Wow, great post! I am glad that you are back out and skiing again.
Reading your story on this site over the last year has reminded me of one of my favorite movie quotes from Shawshank Redemption. "Get Busy living or get busy dying"
In the summer of 1996, I was playing summer soccer and I planted my knee while a teammate was throwing the ball inbounds. I cut to go towards the ball, and I heard a "pop". I thought nothing of it, and i continued to run down the field for several minutes. While I was sprinting down the field, I felt a funny sensation of my leg flopping about, sort of like Barbaro coming down the homestretch in whatever horse race that was. It was at that moment that I let up from my full gallop, and headed towards the sideline.
I sat down on the lush grass, and in about 30 minutes I saw my knee slowly disappear as the swelling took over and soon my knee was nothing but a memory. I limped towards my car, and somehow drove home. A week or so later I saw the doctor, and he told me that my senior year of high school, one in which we could possibly win the state title, was going to be a forgotten year watching from the sidelines. Torn ACL and meniscus.
Next came surgery, drugs, and lots of rehab. Long story short, I was out and not listening to the doc's in no time at all. I almost blew the knee back out 4 months after surgery, but still became the 3rd best skiier in Maine High school class A that winter. Don't listen to what people tell you that you cannot do, go out and do what you want. Life's too short for regrets, when you are on your deathbed, tell the grandkids the dumb things that you did, not the things that you wished you had done.
