I think I posted about this a few week ago, but I thought it worth while mainly for my own benefit to write again.

A good mate of mine Leigh mentioned me in one of his blog posts that Ian’s had an interesting year in the proverbial sense. It got me thinking was 2012 actually really that bad?

2012 for me started on a cruise ship in New Zealand and the year started off strong, I’d lost weight, found new levels of fitness.

Then all of a sudden my left ankle became a bit sore. Being the stubborn male I pushed through the pain until I had to limp out of a aqua class in severe pain.

My Physio treated it as a mild ligament sprain, but after a number of weeks and x-ray & ultra sound it was getting worse.

It was when my physio said I needed to go onto crutches alarm bells started to ring. Now I’m not going to write more about my ankle as that is now well and truly in the past and I’m at a point where I’ve moved past that.

All I’m wanting to do is say that despite the crap I went through with mis-diagnosis and then the change of specialist and the late surgical intervention. The run up and recovery from surgery was brutal.

Despite going into a fairly heavy depression when I had no idea what was going on with me and no idea of the path forward after the change in surgeon that all came together.

Through the post op rehab I had a couple of set backs and at one point I was almost inconsolable when I “lost it” when I got so totally frustrated at  my lack of ability to do the most simple exercises.

This is where I set the the goal of doing the 6km walk in the City Bay Fun Run.

Again I had set backs and my Physio was quite concerned about my ability to do the 6km. A month out from the race my surgeon was ready to pen paperwork saying I was medically unfit and I was still only part-time at work.

After two incredibly painful coritzon injections within 5 weeks, like a switch the pain was gone.

With additional help from my Physio my rehab continued to the point now where I completed the 6km walk and have moved onto other goals.

After the City Bay I felt lost I had no idea or concept of what lay ahead and I desperately needed to goal set.

A recent friend posted how she had climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge and I have an overseas holiday  booked at the end of March 2013 and at that stage had no plans for Christmas.

I caught up with my GP and he was very keen for me to climb and signed the medical clearance paperwork.

Everything was going along fine until gastro hit out household.

Despite being very careful and doing almost everything I knew to do (Hydrolight, good nutrician etc) I became so dehydrated I was hospitalized.

A week out from the trip and I was gravely ill in hospital, to me it seemed unimaginable that driving to Sydney and climbing the bridge would happen.

The Saturday of what would be the week before we were due to leave I presented to the Emergency Department and began treatment. Saturday night I returned home to rest. By late on the Sunday I felt exhausted and weak and my body had started to shut down.

On the Monday morning I re-presented to the hospital and knew this time I was going to be in for a few days.

Unfortunately I was right. On the Tuesday morning after having a hellish night in hospital the nurse said that if I didn’t pick up my lunch time I was headed for a whole pile of scans as they were very worried about me.

Thankfully my body started to behave and while I didn’t need scans I was being very carefully monitored.

On the Tuesday I caught up with my doctor and he told me that discharge was going to be either tomorrow, but more likely Thursday.

I got my hopes up and it was quite disappointing when discharge was held back to Thursday. It was quite the bumpy ride and waiting the extra day was very much worthwhile.

On the Friday morning I visited my GP for advise as I was only 24 hour away from a big drive and I didn’t feel well enough.

I had an injection which I was told would help and my GP was keen an eager for me to continue as planned (I initially didn’t share his optimism)

Finally worked out that I was safe enough to travel and that I would write off the first couple of days in Sydney as rest days (turns out this wasn’t such a bad thing as the weather was terrible)

Did a number of things, but the stand out was the Bridge Climb and standing on the top arch of the bridge with only a harness holding me on, free to move around not behind a barrier was just amazing.

The climb I did is known as “The Bridge Climb” a climb of some 1,332 steps.

When I realized I made it to the top it really did validate to me that I had achieved everything and more that I set out for myself in 2012.

I feel blessed that I have such an experienced and dedicated medical team. The injury saw me meet and consult with a Physio I hadn’t previously seen and her treatment advise and support through out the year has been invaluable.

My personal trainers have and continue to be outstanding in their support and dedication to my goals.

My dietician has been a great help, particularly in some 11th hour advise of how to deal with the holiday and “getting back to normal”

I learnt a heck of a lot in 2012 and from that it was a good year.

I start 2013 without injury and today I’ve just upped the anti again with my interval training.

While 2012 was a good year, if I can avoid seriously injury I just wonder what the heck I’ll achieve this year as looking back 2012 was quite a year of achievements.

It’s going to be quite something looking back over this year to see what my team and I have managed to get my body to do 🙂