It's All Up From Here

Once again, I sit here typing with ice on my knee. But this time, it's because I just finished my physio exercises. Yesterday the doctor determined the fracture had healed and the brace could come off. YAYYYY!!! Actually, for the next week or two I have to wear it when I go outside, or if I am in crowds, just to prevent me from falling and really screwing it up. But this means that I CAN DRIVE! And I can sit at my desk or in a car comfortably. And even walk up stairs like a normal person! I'm still gimping on my way down, but hopefully that will change soon.

Now comes the hard part, right? When I was so excited on Monday and looking forward to PT, #14 said "oh, my naive Goalie..." And I know that this is not going to be easy. But the relief I feel to finally be DOING something active about recovering, to be out of the "sit and wait and heal" stage, is so tremendous. It is extremely humbling though, to be expending so much effort to do these simple exercises, compared to what I had been doing before I got hurt. But I have images in my mind, little mental reminders to help me through these seemingly simple exercises. Me doing split squats or sumo squats with weights. Me doing butterfly slides. Me making a save, recovering and getting back into position for the next one. Mentally picturing my leg as strong as it was before- no, even stronger. The thing that keeps amazing me is to see how atrophied certain muscles are. It will be so cool to see them build back up again. But right now it's hard to imagine, so I hold those images in my head, of where I know I will be.

It being my first session yesterday, Dr R (that's what I'll call my physio from here on in, for simplicity) wouldn't really give me a timetable to expect to be back on the ice. I am figuring 4-6 weeks, based on what my ortho said. Dr R said in about 2 weeks we'll have a better idea of my progress and he can tell me then. It's not just for my own knowledge though- there is a tournament April 8-9. I explained this to him, and asked if that was something he thought was possible, or if he knew right now that it was out of the question. Fortunately, he said that definitely seemed like it would be ok. I'm very relieved on several counts; 1) yay I can probably play in it! 2) I don't have to panic my team by telling them they need to find a sub and 3) that means Tampa is definitely going to be ok!

Oh and one other thing- I guess because of my enthusiasm to be at this stage and my passion to get back on the ice, people seem to think I'm going to push too hard and overdo it. HELL NO. I'm doing this right. I want to get back on the ice, yes, but I want to stay there. So yeah, I did my measly 1 set of 10 reps of strengthening exercises, and really wanted to do another set, but I'm not going to push it. (Personally I think I can definitely do more, but I will talk to Dr R about it on Monday- if he gives me the green light, good. If not, then I will just be patient.) I am being smart about this. Honest. :)