Retire is such an ugly word

Well, after lots of thinking about it, and weighing what options I have, I've come to the decision that it's time for me to hang up my lax helmet. At least for a while.

In between all of the stuff that's been going on lately, I finally made a doctor's appointment to have my neck looked at. You see, I've a history of problems with neck trauma and injury from my years on the pitch. Just before the World Games, I added a nice head injury to the list. Ever since the games, my neck just hasn't felt right, and lately it's gotten a bit worse, possibly because I haven't been training and the added stress. The doc sent me to a physio who turned out to be a top class. She's been able to sort out most of the neck muscle trauma, which turns out is pretty bad. I've got some major scarring within the muscles themselves due to not getting proper treatment for my previous injuries, and it appears I've got a herniated disk (slipped disk) in my neck. This is causing a nerve to be pinched whenever I tilt my head forward, resulting in a tingling sensation down my arms and chest, even into my legs a bit. The tingling leaves a numbness in these areas when it hits, and is pretty disconcerting, to say the least.

So, doc and physio both say this could be a career-ender as far as lacrosse goes. Or any other contact sport for that matter. I'm going to weekly treatment sessions, and will be trying to get to the gym for some training when I have some time.

I'm pretty bummed out at the moment, as lacrosse is such a big part of my life. I've also been looking forward to when J get's bigger and eventually getting to play 'with' him as father and son. But, it's not worth the risk of permanent injury, especially to the neck. I'll just have to see how the next few weeks/months go and deal with things as they come...