Claire’s Story
They just don’t get it, they don’t get me….
How often has this thought crossed your mind as you leave a GP, physio, or podiatrist appointment? Injury has meant that you are seeing them again, visiting 2-3 times a week at the clinic making small steps back to your normal pain-free self. Sure, ACC may be covering most of the cost, but the mental aspect of not being able to do what you normally did may be playing with your mind. You remember how you felt before you got injured, how close you were to getting your goal time in the race you signed up for. Now you have to either drop out of or go slower to protect the injury. You may find yourself talking about how much fitness you have lost, or how much weight you have put on, often telling people: ‘ I gave gained at least 5 kgs with this injury, it is going to be a slow return to fitness’. Or ‘I just don’t feel like myself’. At this point I would like to say that your diagnosis is a strong case of sport FOMO.
You are trying to do everything your health professional is telling you, but it just feels like your progress has plateaued. There was a timeline that you had set in your head for return to full training but that has been extended and then blown completely out the water. You are having to cross-train, but you just don’t enjoy it as much as your chosen sport. After treatment you leave the session and maybe the thought pops into your head as you drive away, ‘man they just don’t get it, I am an athlete and I can’t do my sport. They are being too cautious, and I will never get back to the old me. I just want to go for a run!
Now I can assure you that if this is something you have gone through then you are not alone. We have all said this to friends or family at one time or another. The mental aspect of the injury is often 100 x more challenging that the physical aspect. Our minds like to get in the way, overthink and throw a whole lot of doubt into the mix. Now speaking as someone that works in the Lab, trust me, we do get it and can completely relate to how you are feeling.
The first day out of lockdown (March 8th) I had a freak accident and ended up face first on tarmac and knocked out. Thankfully surrounded by exceptional friends I was taken to hospital and then started the rehab and recovery from a head injury, concussion and a broken cheek bone. Let’s just say that if March 2020 was the month that everyone wanted to forget, I made damn sure that March 2021 was effectively deleted from my memory bank. Though I would not recommend this as a good memory loss mechanism to anyone. I was two weeks out from Ironman and suddenly a race that I had trained 12 months for had been ‘taken away’ from me. The option of competing just vanished and now my focus was trying to stand up without getting dizzy, fatigued or getting a massive headache. I was in no fit state to do any exercise.
Gradually as part of the treatment I was told I could do 30 minutes of cycling at a heart rate of less than 130 beats per minute. While I was glad to get some movement back, there were days I couldn’t even manage these 30-minute rides without feeling sick. Things started improving steadily but it took nearly two months before I could try running and even swimming again. While I was grateful to be able to do this again, it felt weak and un-natural and a 40 minute run is more tiring now than a 2-hour run was in February. I have had to do rehab exercises for my back and neck, I even had them for my eyes (if you think your rehab exercises are weird for your sport, try doing this twice a day).
Now this is not meant to be a ‘woe is me, I got hurt and I missed out’. I have actually had a great couple of months and, overall, it has been quite a positive experience. I even got to watch friends complete the ironman and celebrate with them all achieving their goals. But this story does help provide you with context on who we are at the lab. We too are people that love getting outside and doing sport. Each of us has probably thought of ourselves as a decent athlete for a time in our chosen sports, and yes, every single one of us has been injured. We have had to get the treatment and go through the slow process of returning ‘back to our normal selves’. Has it been irritating for us, YES. Have we felt like it has taken ages, YES. Have we lost fitness, YES. Have we complained about it, YES. I mean we are only human right.
Take home message for those of you coming to see us at the Lab: We get you and we know how you are feeling. We have been there. If patience is a virtue then we know how virtuous you are all being and we are there to help you.
Teamwork makes the dream work, what ever that dream is.
Every clinic needs a doctor, at Sports Lab, Claire is ours. Dr Claire Badenhorst is our physiologist (PhD Exercise Physiology, Academic at Massey University in Auckland) with research focus areas currently in female health, iron deficiency and endurance athletes.