Hi everyone,
Unfortunately, I have become another victim of the Celtics’ bad injury luck this season. I tore my meniscus and was not allowed to put any weight on my knee for five-to-six weeks. That was a major shock and disappointment for me, of course, because you compete the whole season with the goal to reach the playoffs in mind and then have to cope with the fact that you won’t be able to participate at all.
The night of the injury was terrible because I did not know how serious the injury was and had to wait for an MRI the following morning. The test then revealed an almost completely horizontal meniscus tear.
At first, I didn’t know how to react at all. I still wasn’t sure what to say or do when I got to call my wife a little later to tell her the news. I couldn’t really grasp it. But surgery was unavoidable. I spoke to the team doctor, and we decided to do it as soon as possible. But on a day like that, everything just works against you — a blizzard occurred and we had to wait four more days to do the surgery.
Fortunately, the surgery was successful. The meniscus was sewn completely, and there weren’t any other complications. It’s not easy to get used to life on crutches though — especially when your bedroom is on first floor and you have to hop up and down the stairs daily. The hospital was nice enough to provide me an additional bed to put in my living room on the ground floor, which really helped during the time post-surgery.
The most important thing during rehab is PATIENCE. Unfortunately, I don’t have any. The first two-to-three weeks I couldn’t do anything besides treatment by our physical trainer and some light exercise to maintain muscles. But I wasn’t allowed to put any weight at all on my leg.
Since Week 3, I can lift weights to strengthen my upper body, and since Week 4, I can put 50 percent of my body weight on the knee, which was a major step and great relief for me. I have now reached Week 5 and 75 percent, and there’s also only one crutch remaining. The goal is to get rid of that one next week as well and walk on my own again. Wish me luck!
I was very happy with the fact that I could drive to rehab each day and didn’t have to rely on anyone else at least in that department. It was also a good thing that we had visitors almost the whole time since my injury occurred, which kept me from falling into a hole mentally.
My brother came to visit with his girlfriend, then my nieces came and afterwards, my stepmom. I was happy that there was always somebody to help out my wife a little bit because I could only lay in bed at first.
It wasn’t easy for me to stop working out and playing from one day to the next. For that reason, I tried to support my team from the locker room or the bench as much as I could ever since. I can’t really do anything else, though. And obviously, now with the playoffs, this is another difficult time for me as well, because I would have loved to play and help out in the best way possible.
But that’s exactly what our team has embodied during this whole season: "Next man up." Whenever somebody got hurt, somebody else filled in. Everyone fights their butts off, defends like crazy and just enjoys being out there.
Therefore, I still think everything is possible with this squad. I’ll do my best to support the guys in every way possible, and I believe in them. I’m excited, and I can’t wait to be out there again myself.
In the meantime, I’ll just have to learn to be patient a little better. My goal: #comebackstronger!
Best,
Daniel