Strength is the only way towards recovery

There are sports injuries, there are casual injuries, and there are mysterious injuries – the ones that no one knows the reason for. I had the third type.

It was a chilly spring morning, and I took up a regular jogging routine in the park, an unchangeable process for over 2 years. It all started like a sharp pain in the knee although I didn’t stumble or fall. The pain was acute but didn’t last long so I kept training and got worried only in 2 days when I suddenly started to limp.

MRE showed an injury of the medial meniscus – it is an important shock absorber on the inside aspect of the knee joint (yep, a minute of medical science you didn’t ask for).

Imagine one day a simple thing you took for granted – an ability to walk – has been taken from you. All people rush here and there without even noticing how lucky they are to run, jump, dance, move back and worth.

Well, after about 40 physiotherapy treatment sessions, 20 sessions of massage and countless visits to doctors I finally made it to the rehabilitation center. At that point I still wore a kneecap and couldn’t bend the knee fully since I spent the whole month in bed in the knee sleeve that prevented my leg from bending. The point is my muscles literally said goodbye and left the left knee (ironically). Did you know that our brain is very smart and fascinating? If you don’t use any part of your body, it shuts it down. So my muscles in the left leg were shut down and the leg was very weak.

But the worst thing was fear.

I started to feel really scared when I had to walk normally and got used to limping all the time. I was so careful with my knee in the way mother takes care of a newborn baby.

Luckily, the instructor I got to has not only gifted skills but lots of patience since it wasn’t easy to deal with a whiner I became. Honestly, I’ve never really understood the importance of weightlifting and muscle-building exercises before: I did cardio but not heavy lifting. It appeared that muscle building is a key component to the knee recovery. Through pain, heavy-breathing, and sometimes almost crying the exercises have become part of life, and the progress has become evident.

An important thing here: the exercises should be regular and as with all things in life: good and stable results come only after some period of time.

Do not rush it.

The first time when I could walk to the park I used to run in after 3 months I cried. It was such a simple and mundane thing before but how precious it felt now! We hear it all the time: “Value small things. You will get how valuable something only after loosing it”. As all human-beings I’m too centered on my small daily problems that I usually don’t have time for joie de vivre - enjoyment of life. When the accident happened my friend told me: this is a lesson for you, you get to slow down and start to appreciate what you have. At that point I was too depressed and pessimistic to understand that piece of advice. After some time passing, I can tell you that this is exactly the lesson I learnt: appreciate every day you can walk, breathe, enjoy small joys as life is fragile and you never know what happens tomorrow.

Remember: the strength is the only way towards recovery.

Stay healthy and take care! ?