Juliette's Dance Injury

by Juliette
(College Park, Maryland, USA)

I'm currently a month into having a torn ACL and am waiting another 3 weeks before I get ACL reconstruction surgery. I tore it at my dance team practice and did not think for a minute the injury was THIS bad. When I got the news from the doctor I spent about two days being completely depressed and angry that this happened to me! But I've found that you can't torture yourself thinking "what if I just hadn't gone to practice that day? what if I didn't do that one move?" It's so much easier to just move forward with it and look towards the next step in healing.
I'm a college sophomore who has the busiest schedule- this summer I was planning on being in a musical, coaching a dive team, and acting in a second show. The idea of giving all of this up is killing me, but with surgery in June I should be taking it easy right? I still want to coach diving- which involves sitting in a chair by the pool telling the kids what to do. Is it a bad idea to try and push myself into it too early? I was planning on taking a week off after surgery and then going back to the poolf. It's hard to say if I'll still be in pain or if I'll be able to get around at all but I need to give a "yes" or "no" answer as to whether or not I'll do it. I need some advice here. Even with the minimal physical activity involved should I really just take some time to heal and not worry about leaving the house?