Patience Is A Virtue

I’m the type of person that loves playing sports and doing any physical activity, in April I did a pivoting motion which lead to me tearing my ACL, MCL and lateral meniscus. The setting set different emotions for me like emotional, happy, upset and patient. The physical journey follows the rest of the story.

I tear my ACL, MCL, and lateral meniscus during my lacrosse game when I did a sharp pivot to get around my opponent. This sharp movement made me stop in my tracks and collapse to the ground where I had blacked out for a few seconds wondering what just happened. I was to patient in this situation because I knew I couldn’t fix it myself. There was no pain because my body was rushing with adrenaline.

I went to the doctors and got an x-ray of my right knee. The x-ray didn’t reveal a fracture so the doctor ordered an MRI for further examination. The MRI was 99.9% that I tore my ACL. That meant I had to have surgery and months of physical therapy. The doctor and surgeon both informed me that I wouldn’t be able to play field hockey my senior year. This gave me a rollercoaster of emotions. I was very upset and I had no faith in myself becaue I thought this going to be a very long recovery. The recovery time is about 7-9 months.

It’s been five days since my surgery and I’m attending my first physical therapy session. I was very nervous because they wanted me to focus on bending my knee and gaining strength like activating my quad muscle and balance. This is slow progress and I was sore after each session but I had some encourgment and patience within me to keep pushing through this rough patch.

A few months have gone by and I’ve seen some improvement. One day at school I had a little mishap. I brought up the incident to my therapist and I had to move back a week on my exercises. I found this to be discouraging. A lot things were running through my head. I had my doubts but then I thought to myself that I had to be patient because stuff happens for a reason. A little mishap might be for the best so I can heal.

I’m five months post-op. I’m seeing great things in physical therapy. I’m able to jog, do box jumps and do the agility laddder. My goal was to be able to get on the field hockey field for a few seconds my senior game. I had worked my way up to jogging to make my way off the field. My attitude was the same to keep pushing and looking forward. I couldn’t push myself so I had to trust and be ready to do this. I came to accept that recivery takes time, and that healing properly is more important than rushing, even if the process feels slow.

It’s almost been six months post-op. I will see my surgeron at the end of Novembers to get a word on when I will be cleared and able to play. I know I will be nervous when I can return back to my sports and I’ll have to regain that confidence and get comfortable. I know my teammates will be very supportive when I return to playing. My coaches will be understanding that I will need time to gain my confidence back. I know I have to be patient with myself when I return to sports and that I may not be able to perform at a high level but I will give it my best shot.

I’ve learned the importance of being patient, especially in situations where there’s nothing you do to change the outcome. Sometimes, all you can do is wait, and that’s when patience truly becomes a virtue.

“Sometimes They Are A Matter Of Patience” by an untrained eye is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.