This hurts.
I learned I’ve torn my MCL yesterday, after waiting 10 days to see an orthopedic doc because I’m stubborn and can “will” my body to heal.
This sucks.
I planned to go on the hiking with my husband and baby for the first time together Saturday, and advanced yoga on Sunday. I have spent the past 6 months in physical therapy and then an intense exercise routine all in an effort to rebuild my body after a traumatic birth that resulted in a broken tailbone which was the least of all the injuries. And I was finally in a place where I could go hiking with my baby, after all of that.
Then I fall and tear my MCL, ruining all of that progress, all of my plans.
But, I am choosing to see the positive.
It’s 6 more weeks of healing. Could have been much worse.
Years ago when I worked as a marketing director in the marine industry, I would spend summers creating and hosting professional watersports competitions. At one of these events, there is a vivid scene that is forever burned into my memory. I watched a 21 year old kid obliterate his knee as he came down from a failed wakeboarding trick. As we pulled him out of the water onto the swim platform, I watched his knee collapse and seemingly melt in front of me. It was the second time he’d destroyed the ligaments in his knee, and his career as he knew it was done.
It could have been much worse.
But even after all of these things, we keep rebuilding. As humans, we are so incredibly adaptable, capable, buildable beings.
I’ve healed a lot from my traumatic birth. I’ll be back to hiking and advanced yoga again one day soon. And that 21 year old kid, after 2 years of surgeries and therapy, he was wakeboarding again.
At the risk of sounding like a cat poster from grade school - we can do anything we set our minds to. It’s just going to take work rebuilding. But that is what we do.
Even though I say Fix Your Sh*t Healing Balm works for almost everything, it won't heal a torn MCL. Only time can do that.