 |
| Luncheon with Royalty! |
This positivity continued into the weekend, which included a trip to Windsor in the gorgeous sunshine. I’ve spent the majority of this week at home but on the two occasions I went into Bisham Abbey, where we train as a squad, the irrational, negative or emotional thoughts, or what I call the dark cloud of worry descended.
Still in my anesthetic state and without
much energy on my feet, I went to see the team before a pitch session. There
were differing reactions to the ‘show and tell’ of my disc fragments but it was
great to see them and their support has been and continues to be fantastic. On
leaving the pitch though they started the session and I watched a couple of
minutes. Now, I’ve been playing hockey for 25 years and successfully recovered
from four operations (to date!) and still, that little negative thought of how
far there was to go popped into my head. I couldn’t even begin to imagine
myself jogging, let alone sprinting whilst pushing and hitting a hockey ball.
I know too well that dealing with thoughts
like this is part and parcel of recovering from an injury, if I get them on a
good day they’re easy to shrug off, remembering ‘one day at a time’ and move
on. If they creep in when things aren’t going so well it can be a completely
different ball game altogether. I’ve already apologised to the squad in advance
for any sudden, inexplicable bouts of water works or mad moments! On Monday it
wasn’t so extreme, and it was saved for the privacy of my own house but that’s
how quickly it can turn. Thanks to Kate and Heads Up, it didn’t last very long.
Now they were two very small moments from
the past week, the majority was hugely positive. The feeling has started to
come back into my right leg and foot, which is encouraging, although it has
been replaced by some neural pain, which again is not entirely unexpected, and
actually in my head feels like a more normal reaction than a numb leg. My surgeon
was also really pleased with everything and happy for me to progress.
I also had my staples out, eighteen in
total, which can be viewed below if you like that sort of thing! It was a little more painful than I thought
it would be but this really signifies the start, it’s time to move this rehab
train forward!
