Brenda and I before our sled-riding adventure.

Back on December 29, I had a fun day with friends.  My friend, Brenda and I pretended we were teens again and went sled-riding with some other friends down a 3 mile mountain on a plastic sled.   This was a paved road that is not maintained in the winter.   It has curves and turns everywhere. It was awesome and I had so much fun.  Giggled most of the afternoon and found myself sliding off the road quite often, sometimes into a ditch and other times into a guard rail.    It was exhilarating to say the least.

That night I ached all over.  Especially my legs.   All the up and down and squatting to get on the sled was exercise I was not used to.  A day or two later I felt fine except my right knee still ached and was a little swollen.   I knew I had some arthritis in both knees so just figured it was that.   I thought a few days and whatever it was would be back to normal.  A few days turned into a month and then two months and my knee was still bothering me.  I also had pain down my calf now.   So I figured it was time to see a doctor.

I went to an orthopedic and he did some x-rays and then sent me for an MRI.   The MRI showed a tear in my medial meniscus.  It was a significant tear and he didn’t feel it would ever repair itself.  So surgery was scheduled.  I was told the surgery would last about 20 – 30 minutes and I would have to be off my feet for a few days, but within a week would start to feel pretty good.  I made arrangements to be off work for a week and a half, hoping I would recover sooner and return to work early.   That didn’t happen!

I had to be at the hospital by 9:30 AM for an 11:00 O.R. time.   I should have known things wouldn’t go as I planned when the surgeon was delayed due to a hip replacement.   Then he came to visit and

marked my leg to make sure they did surgery on the correct knee and wished me well….in hindsight I should have been wishing him well, he was the one with his work cut out for him, I got to sleep through it all!   I am happy to say, I had complete trust in him and his ability to fix me up!  He was great about letting me take his picture for my blog, just made me promise I wouldn’t put it on Facebook!

When the surgeon inserted the tiny camera into my knee, he found more than a tear.  I had a tear on one side, a hanging flap of cartilage on the other side and a hole in the middle of the meniscus in the center that he could insert an instrument through the back and come out the front of my knee.  So my 20 minute surgery turned into two and a half hours to clean out all the problems and fix things.   Because of the extra repair work my recovery time was suddenly expected to take a bit longer.  Again, the optimist that I am thought I would be back to work in maybe 2 weeks.

Tomorrow will be two weeks and I’m off at least till next Monday.  When I came home from the hospital I was bandaged tightly for two days.   I thought I would only need a walker for two days and needed it for seven.  I’m still using a cane, and can only put a limited amount of weight on my leg.  My leg looks like someone took a crow bar to it.  My knee looks great, but the rest of my leg is bruised and swollen.  I’m supposed to keep it elevated, but that limits you to doing just about nothing.  I’m bored!  This is teaching me patience.

This has given me time to think about my business and how just like my sledding adventure and knee injury, businesses have unexpected bumps and curves on the road to success.   Some good and some not so good.  Sometimes we have to be aggressive and move quickly, other times we can just sit back and enjoy the ride, and still there are also times when we have to be patient and wait for things to progress in order to move forward.

Sometimes we run into roadblocks or ditches and we have to pick ourselves back up and keep going, over and over again.  You might get a little beat up and bruised, but you shake it off and keep going.  Quitting isn’t an option if you want success. Things don’t necessarily happen the way we expect.  The best of plans don’t always work out.   We have to readjust our course and our expectations.  What other people may consider a disaster, might just be a little swerve off the beaten path on your way to success. There is a chance that swerve may take you to something more interesting.  You can’t focus on what others think or how fast or slow they are going, you just have to stay steady and move forward.

Just like my day of sledding…in business we have to enjoy the ride and have fun along the way regardless of the outcome! Perhaps that is the best success of all….enjoying the ride for all it is worth on your road to success!

So how about you?  Have things ever gone totally different than planned and you had to adjust?  Tell me about it in the comments below.

Robin is a solo mompreneur who loves technology and social media.  She enjoys spending time with her family and traveling.  Scrapbooking, cooking, reading, are her favorite hobbies.  She loves working with her clients assisting them in growing their business.

Robin O’Neal Smith

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