when I was 11, I had harrington rods put in my back, I had to lay at no more than a 35 degree angle or less for a week with all the tubes in the world. I couldn't get up to go to the bathroom. I couldn't sit up to eat, hell I couldn't have anything to eat or drink for a few days. When I finally got some red gatorade to drink, I drank it so fast I threw up.
When I was 16, I broke my ankle and had to be non-weight bearing for almost 4 months. I couldn't go to school, I had to have a lady come to my house to give me my assignments for school. A week or two before I got my cast removed, I thought it would be a good idea just to "try it out" and see what it felt like to walk, I almost broke one of the pins in my ankle that night.
I say all that to say this, almost 10 years later I'm still the very same impatient Nessie that I always have been. Right now both of my shoulders are tore up from the floor up, if you will. My left one makes a god awful popping sound every time I externally rotate it, and I can feel it sliding in the socket. Though it's not exactly my right shoulder, it's my right collar bone. Suspected break or fracture that's healed improperly. GREAT NEWS, RIGHT?! Both of those things mean that right now, weightlifting is pretty much a no go.
I started going to physical therapy because I got desperate. If you've known me for any amount of time at all, you know I hate when people I don't know touch me. So you can imagine that physical therapy is quite the anxious nightmare. I have a good therapist, his name is Ben and he's about 3 years older than me. He's funny, and bless his heart he tries to make me comfortable. It's just not going to happen right now. I'm trying to stop my anxiousness (see what I did there, anxious-ness... ha, ha) and see PT for what it is, a good thing. I have health insurance and it's going to help. It will. It has to.
I tried to power clean last night, and got maybe 10 reps in before my shoulder started hurting and my collar bone did too. I could have just had a hex bar deadlift party for 1, did some shoulder 'hab, but I had to be impatient and push. I wanted to be ready for the meet May 9th. However, my PT said that was a bad idea, my shoulder won't be better in that short amount of time and depending on what exactly is wrong with my collar bone, then I could be out of luck for 6 weeks or more. If the PT exercises and the manual therapy stuff doesn't work, then we're gonna x-ray and see what's up.
I've never really been an athlete, so having an injury that stops me from doing what I want to do sucks harder than a two dollar whore on nickel night. Just so we're all clear on how I feel about this situation.
I think what that means for me is a huge lesson in patience. to stop trying to get better before I'm better and let my damn shoulder heal. I have at least another 30 years of lifting in my future, so I need to let my joints heal properly so I can be an old lady lifter and kick ass then, too.
