Major Story April issue "the sideline story"

Chris Carter ‘25 rehabs his leg after a ground shifting injury.
The road back from an injury is like a dance, two steps forward one step back. You have to play the slow game, and even when you’re done with rehab you’re not all the way healed. To treat an injury it’s a must to slowly work back to full 100 or ending with the injury being brought back 10 folds.
This was no different for Chris Carter ‘25, who suffered a tibia fracture in the St. James football game in the early point of the season. 
”The rehab was hard when I first started going in. I couldn't even bend my leg,” Carter said.”I was getting it forcefully bent and after all that I was walking really hard.” This shows the come back, having to get your body back into the action of moving and walking. It’s not just hoping back into full on running, jumping, or whatever. Rehab is like chess, not checkers.
After a while Carter slowly began to walk smoother, when he got off the crunch of course, but this is due to the consistency of his rehab according to Carter.
The beginning of a rehab program can be the most difficult. Not only because the injuries are fresh but because the mindset you have can either make you work harder or it can make you give up. For Chris his mentality drove him to get better. With this type of mindset it’s no wonder he made the  incredible comeback he did. According to Carter himself he is still having pain when doing some activities, but he is still getting out and trying to do them. 
“My mindset was to get through rehab as fast as possible,” Carter said, “so I can get back to practicing and working out for indoor track and football.”
As his rehab continued so did Carter’s growth – from barely being able to walk to starting to run again. Showing rehab isn’t deserving of the uncertain opinions it has connected to it.
Many believe that rehab won’t work and some people are hesitant to go to rehab because they either believe they are fine or it won’t help. But others go in full force. The latter was the way to describe Carter’s attitude towards taking the measures needed to see health once again.
The frustration behind getting back healthy can either motivate and drive people to get better or make them crash and burn.
“After the bending was down [he could bend his leg], getting back to jogging then weights,” Carter said, explaining the progression of his rehab. These, otherwise seen as small, mile markers are huge for people when coming off mountain climb of an injury. 
Having to show patience through this long and drawn out process is one of the hardest parts of rehab, but one of the most important. 
“You want to go back to how you used to lift but you can’t,” Carter said, “The rehab took a long time and patience and just constant work.”

Harping back to the aspect of consistency during rehab, it is incredibly important. This is so you can get whatever part is injured back to health by giving the muscle memory back to somewhat normalcy. 
“I think the consistency I had with rehab helped me get back to running faster cause while I was rehabbing I was ahead of schedule,” Carter said, ''I went everyday.” 
Carter is now running and lifting almost back to his max potential at a fantastic pace. Especially since when I first met him he was on a brace and crutches. Originally his crutches were to keep his foot off the ground completely, but later on it was to slowly put more and more weight on his leg as the time and rehab progressed. 
“After I finished rehab I was feeling happy cause I was ready to get back,” Carter said. Being able to come back to something a person cares about must be an incredible feeling. Also seeing the progress made from the point of the injury will give anyone a sense of pride. Chris is challenging everyone on the team with no second thoughts and is trying to get back to racing them out of the blocks, but Coach Booker always brings him back down to reality and makes sure he doesn’t hurt himself again. But soon he’ll be back coming out the blocks like he never left. 
“Oh yeah I'm going to be dusting people when I get back right,” Chris said.

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