I twisted my ankle at a drop in hockey game a couple weeks ago. A totally accidental fall, combined with an apparent failure to lace my skate up quite tight enough, and I was out of commission for a couple weeks. I skated this morning at another drop in. After about 50 minutes, I could feel my ankle start to get a little tired, so I stopped. But there is no pain, just a little tightness which I figure is normal after all. The body's ability to heal itself never ceases to amaze me.
That said, I learned a few things during this experience which I'm going to try to remember, going forward.
1. Flip flops are not real shoes. As cute as they are, they give absolutely no support. I think I did myself a disservice in the healing process by wearing flip flops for a few days because they were the only shoes I could fit my foot into. Next time (please, no) I will go buy a cheap pair of sneakers a size or two too big and suffer the style points.
2. It takes real determination to get out of bed in the morning when the first thing you are going to do (take a step) will cause you to experience pain and discomfort. My pain was temporary. There are a lot of people out there who deal with pain daily and my respect for those folks increased exponentially.
3. There is no shame in going up and down stairs on your behind. At least at home.
4. If you can't walk normally, getting ready to go to work takes at least half again as long as a normal day.
5. Your non-athletic coworkers will have amazingly unhelpful things to say to you. For example,
"Oh, did you get a boo-boo", or "Well, I guess you're done for while" or "At your age, that's going to take a while to heal". Pay them no mind. They know not what they say.
6. If you need to drown your sorrows, you can't do much better than Ben and Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie ice cream with caramel sauce.
7. Ibuprofen is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy (apologies to Ben Franklin).
8. The ability to walk down a flight of stairs without hanging on to something or bringing both feet together on each step is under-appreciated.
9. Patience. Patience. Patience.
10. It is almost as much fun to cheer for your team as to play with them. Almost.
