Since September of last year I've
been slowly recovering from a knee operation. The op was relatively simple and
was keyhole surgery to repair a flapping ACL in the left leg. After a fairly
surreal stay in hospital following the procedure (unrestricted access to social
media mixed with loads of sedatives do NOT go well together), I limped home and
got into the process of rehabilitation.
For the first 3 weeks the leg was
swollen to buggery and I could barely bend it. The op had involved drilling or
cutting into various places on the knee, shoving cameras in there, and then not
only restitching the tattered ligament but also scraping a load of gristle out
of there.
Not nice.
I was on painkillers that made my
piss go orange and had to inject my belly every day for 10 days so my blood
didn't coagulate. Morphine helped me sleep and I would hobble around on
crutches for my requisite 15 minutes stroll per day.
Gradually the pain eased and
slowly, very slowly the leg began to calm down, the knee became more stable
again and finally at nearly four months down the line, I feel that all that
pain was a wise investment as I can feel more flexibility and strength in the
foundations of that knee.
The thing is...
For the last four+ months I've sat
on my arse, getting love handles and watching lots of television. I've recently
begun yoga in order to regain my flexibility but one thing that has become
woefully apparent is my lack of core stability. Basically I've become unfit.
In March of last year I took and
failed the P5 test. With a score of 66% and feedback from examiner Nadav
Shosan that I would do better the next time, I looked forward to a retesting
in the following October exams. Then the hospital got in touch to finally offer
me the knee operation and that was that.
The March 2016 gradings are about
two months away but I won't be able to attend. I haven't trained in months, my
cardio is shot to hell and I would need at least a month just to get back on
top of not only fitness but also revision of techniques.
My consultant surgeon for the
operation specifically told me that I can GO BACK TO TRAINING AT KRAV MAGA in
the Spring but he then added that I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT GRADE AGAIN UNTIL
OCTOBER. This means it will be 18 months between my original P5 and the retest.
Like a pre teen child looking at a
Christmas advent calendar on December 2nd, I want to open all the windows, get
all the chocolate and get straight back in there again. However December 3rd
through to December 15th's windows need to be opened gradually, slowly and with
patience. 16th will be going back to training. 17th will be beginning revision
of my techniques from P1 back to P5. 18th will be joining the sparring
classes...and so on.
Keeping patience at a time like
this is infuriatingly hard but I know that I cannot just undo the pain and
convalescence of the past few months by being impatient.
I'll get all the chocolate
eventually. Just one day at a time.
Just keep it calm Lance. You'll get there, in the end. It's not how quickly you get there but how good do you feel when you have achieved what you worked for ;)
ReplyDelete