Episode 196 | This Too Shall Pass: Embracing the Journey of ACL Rehab

What is up team and welcome back to another episode on the ACL Athlete Podcast. Today, I’ve got a mindset episode coming in for you all. This is for my ACLers who’s maybe starting this process, but especially if you have been in it, or maybe you are experiencing a setback or something has come up. You’re just in it, you’re in the thick of it, so this episode is for you guys. If you’re not there yet, just wait, because there will be a moment or a certain season of this. So that is just something to be expected in this process. 

What I want to focus this on is the phrase or the quote: “This too shall pass.” The origin of this is from ancient Persian culture, and often associated with wisdom and some humility. The story was frequently attributed to a phrase of King Solomon and wanting to seek out a way to stay grounded. He asked his advisors something that would hold true in all situations, whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing. And they came back with the phrase: “This too shall pass.” This is to help just kind of remind him of the temporary nature of life’s moments. This phrase itself became more popular in Western culture after Abraham Lincoln actually referenced it in 1859 speech, noting the Persian background to it and being a source of comfort during a hardship. This is just over time focused to symbolize around resilience, patience and impermanence of a good and bad time. So that’s really important with this episode because I’m going to be straight up front with you all. 

I’m going to be honest. It has been a week for us at the Patel house. We currently have a seven-and-a-half-month-old little dude. His name is Asher. Let’s just say he’s been absolutely miserable for a week. We weren’t sure what was going on. But with that said, he got sick. It’s just not been super easy for us. And he’s also on top of that. We found out he’s teething. It has been the perfect storm for me and my wife, Abigail for this week. It’s been really hard on us. We are trying to make sure we get through it and he’s totally fine. But with that said, in your day to day, it’s just so disrupted because your little guy is also not happy and pretty miserable. We are trying to make sure that we can take care of him. He’s good, he’s healthy and be there for him and for each other. 

Why am I telling you all of this? Of course, everything for me comes back to ACL rehab. I know I’m pretty weird. But I was thinking about this entire process, from the injury to the surgery, to the rehab and it’s solong and it’s a hard road. The nine to 12-plus months feels like, honestly, a double the amount of time when you’re in it. And then you throw in setbacks, complications, maybe poor guidance, something that happens in life. It has these obstacles. I remember my setbacks in this process and it was always so hard. Even if it was like a very momentary setback, it’s easy to get down on yourself. But especially when setbacks, typically they can kind of drag on and there’s various ones. You push too hard. The pain doesn’t go down. Swelling sticks around. Maybe life has kind of fortunate you in directions where it’s not conducive for your ACL rehab. You strain the muscle, you might kind of tweak something. The gym exercises just don’t feel great. Your quad is not waking up. You’re limping. You don’t have good flexion, extension. You’re just away from the things you want to do. In reality, no one wants to be in ACL rehab. It’s just something that you have to do to get back to the thing you want to do. This is something that is always tough because it’s just keeping you from being as active as you want and just doing the things that you love and that makes you you, right. And so that makes it super challenging. 

I remember my setbacks and just the hard seasons during my ACL rehab. It was difficult to get through at times, even though the people around you or your physical therapist or your support system is saying, this is only temporary. You’ll get past this. They may even say this too shall pass. But it didn’t take away from being in that and feeling it. I think one thing to mention here is that you don’t have to just avoid it. Sometimes feeling it is what you need in order to make the changes you need. What I tell my athletes when this happens is, that’s okay. Feel it and it’s fair, how you’re feeling. I would feel that way. The big thing here is to move past it as quickly as we can, once you do feel it. And let’s make sure we make it as actionable as possible. And so that’s something that’s really important in this, and that’s not to dismiss any feelings people have in this process or any other life circumstances. It’s all warranted and it’s all fair to feel it. So that’s the one thing that I do encourage you to do is don’t just dismiss it. It’s something where yeah, it’s good to be aware of it and to allow yourself to be there and then move as quickly as you can pass it. So then that way our mindset is moving towards something that’s a little bit more positive or not being able to stay in this kind of negative feedback loop or mindset, if you will. 

But with that said, it’s been really tough for us  in this past week navigating this. And that’s where this, this too shall pass comes in. While it is cheesy, it is something that strangely kind of pass by us through. We read something and this came up this quote, and then Abigail actually picked up a diaper. At her baby shower, people wrote just kind of these quotes or -isms to help with it whenever you might be changing the baby. On the diaper, it actually said this too shall pass. It was literally the first diaper she picked up out of this pile while he’s been going through this over this past week. It’s just wild. 

Yeah, I’m throwing it into the podcast today because I feel like it is so applicable to this ACL rehab process. And more so for sharing what Abigail and I have gone through, especially in this past week and having to console Asher and getting up multiple times in the night and him being super upset. It really sucked. But we kept trying to embrace this too shall pass. But hey, it’s okay. It’s also Okay to say like, man, but this sucks. But it’s something to help kind of just keep us moving forward. I think that this can help for those of you ACLers Who might feel stuck, slow progress. You might have a setback that you’re in right now. But just know this too shall pass. 

From the micro-pieces of being in the day-to-day, but also zooming out and thinking about the macro of this whole ACL rehab process, It will pass. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but it will. I can say that after two ACL injuries myself, the surgeries, multiple other injuries that are not awesome to experience, and having to get through those pieces, and working with hundreds of ACLers, you can get there. I promise you that.

Now, what’s also important here is that we can’t just say like, all right, cool, good things are going to happen. This too shall pass. I think it’s also important to make the most of the opportunities or the time that you have. And so therefore that’s where you have to make sure things are in place to be able to make sure this passes. And come out on the other side a little bit more positive versus staying in this kind of like negative cycle, if you will. And for me, this comes back to three non-negotiables or three pillars that we utilize as a team and important for us at the ACL Athlete. And that’s going to be objective testing, that’s going to be creating a starting point for you and also through this process, multiple checkpoints. Making sure you are in-tune with where the research shows people have the least amount of risk of reinjury, but also making sure you’re ready to do the things. You’re prepared for those things. The only way we know that is by testing. So that is going to be really key, but it has to be objective testing and it needs to be very valuable in terms of how that’s going to impact your rehab. And also making sure that you are as safe as possible to do the thing you want to do. 

Subjective testing is one, a clear plan and individualized program. Needing some structure around the things that you’re doing and making sure it’s individualized to you. Whenever we think about anything where we’re trying to set a goal where there is fitness-related, whether it is maybe financial-related,  maybe it’s school-related, whatever that might be, it’s not ever going to be as effective to have a general program that everyone gets or an individualized program. 

With ACL rehab, working with human beings, I can line up a hundred of you with a quad graft (autograft), a medial meniscus repair and a bone contusion and any other things that come into this process, the same exact thing. And all 100 of you are going to have a very different journey for so many different reasons. That’s where I think things can get a little bit lost of, well, how can every one of these people, if they have different journeys have the same exact program. Having that a little bit more individualized to you, and more so importantly for you and your sanity is having a clear plan to know where you are and where you’re heading and to be adaptable. 

The last piece I’m going to mention is expert guidance. This is one of those things where it is very difficult to navigate this process with very generic help because it is just so complicated, even for physical therapists. If you ask most physical therapists, how much education we got around ACL rehab. We didn’t get a lot of it. You have to seek out outside of that. From a mid to late stage, we didn’t get any of that in school, very little of that. That is something that we also have to understand from our education standpoint. This is where finding someone who knows this stuff, or at least knows a certain period of this and knowing, all right, if that’s kind of their skillset, then moving onto the next person, maybe it’s a performance coach, strength and conditioning coach, maybe it is a PT, sports physical therapist who has that background, which is ideal. You just need someone who has experience with ACLs. This is something that’s so important because we can’t leave this up to chance. Because the pros and cons of finding the generic versus finding someone who knows this stuff and also the downside of a second ACL tear, I promise you is not worth it. Finding someone with really good guidance and support and hearing you out will be very key. 

I’m sharing this because, while you might be in this tough season, I think the important thing too, is that there is this kind of structure around it from the testing, having a good, clear plan and program, and then some expert guidance. Because that’s what’s going to help you really get through with this because you still need those pieces. We can’t just wait for time to pass and hope that it’ll just kind of get better. While time is going to just naturally allow this to pass, you being on the other side of this and being in the feedback loop that is negative versus positive, that’s going to be the thing that is going to really impact this. 

I want you guys to take this for where you are. This is something we even pursued with a pediatrician with Asher. We didn’t just look it up and we’re like, all right, I think this is what the internet says, or we found this IG parenting influencer on Instagram. And we’re like, yeah, this is what they say. We’re just going to trust this and put some things together. It’s no, we want it to be as efficient as possible, make sure our little dude was okay, help ourselves out and also feel like we have a plan, we have expert guidance and the testing.They tested him out and made sure everything was okay. We’re keeping track of some of this stuff that’s going on. 

But with that said, I know that this is in a shorter amount of period of time. This too shall pass, even with your ACL rehab. This is something too that will pass. But if you can lock these pieces in just know you guys will be in a good place, everything will be temporary. At the end of the day, you will get through this ACL rehab process. I think that this can be very challenging because we do feel like we’re in the thick of it a lot and it’s almost difficult to see light at the end of the tunnel—but, this too shall pass. Hope you guys were able to take something away from this episode. Until next time team, this is your host, Ravi Patel, signing off.