Byrd's Chicks

Sarge learns not to take things for granted

Michele Chavez

In March, on my last day of bike mechanics school in Oregon, my husband fell at work and injured his left knee. He didn't want to worry me, so he didn't tell me just how bad the injury was.

On the night that I returned -- after 24 hours on an Amtrak train -- he had to pull the car over twice because of the pain and took hours to get to the train station to pick me up. That was my first indication just how bad the injury was.

Some background: Sarge is a marathon runner. He's been a runner all his life. Running came easy to him. When he was in grade school, there was only one person in the whole school who was faster than he was. I'm convinced that if his mother had let him participate in sports like track and cross-country, he would have gotten into college on a track scholarship. But he never had that opportunity.

Here's how easy running came for him. For years after we were married, he would run the Los Angeles Marathon every year -- WITHOUT training for it. That's right. He'd just run the 26.2 miles! And then not run again until the next marathon. I kid you not. That's what he'd do.

He is what's called a "Legacy Runner" -- someone who has run the L.A. Marathon every single time it has been run (24 times).

Eventually, as he got older, this became more and more difficult to do. I became so concerned that I decided to use what my former father-in-law called "reverse Sick-e-ology." I signed up for a marathon training group, the L.A. Leggers and started training for the L.A. Marathon, something I'd never done before and didn't really have any desire to do.

It took 2 years, but Sarge finally joined our training group. The thing is, though, that he then only trained on the Saturdays we ran with the group. I was doing the mid-week running, but he wasn't. He didn't have to. He could just go out and rack up the miles on the weekend!

Getting back to his knee injury. His boss took him to the ER, where they did x-rays and pronounced his knee as just slightly bruised. Nothing major showed up on the x-rays. But, it became apparent that this was not exactly true.

Sarge was not able to run at all, in fact, could not walk without a limp. After months of physical therapy, the Workers' Comp doctor decided that an MRI was in order. This showed an 80% quadriceps tendon tear. The quadriceps tendon is what lifts the knee, which is why Sarge could barely bend his knee.

Last Wednesday, we drove down to Studio City, where Sarge had knee surgery at a surgery center. It only took a few hours for the surgery and for him to wake up from surgery and then we were on our way home. Since then, he has had his leg in a brace, which is driving him crazy. The doctor and nurses advised us that if he removes the brace he risks infection and repeat surgery, but there are times when he wants to ignore the advice. Good thing he has me around to get on his case!

The good news is that -- if he follows doctor's orders to the letter -- he will be back walking soon and running within a few months.

Since he's off work, we've been chanting a lot of Odaimoku together. After one such session, he expressed to me that he will never ever take running for granted again. It's a gift to be appreciated and savored.

Posted by chicks at June 28, 2009 04:12 PM