A Broken WHA?????

June 8, 2010

Team Business Socks has been pretty much injury-free (except for Ron's cankles) during this whole season. We have escaped some scary bike crashes with nothing more than a broken tooth and some bike damage. All until Memorial Day Weekend. I was coming in from my second of two loops on a 120 mile ride when I had a slow motion fall in a crosswalk and landed on my right arm. I knew "it wasn't right" as soon as I landed so I called up to Eric and off we went to the Stanford ER. My forearm looked fine so I could't really tell what part of the arm actually was injured. I was still very calm at the moment and no thoughts of "uh oh, I have an IM in 4 weeks" crossed my mind. For a holiday weekend, the ER was not too busy and I was in radiology before I knew it and then speaking with the attending. Good news, he said, NO BROKEN BONES! Wow - relief. I was still in a good amount of pain, but I was told to rest (free pass to not workout for the weekend he said!) and in 3 to 4 days I should be back at it. That calls for an Oreo Cookie Milkshake!!! Eric and I went to lunch and let our friends know the good news. Sunday morning I literally was on the way out the door to meet friends for brunch when the ER called to say that ACTUALLY they had found a fracture! I had a radial head fracture. A WHA???? This was not good. The doc told me I would need a cast for 4 weeks and he couldn't comment on my ability to do the IM. Cue the tears. My whole world pretty much crashed down and I was a wreck. I canceled my plans and crawled into my bed for the rest of the day. I was so sad and disappointed I could hardly contain myself. I had to also wait two more days to get in to see a sports medicine guy (holiday weekend and all). I got out to see some friends which always helps lift my sprits and started speaking with medical types about the possible treatment. I was optimistic that I might still be able to race. I went to see a sports med doc and he confirmed the fracture (also said Stanford should have diagnosed it initially!) but said no cast for me. My instructions were to use my arm and keep using it. He drained some blood from the elbow joint which made an immediate impact and sent me home with some strong anti-inflammatory drugs. "See how how it goes. Stretch your arm and use your arm. Race if you can manage the pain." Wow. I felt like I won the lottery! I was on cloud 9! I was gonna do this Ironman even if my elbow fell off!

At the posting of this entry, I am 10 days post-fracture and my arm really does get better each day. I have been back to masters and swimming is ok. I would say I am 75% speed and I can't pull as hard with the arm, but really no pain. I have been running our normal schedule and that is not a problem at all. I have biked on the trainer to keep up my cardio fitness and that feels good. I tried biking on the road a bit and still felt a little pain/weakness. I am hoping to try again this week and see how it goes. I am doing PT exercises twice a day and we are 18 days away from race day! I am 90% sure I will be able to race.

Cheers to my husband for letting me sulk and feel sorry for myself and helping me do my hair....and to all my friends who called, emailed, texted, etc.....to check on me and give me positive encourgagement. I want nothing more than to see them all cross the finish line and BE AN IRONMAN!

Go Team!
Ally