It might be the time of year (summer has a way of making me feel like it’s the only thing that exists) but I am noticing a troubling trend amongst outdoor athletes I’ve talked to about their injuries recently.
Here are a few snippets from conversations I have had with clients or potential clients recently —
“I don’t ever really follow through with my PT exercises. I’m worried I will have to have surgery in 5 years, I've dealt with this same knee pain so many times.”
“I am committed to doing this marathon this year. I know it will compromise the rest of my summer plans but I won’t be talked into a shorter race or one later in the year.”
“I have been having knee pain for a few months, I assume it will need surgery but I haven’t tried anything else for it. In my experience pain just means I will need surgery.”
“I was told I could try not to do surgery, but there’s a chance I will have to do it anyway. Now is the best time so I am thinking I will just do surgery now instead of trying to pull back on summer activities while I rehab this injury. I’d rather get it over with.”
Anyone else seeing the trend? If someone you cared deeply about said one of these things to you, what would your reaction be?
Imagine your loved one has two options:
They could rehab their injury now by pulling back on activity temporarily and getting stronger while their injury heals.
Or they could wait until things got so bad that they felt their only option was to be cut open, and then follow strict rehab protocols written by surgeons with extremely limited activity for months.
Which would you choose? Which would you encourage your loved one to try first?
Surgery isn’t a quick fix that lets you shortcut to the good part. It requires just as much, if not more work after surgery.
Let me side bar for a second.
There’s a climbing area in Wyoming, a beautiful area with gorgeous pink granite called Fremont Canyon. The special thing about Fremont Canyon (beyond the beauty) is that you find your climb from above, rappel down into the canyon to the start of your route, and then begin the climb back up and out.
If you want some security that you will get back up before dusk, you can leave the rope hanging as an insurance policy, and then start climbing up on that rope, or on a second rope if you want the challenge of lead climbing.
Or, if you’re on a particularly hard climb, that you don’t know if you can finish, you might be tempted to pull the rope before attempting to climb. NOW you are fully committed. You have no choice but to climb back up and out. You have forced your own hand. You know you will finish the climb, no matter how bad it looks, because you left your headlamp up above and a chill is setting in as the sun is beginning to set in the canyon.
What's that have to do with deciding if I should get surgery?
Skipping rehab, choosing surgery, or deciding not to reschedule a race on the recommendations of a health care provider, sounds like pulling the rope to me. It's choosing the hard path as a way of forcing your commitment.
And I don’t mean to make it sound like the path through an injury is a decision I or anyone would or should ever take lightly. Pain can convince us to act in ways that we wouldn’t normally.
Pain gets under your skin and convinces you that the only way out is through, and while that is often true, we can certainly do a lot to make the experience more enjoyable along the way.
The biggest difference between an injury and climbing in Fremont Canyon is the element of choice.
You don’t get always get a choice when you need to deal with an unfortunate injury, and that, quite frankly, sucks.
Surgery can feel like you are taking things into your own hands, it can feel definitive in a way that rehab sometimes doesn’t.
Does this thought process sound familiar to you? Oscillating between choosing to do nothing or opting for the most extreme option?
Rehab can feel squishy and uncertain until you’re far enough along to realize that you’re fully living your life and it looks quite like the life you love!
Warmly,
Katy
I work with outdoor athletes like you to help you navigate the uncertainty that can be overcoming an injury and working back to your favorite activities! If you want help figuring out what a third option looks like for you, check out Trail Proof, my holistic custom program designed to help you get back to your favorite activities and get stronger while you do it!