Being Injured Never Stopped Me

The first thing that everyone says to me on the first day back to school is "Shannon did you injure yourself again?!"  The answer is always no.  I have had a major and unusual stress fracture right below my knee in my tibia bone since April.  Now it's September - and still no end in sight.  I have lugged myself around on crutches and a huge brace for almost 5 months now, and I still don't know when I will be fully recovered to walk normally again (unless you consider hobbling around on one leg and two crutches normal).

The first thing that worried me when I became injured was not "do I need surgery and invasive procedures?" but "how do I stay active outdoors?"  I never skipped a beat with my injury - I kept to my plan to stay active.

The entire summer I hiked through easy, medium, and rocky paths (seriously, the rocks aren't that bad until you need to avoid them with the metal arm extensions that they call crutches).  Even though I could not hike the hardest trails that I wanted to do, I was able to spend time outdoors, relaxing and hiking the less demanding ones that my crutches could handle (basically, you're walking with your arms!).

No matter what my condition might be, I am always determined to push my limits to get outdoors and get into my sanctuary of hiking.  The outdoors has literally been my medicine and recovery process for my leg, and I'm telling you, it's better anything else that the doctor can prescribe.  But I still can't wait to be back on two feet and hit the difficult trails once again.