Journey through Injury

I think I was playing pretty decent defensively tonight; ok on offense as well (but that’s due to MONSTER’s great D).  Regardless, within minutes of the game starting I had my target of creating two turns in the first half and was on my way to my target of ten.  Just before half a MONSTER player made a great cut and I put too much pressure on my knee.

Those of you that know me know what may have happened next…it slipped.  It wasn’t as bad as the first time, a bit worse than the second, and I was hobbling around inside of five.  The pain this time around though was worse than ever and I think it’s because I’ve really been working on my fitness over the last month.  My muscles are a bit tighter and that made it hard to relax them after the slip.

Two hours later and I’m home now (drive from Toronto takes about 80 minutes) icing it.  I have no doubts that I’ll be back playing in a few weeks (not hard at first) but so many things go through your head when you go down.

The first thought was “I’m done?  Am I done?  Will I get to play again?”  I love our sport and it’s one of the major sources of happiness in my life.  After about 60 seconds of breathing heavily on the ground I asked for help getting up and sat on the bench.  That’s when the pain really starts and you can recognize it.  Thoughts turn to: “how bad is it?  Can I drive home?  Can I walk on it?”

Once it’s been established that I will indeed be able to get home my attention returned briefly to the game.  The pain hasn’t subsided but the initial shock has dulled the pain.  I shout out instructions while relaxing and trying to get comfortable thinking that the worst has passed; it hasn’t.  The pain kicks into overdrive as my knee swells up.  I gingerly remove my shoes trying not to hurt myself anymore; it doesn’t work.  The pain is bad enough to distract me from the game but I still shout out when subs are needed and do as much as I can but everybody knows that I’m done.

Colin Green shouts in frustration at the lack of D and I can’t help but feel that I saw the play coming and should be the one yelling but I’m in no condition to do anything right now.  Just have to concentrate on getting my jacket on, getting warm in this dome.  I think I’ll put some snow on my knee when I get outside.

The game ends and I line up with my team.  MONSTER played a great game and we know it.  Colin and Alena give us a post game talk mostly about strategy and improving our offense.  I offer my two cents as my sense have now returned.  I say bye to my teammates and Rahil (our captain) and head out to find that this is Toronto and Toronto wasn’t hit by the snow that we received in Waterloo.

As I walk to the car I fold up my left pant leg and instantly the cold feels fantastic on my knee.  I settle into the car and start the trek home.

Here now it’s basically just swelling that I have to contend with first.  On the drive home I went through all the tournaments I’d miss if it was a bad ACL injury:  Paganello, Prague, U23 (as I’d be in the area anyways…not to play though).  If it’s not anything serious then I guarantee you that I’m going to play hard and take the risk of missing those tournaments.  I don’t like it when I play easy to avoid injury to myself…I’m always disappointed.

Right now though, I need to ice this knee and sleep.

comments powered by Disqus