Today marked my first post-op physical therapy session. Because I have been through this twice before I went in knowing exactly what to expect. I thought this experience would be a great advantage but it turned out to be quite the opposite.

I began with some light stretching of my calf and hamstring, which made for an easy start. But next came the hard part, quad flexion and straight leg raises. Each firing of my quad sent the pain deeper into my knee. After 10 minutes of  10 second intervals alternating between flexing and relaxing it was time to move on. Straight leg raises were staring me right in the eye without the slightest thought of blinking. I knew we would be meeting sooner or later but this encounter seemed premature. I grimaced through 10 brutal reps that beat me up mentally more than physically. All the “experience” I have from the 2 previous surgeries began to take its toll.

Whenever I finished the reps and it was time to ice my knee I couldn’t help but think about what lies ahead. Unlike the naive high schooler I was 4 years ago, this older more seasoned version of myself knows exactly what my next 6 months will consist of. The pain of the first day caused this reality to sink in a lot quicker than I’d hoped. While experience was becoming my biggest adversary I fought hard to change my outlook. This will be no easy task and to be successful I have to keep three things in mind.

–God gives His hardest battles to His toughest soldiers.

–God will not put me through more than I can bear.

–I was, am and always will be a PHOENIX

Categories: My Journal

Tags: acl, ashes, battle, blog, blogging, Christ, God, hardship, journal, life, Phoenix, rehab, rises, surgery