Returning to sports

[IhaveAA.AAdoesnothaveme]

I had my transplant on August 3rd 2011 and I have been home for about a month. I am still living close to the hospital but, my doctors say that I am doing well compared to others. My counts took a lot longer than usual to start to go up but, once they did things have gone very fast! I am finally feeling as well as I was post transplant and close to where I was before I was diagnosed initially. One of my coaches came to visit today and was hoping for a return date. He wants me on the roster for next year which means I would start training on the ice in July and probably in the January-March range to get my strength back enough to play. I told him yes, that sounded right. But, my transplant team says that we will have to wait and see. They said it is possible as long as my bleeding is under control (that has been my biggest issue during my AA journey). I explained that I have been out for 2 years and it is my passion so he already started with a athletic therapist to regain muscles. He is still trying to get my hopes down but that's how I get better, even if I miss the goal it pushed my spirits up! Realisticly, how long has it taken others? I want to give him a good time frame for my return !

[Neil Cuadra]

You should have a chat with user "squirrellypoo". See this thread for an example of her return to athletics after her transplant in 2009. You can also look through her transplant thread since she probably mentions when she went back to running and training.

[squirrellypoo]

Thanks, Neil!

Yeah, I was a big runner before I got ill, and my decline was really rapid - up until Nov 2008 I was running 30km a week (3x 10km usually), then I had to stop while my bloods were so low. I had my transplant in early July 2009, and my first post-transplant run was in January 2010. For me, the first 6 months were really hard, but that was because of a lot of liver complications, plus getting meningitis post transplant, having a Hickman line infection, yadda ya. But something magical happened for me at 6 months - all at the same time they removed my PICC line and stopped the daily antifungal IVs, I got my first haircut and stopped wearing wigs, I went back to work part-time, and I could start wearing my contact lenses again. All of the above contributed to me feeling enough like "me" again that I was itching to get running again, even though it was freezing out.

Even though I was totally off running for about 14 months, I was surprised at how much fitness I still retained - even at my first run back, I was able to run 5km no problem at all, which surprised even me! I celebrated my one year post-transplant rebirthday with a 10km race, which I did in 53:48 that year. (Though I am SO going to break my pre-illness PB of 51:17 next year, I can feel it!!)

I'm happy to say now that I'm actually faster than I was pre-illness and I'm nearly clocking up as many miles as before, but importantly, I'm nicer to myself now. I'm a very driven person and it's much easier for me to get out there and push myself than it is for me to recognise when my body needs rest, so these days I try and listen to my body much more and run to its best interest. I've also joined a running club to keep me interested in the social side of things, instead of just putting my head down and running the same route all the time.

I think your timeframe to return to sports is realistic - just make sure you recognise that your body won't be the same you had before, but you can bounce back and regain your abilities again. Just make sure to know when to push yourself and when to step back and take a rest. You've been through things your teammates couldn't imagine, and your body is not the same as theirs.

(I don't know if you use any running apps or sites, but I find them super motivating, and if you want to follow me, I'm squirrellypoo on dailymile.com, too)

[IhaveAA.AAdoesnothaveme]

Thank you ! That is really helpful ! But, the only thing is that I play AAA hockey and hockey is a rough contact sport so, I think they are more worried about that .... not my ability. Before I became ill I was playing on Ontario teams and the captain one year so I became ill on a pretty good fitness level , if that makes a difference !

[evansmom]

In my opinion, I think your return to hockey hinges on only two things really (assuming you are no longer getting transfusions and your counts are consistently trending up):

1. You are allowed to get back into public places (return to school is a good indicator).
2. Your platelet count is reliably above 100.

That's all you need, I think!