Sticking With Tradition

I can't believe 14 days have already gone by and I've yet to tell you about one of the things I did on New Years Eve. Seeing as two weeks had already passed I considered just forgetting about it but it seems worth mentioning, even if it's late. It has become a bit of a tradition amongst my friends and I to go bowling on NYE. There is always more planned for later in the evening but we usually start by getting together sometime before dinner to bowl a couple games.

I love bowling. Who doesn't? I wasn't about to let something like being on crutches hold me back. Not having it completely figured out, I planned on working it out as I went. At the very least I wanted to bowl one game, wasn't sure if I'd have the energy/strength for more than that. Would I be able to manage bowling on my own? No. It's kind of difficult to carry the ball with a crutch in each hand. But with a little assistance from my friends we made it work. Each frame I would walk up to the line with my crutches. One of my friends would then bring me a ball and trade me for one of my crutches. For balance I held onto one crutch with my left hand. Other than that, everything else was pretty much the same as anyone else bowling. I did get quite a few interesting looks from others at the bowling alley, but if I was in their shoes I too would be thinking bowling with crutches was pretty odd.

The area of greatest difficulty was the power behind each throw. I was obviously missing the added momentum your ball gets from the couple steps you take leading up to throwing the ball. The lack of power was very evident each time the ball made contact with the pins. They would fall so slowly and delicately that we couldn't help but laugh half the time. I did manage to get two spares though and by the third game I didn't have the lowest score. I actually beat three people that game.

I have all the physical milestones of my recovery and the progress I've been making at physio all documented, it seemed only fitting to document this event as well. If you would like to see how bowling is still possible while on crutches, watch Jen - Bowling with Crutches.