Injury Update

I am so sorry I've been neglecting my blog. It's now three weeks into October and I look at my sidebar and it says I have only made 3 posts (4 including this one). That makes me sad :( I hope I don't lose some of my ever so faithful followers. I obviously haven't been able to do much so I haven't had much to blog about. I'm doing my last update on my injuries and then I'm going to be done on this topic and move on.

I had my MRI on Monday and another ortho appointment right after. My elbow has a radial neck fracture. I was relieved to hear that it wasn't actually broken. My ortho doctor didn't want me in a sling or a cast because that particular bone, if left immobile for 2-3 weeks, could take months of physical therapy to get it back to full functionality. So he ordered me to have physical therapy twice a week and to start immediately. When he said immediately he wasn't kidding. My appointment with him was on Monday and Tuesday morning I got a call from Therapy South that wanted my appointment to be THAT DAY. So my first day of physical therapy was on Tuesday and I go again today at 2pm.

Now, when I was in the ER they gave me a prescription of lortabs to get me through the weekend thinking that the ortho doctor would prescribe me something else when I met with him the Monday after the race. However, I didn't ask for more medication because I hated the way the lortabs made me feel and I did NOT want more of those, so I just didn't get anything. Shockingly, I have a pretty high tolerance for pain.

Anyway, fast forward to Tuesday at my therapy appointment, my therapist asked me what pain medication I was taking (before we started doing exercises) and when I told her I didn't request anything, her response was "call your doctor asap and get something because the next several weeks are going to be painful for you". She didn't have to tell me twice! After doing exercises on Tuesday at therapy and then again Tuesday night when I got home (I have to do exercises twice a day), I was in so much consistent pain that I called my otho doctor's office first thing Wednesday morning and requested some non-lortab pain medication. They prescribed me Darvocet and I took one last night while doing my exercises and it worked perfectly and didn't affect my mood or make me drowsy!! YAY!

So where does this leave me for Africa? That seems to be everyone's first question. As of now, I am definitely going. My only concern is how much training I will be able to do beforehand. Obviously you can't just train for a couple of weeks and then go hike up the tallest mountain in Africa at 19,340 feet. My therapy is mainly for my arm, but I plan to discuss the foot with her today to see if there is any way at all I can start doing something, even if it's just riding a bike. I told Justin I thought I could do squats as long as I am wearing the boot and he proceeded to tell me that I am crazy. I'm trying to put on a brave face, but I am VERY worried about getting back into shape to climb that mountain when I will have been completely non-active for over a month by then. Prayers in this department would help tremendously :)

The other part of the Africa thing that makes me nervous is that my general physician (Jody Gilstrap at Princeton) has to sign a form from our guides that says "I have conducted the types of tests that I deem necessary and the patient in question, in my opinion, is physically fit to participate in this activity". My appointment with Gilstrap for him to sign this form is one week from today...where I will still have a boot and a gimp arm. I really hope he signs.

I'm going to now try to focus on marking more things off my 101 List (she's been neglected way too long) as well as finishing up the 30 day challenge (she's equally as neglected as the 101 List).