my abdomen affected core body movement, laughter; even just eating was a grin and bear it occasion. The pelvis though, obviously topped the lot. Simple actions like sitting, walking, turning even laying would bring tears to my eyes. Every move I made, or was about to make, needed to be thoroughly planned out and there was definitely nothing quick or sudden about anything I did.

I can only describe sleeping that first night, and for many nights (weeks) later as excruciatingly painful. Yes, the days were long and physically and mentally demanding; but the nights were a whole other story. My arm would just burn all night.. When the blanket touched it, at every movement and sometimes just for no reason at all! I also barely move when I sleep as it is, but EVERY single time I wanted to move I would wake up. Laying too long on my back and my pelvis would ache. Laying on my left side put too much pressure on my strained muscles and getting to the right side? Well, to roll over your left leg hoists you over.. I couldn’t even do that. I would physically have to push myself over. The right side was most comfortable though.  

The days were long, but the nights could sometimes be longer.

Before I left the hospital, the doctor gave me a prescription for some of the strongest pain killers. I knew I would be attempting to get back to work as soon as possible though, so I put them to the side, to save them for when I went back, and stocked up on nurofen. 6 a day they recommended, but I wanted to see how much I could really bare. Each morning I would wake up in excruciating pain, hobble (the crutches left killer bruises after 2 days so I quit on them) down the hallway to the kitchen and have 2 nurofen. I would then hobble back to bed and lay down for 20 minutes to let them take some kind of action. This was how I’d start my day..

Before my accident, well as you may have guessed by my earlier day of the accident plan, I was a gym junkie. I’d gotten myself to not spending as much time there as when I initially joined, but I couldn’t start my day without some form of exercise. It was my routine and always left me feeling great! It was pretty obvious though, I wasn’t going anywhere. The doctor had told me the best thing for me and only thing I really could do for myself was anything that got me moving, but wasn’t weight bearing.. Did I have a pool? If so, get in there every day and see how I go..

I had a pool; I was stubborn, I had time and I had to do something physical. Perfect. Que mentally designing myself a new pool fitness regime which involved cardio with light weight training (laying the pool scoop across the pool length doing various arm, core and leg, if possible, focused movements). Thank god it was peak summer time! I could do this..

And so it started. Every day after the Nurofen had kicked in, I would put my bathers on first up. I would then crank tunes through the living room window, slowly ease into the pool and do my ‘pool workout’.  This is also what I called my self-rehabilitation. It kept me sane and focused.

I’m not going to lie and say it was easy. It wasn’t. Especially the first week. The little small running steps around the pool weren’t too bad; and the arm focused movements were fine, but the core movements like side stepping, or bracing the core and moving my legs solely absolutely killed. I would just get more determined though and keep focusing on recovery. I was generally fine through the pool session, but sometimes later on in the afternoon the dedication to get through the pain barrier would come back and bite me.

The persistence and stubbornness I used throughout my entire self-rehabilitation helped me greatly however.