Feeling Swell!
Published: 13th March 2007
Author: Words by Stephen Sword Photo by Sutty
Swordy stumbles on the road to recovery but thanks to a positive mental attitude - not to mention his Speedos and some water wings - it's only a small setback.
This month hasn't been all that great and I've had a small set-back with my recovery. Everything was going very well up until about three weeks ago. My training was starting to go good and I was building up good strength in my leg. Then I picked up the flu and an infection in my leg again. I was in bed for the best part of three days, my immune system was very low and I was struggling to do stuff.
Later on that week the side of my ankle started to swell up more and more. I called my doctor in Belgium to see what he thought and his said to rest it for a few days and take a high dosage of antibiotics. That's exactly what I did but it didn't improve so I decided to go to the local hospital to get a second opinion - I was hoping they would either drain it or give me stronger antibiotics. They wanted to keep me in overnight and decide the next day so I called the doctor over and explained how I'd prefer to leave so I could go straight to my doctor in Belgium. He wasn't too pleased but I gave him no option and checked myself out as he wanted to open my leg up and go inside to look at the bone. I didn't have a problem with how he wanted to do it but I was worried as he didn't know the injury as well as my Belgian doctor.
Anyway, I went straight to Belgium, he took one look and decided to operate later that day. It was a simple operation just to drain the infection and look to see if there was any major problem inside - the good news is the bone looked healthy but I still stayed in for three days. One of those was Valentine's Day so that was a new experience for Jodie and I - we both celebrated with some lovely hospital food!
I had to rest and not put any weight on my foot for two weeks - you can imagine how tired I'm getting of lying on the sofa with my foot in the air. I touched base with the doctor after one week to let him know all was okay and he said I could go to the gym to do some upper body training but still not to put pressure on my foot so I grabbed my crutches and headed off down the gym.
After another week I started to put some weight on it and begin to build things up and although it's continuing to improve it doesn't look like I will be ready for the first GP of the year - in fact, it's probably going to be a good two months from now. I'm very disappointed that I can't start the beginning of the season but the only way forward is to accept the setbacks I've had and come back when the time is right. Obviously, this means my goals for the season have changed. Whereas before I was looking at overall championship positions, now I want to come back physically and mentally stronger than before to give myself the best chance of winning some races before the season ends and use '07 to put me in good shape for '08.
I'm missing the races but I'm still looking forward to being at Canada Heights having not really met up with the whole team yet. It will be good to catch up with everyone and see some of the fans again so hopefully I will see you there.
Not a lot else has been going on apart from my rehab. I like to be pro-active so I find it hard not to be doing stuff when I should be resting but I'm getting better because rest is also important to help with the recovery of my ankle. Because I get a lot of swelling around the ankle I have to put an ice pack on it about eight times a day. It helps a lot and as each week goes by it gets better and better and swells less and less. I also bought myself one of those aqua joggers - it's like a big foam belt that goes around you waist so you can tread water without putting any weight on your foot. I look a bit of an idiot in the pool (that'll be down to your Speedos, not your foam belt - SL) but who cares as long as it does the job?
I decided to go shopping at the weekend to spend my leftover Christmas vouchers before they expire but there was nothing I fancied so I've still got them. But I did come back with one thing - a baby gate! Before you all jump to conclusions, no, I'm not about to become a dad yet - it's to stop the dogs coming upstairs at night. Both of them are black and black dogs on a cream carpet don't mix although that doesn't make all that much difference to me as Jodie does most of the cleaning anyway. The dogs and I just make the mess although now I'm more mobile I do get made to do a bit more Hoovering!
I actually don't mind pulling my weight a bit as I can't stand things being a mess. When I used to share a room with TC back when I was first riding for MJ Church I was forever cleaning up his crap. I even cleaned up his sick once after he brought up chicken chow mein all over the stairs one night. When I got up in the morning there was no direct route for me to get down - in the end I had to climb the wall like Spiderman to get around it. Sorry to let this one slip Tom but every time someone has chow mein I'm reminded of it - noodles everywhere!