What has amazed me in the two and a half weeks since I smashed my shoulder is how my mind has adapted to the circumstance. I’ve often watched horror injuries happen in sport and heard about horrific farm accidents and prayed that never would something like that be visited upon me for I’m too cowardly, too squeamish and couldn’t deal with the trauma. Yet it did happen and I have surprised myself at how I’ve been dealing with it in a more logical way than I thought possible.

Now I am thankful for the little things. I am able to shower, dry and dress with one hand. I can open a bottle by holding it between my knees. I can go for little walks of 15 minutes. Each day that I make an inch of progress, I’m delighted with myself

Because the events since the accident have been very trying. I can’t sleep at night for the sheer pain. As I pass the daytime drinking tea, playing Sudoku and watching Netflix as the pain killers wear off every couple of hours, I wonder will the feeling in my thumb, my index finger and lower forearm ever return? Will I be able to lift anything remotely heavy ever again? What if I have to live with this discomfort forever?

Yet I’m not scared. This has been the eye-opener, how the brain goes into autopilot to cope in times of trauma. Now I am thankful for the little things. I am able to shower, dry and dress with one hand. I can open a bottle by holding it between my knees. I can go for little walks of 15 minutes. Each day that I make an inch of progress, I’m delighted with myself. These things make me happy now. If I can walk around without the sling for a while, I see it as progress. If I find pins and needles in my thumb, I positively think that the nerves may not have been permanently damaged after all.

Ironically, a few weeks ago I got a flying fit medical report from my GP. “Perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect,” is how she read out the results of the blood tests. I took life for granted. I could go for long runs in the park, swim, drive the car, cook dinner and do everyday chores we just do and don’t think about.

Now, as a result of a split-second accident, I can do none of the above, for the moment anyway.

Patience

Listen, there is no doubt I will get back to near normal in a few weeks. I am not looking for sympathy and I am sure I’ll be able to function almost 100% if I have the patience to wait. But it has focused me to appreciate those coping with permanently disabling conditions and injuries.

Up to now, when I’d see those people, I’d wonder how they can be so positive, how they can make the effort to get on with life. Now I think I know. It is a function of our complex mind that mercifully takes control and forces us to think positive. If there is any good out of this, it has reminded me to be thankful for what I have in life rather than lament what I don’t. Maybe I needed this to happen to me!

GAA didn’t deserve flak it received

Sense prevailed for the Liam Miller fundraising match. But I don’t think the GAA as an organisation deserved all the predictable flak it got, especially from those outside the membership base who had no problem displaying their old dinosaur bigoted hatred. They remain ignorant if not envious of the role the GAA plays in Irish society, reinvesting in its grassroots club structure all the time. The twitter rage minus the facts was typically outrageous.

The irony in hardened soccer fans, including Damien Duff spitting bile, was the failure to realise just how backward the League of Ireland is. Clubs can’t pay players and grounds are a shambles. Why else would they need Pairc Uí Chaoimh?