Departure from the CERS

Tomorrow morning I am leaving the CERS in Capbreton and taking the train back to Epinal. Well technically, I am taking the train from Bayonne to Bordeaux, then from Bordeaux to Lorraine TGV, where Marion will eagerly pick me up and we will return back to Epinal together!

I am pretty excited to head home, it has been a long 3 weeks here, and though I remained motivated the entire stay with the heavy workload, I am really looking forward to getting home and back onto the ice with the team. The doctors want me to take more time to continue reinforcing my leg, but they did agree to allow me to skate and see how that feels. My hope is to get on the ice tomorrow night for practice with the team, not take part in the drills just yet but just skate and shoot the puck a bit, then progress a bit each time and be ready to play soon.

The biggest thing I will miss from the CERS is the food! At lunch today I spoke with the Chef to see if he would let me know what the ingredients are in the amazing salad dressing. He retreated to the kitchen and printed me off a copy of the recipe right away, I was so pumped. A very nice gesture from this Chef that knows all 150 patients by name, which is amazing because they all come and go every 3-4 weeks.

Another thing I will miss is seeing the Rugby men in full team uniform. I will clarify.... Being in the south west of France, Rugby is the primary sport here, so obviously there are many Rugby players here at the CERS with injuries. What gets me though is that some of them come into physio or the gym in their full team uniform, all the way down to their high striped socks. I am not criticizing, but you just don't see that, not in any other sport. Just imagine if I was sitting on the physio table or riding the bike with my shoulder pads, jersey and skates??? Ok, that was a bit extreme, but you get the picture.

All in all, this was a great experience, I met some really nice people here but most importantly my knee is way better than it was when I arrived. Now I will be able to rejoin the team, start skating and know that my return will be a few weeks away!