How to Survive Rehab in Middle of Season

​Good news: You’ll survive. 
Bad news: You’ll go a little crazy — actually maybe a lot of crazy.
 
For us, rehab is back in Arizona. We love Arizona BUT Arizona during the summer is BRUTAL. The temperatures there are well over 100 which makes it hard to get outside and do anything.
 
The first several weeks after Matt had surgery didn’t entail very much as far as the rehab process. He would go to the field for an hour, two at most which is so short compared to what he is used to this time of year. Our schedule became very opposite of normal baseball schedule. We were going to bed way early (around 9 or 10 p.m.) because at that time we were already trying to entertain ourselves for 10 plus hours. So we were getting up around 7 a.m. and getting breakfast downstairs at the hotel. Matt would head to the field around 8:45 a.m. and be back by 11 if not earlier. Trying to keep ourselves entertained before bedtime was a struggle.
 
Once Matt started practicing, there wasn’t as much down time. But there was still a lot more down time then what we’re used to.
 
Luckily for me, I was working so I had that to keep a little bit of sanity.
 
Once Matt started playing in games, his first game he was so tired because we made the mistake of not getting back on baseball schedule. So a bit of advice for players out there who are rehabbing – once you start practicing get back into the baseball routine, stay up late and get up late. We didn’t do that (mainly because of the boredom leading to an early bedtime) and by game time Matt had been up 12 hours. Whoops. After that game, we got back on schedule and his last two games he looked like himself again.

Things to do to keep sane:
 
1. Try new food spots.
We didn’t want to just spend money spend money and eat out all the time because we were there for two months and had a skillet, range and mini kitchen in the hotel room. But we allowed ourselves a couple of times a week to eat out and usually went for trying new places we hadn’t before. 

2. Start a new Netflix show.
I had been watching “New Girl" and had it on one day and Matt became HOOKED. We rewatched the entire show. We also started “I am a Killer” and “Unbreakable.” “I am a Killer” prompted some interesting conversations. We also googled about every other day best movies in the last five years and watched a ton of those movies.

3. Just get out of the hotel.
There were days especially toward the end we were just going stir crazy. We would just go hang out at the pool for as long as we could without passing out from the heat. We would take Grainger to the dog park if it was cooling down. Sometimes we just rode around. We went to the movies a couple of times. Coffee run. Walk around the mall run. Anything to get out of the hotel.
 
In the moment, we felt like we were never getting out of Arizona. It’s especially hard in the middle of the season when all your friends are just grinding along. But when I was driving back to OKC, I thought man that actually went by pretty fast looking back. 
 
Rehab is tough. Matt had been lucky up until this season to have been pretty healthy during his professional career. Honestly, I didn’t think about injuries very much because of that. And Matt’s first game back in Arizona I was struggling to hold back tears. Not even really happy tears. Tears of being terrified of him getting hurt again. Now with two AZL games and one OKC game since, I feel a little better but still have this totally different nervous feeling than before. It’ll take time or might never go away.
 
I’m so proud of how he handled this process. We both had to really really make ourselves change our mindset after surgery. Some days were easier than others. We both learned a ton and came to the realization of moving on and truly thinking something good is going to come out of this hardship just like with every other hard time we’ve gone through. I’ll let you know when we figure it out…