Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Forfeiting is not an option!

Good morning! This will be short and not so sweet....got to hobble over to Dr G's office in a few minutes to see whether I tore, pulled, or decimated my  calf muscle. I wish that I could say that the injury was due to catching a little girl as she fell out of a third story window like the hero in New York, but I can't. I also wish that the injury came from saving puppies from perishing in a fire...but I can't. Lastly, I wish that I could say that I injured my leg by walking the 60 mile breast cancer awareness walk...but I can't.

What I can say is OY! Yeah, oy! Last night as I walked across the tennis court after a point, I felt a twinge, then a pain...then I was crippled. Sure, it was hot, but this never happened before to me. It couldn't have been a cramp because I was drinking orange juice throughout the match. I did stretch....so what happened?

Here's how it went down....we won the first set easily and fell asleep during set two. At the end of the second set, I felt the pain and had to hold up on the match. I had a ten minute injury time out (isn't this crazy?). After ten minutes, I did not feel better, but I was not going to stop since I had a great partner and we were on our way to a win. So, we continued to play but I did not run. We lost set two and entered into a ten point tie break for set three. Mind you, the leg is immobile, but I continued to go and my poor partner had to cover 98% of the court.

Let's consider the absurdity of this decision. I am a middle aged woman with a family and full time job. No one pays me to play tennis competitively, although I am thinking that the team is going to pay me not to play. Anyway, I have an injury...so what do I do? Well, since there are no substitutions, I have two options. Stop and forfeit or continue to play and pray that through a miracle we can pull it out.

Back to set three. We battled back and forth and finally lost the tie break 11-9 to lose the match. See, I would have lost anyway, so why did I continue to play? Why indeed?

Let's consider this....I guess that I am too competitive and therefore would rather try to hobble to a win or defeat than just set my racquet down and shake hands. Silly? perhaps....perhaps not. I am now very confident that my child gets this crazy competitive nature from his mother. A friend once said to me that I was a "closet type A" personality. In other words, people do not have any idea that I am a crazed maniac on the inside. The facade is somewhat laid back and self-deprecating. This closet type A personality is going to kill me somehow or put me in a wheelchair.

Considering my options, I would rather go down swinging in life than sit on the sofa with my iPad on my lap watching a reality show. And so the pains and strains of life are well worth the efforts of putting my body out there on a 100 degree day to continue to live life to its fullest. Yep...I think that I successfully rationalized this one....on to Dr G and Tank. How many of us can say that she has an orthopedic surgeon and a physical therapist on speed dial? How many of us want to have that option? How many think that I am absolutely crazy? Show of hands please....I know that my hand is raised high in the air.



Have a great day~


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