It's been a good while since I've written much of anything in this blog directly pertaining to yoga. I've posted here and there about food and smoothies, maybe the occasional playlist, but nothing really about yoga. I'm here to announce right now that I'm revamping this blog. I've been writing here for a year and a half, but have recently come to the conclusion that I'm limiting myself by thinking I can only write about yoga. From here on out, this is a lifestyle blog. A blog about my lifestyle.
I had knee surgery yesterday, about 12 hours ago to be exact. I am thankful to GOD for the fact that I was able to get this taken care of. I injured myself almost 7 months ago to the day, and without health insurance, I had a lot of figuring out to do and a lot of hoops to jump through. Words can not even express how elated I am to be sitting in my living room at 4am, crutches by my side, bandage from toes to thigh and an ice pack on my knee. For 7 long months, I felt like this injury had stolen a very important part of my life from me and I was scared I'd never get it back. This injury instilled in me a sense of fear and over-cautiousness that was never there before. I really noticed this over weekend when I took a visiting 17-year old family friend to Mt. Hood. To get there, we took the historic highway and stopped at every waterfall along the way. She was running around like crazy, jumping on snow banks, all that fun stuff I would typically be doing, but couldn't. I was afraid to even walk in the snow without baby stepping and holding onto her arm or hand because if my knee tweaked the tiniest wrong way, it would be excruciating. It made me so mad to be that way. I have also really missed snowboarding, running and taking advanced yoga classes in public for fear of having to modify so much I might as well not be there. I was an emotional mess, which is why I never have written about it.
Wednesday was my worst day. I felt anxious all day, and teetered on the edge of wanting to scream and/or cry. I never did scream but I certainly did cry. I was nervous, largely because I didn't know what time the surgery would be until less than 24 hours in advance, but also because of the anticipation. However, when I woke up yesterday morning, I felt pretty calm. I got some work done on my computer and had a prayer with my friend and Enliven Festival teammate, Jason. It really helped me feel at peace. When I got to the hospital at noon to check it, I was super tired and thirsty, as I was instructed not to eat or drink anything after midnight. Do you know how hard that is for a girl who wakes up and has a big glass of lemon water, big glass of plain water, mug of hot tea and a green smoothie every morning?! I was feeling a little grumpy, to say the least. When I checked in at noon, I thought the surgery would immediately follow, but it ended up not being until a little after 2. Lucky for me, one of my best friends works at the hospital and came to sit with me on her lunch break while I waited to go back. The team of people I had with me was great, and honored my wishes of not wanting to be pumped full of narcotics. They were used sparingly of course during surgery and after I woke up with a pain level of 8 on a scale from 1 to 10. When the nurse went to inform my husband that I was out of surgery and resting in recovery, she also told him I kept asking for him and saying I didn't want to be there anymore. Oh, the things we say and do when we come out from under anesthesia! The poor guy next to me asked if he could vomit into a sock, then he asked it they had put vodka in his water.
Once I got to the second stage of recovery, my husband and friend were able to come sit with me. Keith came back first because I was feeling a little vulnerable. Then, after 5 total hours in the hospital, I was allowed to go home. I crawled into bed and immediately fell asleep. I've been sleeping on and off for the past 12 hours, which is why I am up at 4am to write! I've been feeling inspired.
My spirits are high. Now I see that there really is light at the end of the tunnel, and while it seems like an eternity to me that I had a nasty injury, it was only temporary. It feels so good to be supported by my family, friends and yoga students. Even though I didn't talk about my knee injury much, those who did know have been very kind and helpful in keeping my spirit lifted. I already feel like I've got my life back! Don't worry, I am definitely going to take plenty of time to heal before I jump back into my normal activities, but just knowing I will be all better soon is a huge comfort.
I'll be writing more about my recovery, and other things related to health and wellness, in this blog from now on. It feels so good to write again and share these thoughts and feelings with you.
Love,
Tami
I REALLY wish I was there to give you a great big hug and drink lemon water and water and tea and smoothies with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI tore my ACL on a ski trip the day before my 30th birthday a little over a year ago... I am still waiting to have surgery, but lack of health insurance doesn't make it too easy to come by. Since my injury I have learned to work with what I have. I went through a long few months were I was not able to endure my yoga practice, nor my running regime and that was terribly depressing for me. I missed the simple things in life like jumping over mud puddles, or off of curbs. Silly things that you don't realize are important to you until they're gone...
ReplyDeleteIn the past few months I decided that I was either going to drown in my sorrows, or I was going to bite the bullet and dive head first back in to my yoga practice. My yoga practice is my true being and helps mold me into the woman I am today. Not giving up was the best decision I have ever made for myself. My knee hurts and it will hurt until it eventually gets reconstructed, but in the mean time I feel my body stronger than it ever has been before and I love that. I even went x-country skiing for the first time last weekend and I had no knee pain what so ever. Also, I might add, with the increase in strength I find that I am less fearful of tweaking my knee. it is no fun living in fear of hurting yourself just walking down the street.
I am thrilled that you were able to get surgery, and I imagine that it must be such a great feeling to feel intact again. Congratulation's. My time will come, I'm sure of it. Until then, I am just going to keep doing what I know best while avoiding more damage. Gosh, it will be so nice to get back up on the mountain again.
Here's to a speedy recovery!
Lora