Anyway, last June I had my very first bicycle accident as an adult when I failed to properly navigate some curved railroad tracks biking home from work. My front tire got stuck in the track and I fell over sideways, catching myself on my left arm. The aftermath wasn't too dramatic: my hand, shoulder, and elbow hurt and I had some road rash on my left leg, but I was able to bike home on my own.
The following few months I had pain in both my elbow (mild) and my shoulder (more persistent), but it wasn't too bad, and I was able to just work through it. When I saw Dr. Trumper for my six month followup on my right ACL (about three weeks after the bike crash) I asked him to look at the shoulder (it was giving me trouble when I was swimming), and he said as far as he could tell (with the disclaimer that he's a knee doctor, not an upper extremity doctor) I'd probably separated it a little, and to go back in for x-rays if it hadn't gotten better in two weeks.
It got better, and I never went in about it. It took about six months before both the shoulder and the elbow were pain free, but I never had to let up in my training to accommodate the pain, so it wasn't a big deal.
You can sense where this is going, can't you?
Fast forward to four weeks ago. This spring I bought a hybrid commuter bike, and I'd gotten in the habit of biking pretty much everywhere. Traditionally on Fridays I go out to Happy Hour with some current and former coworkers, and I did that as usual with the plan of leaving after one beer and biking home. But my closest coworker (and friend/colleague of over ten years) was celebrating his birthday and some other folks were taking him out to dinner, and they convinced me to come along. And, since we were eating downtown, they also convinced me to have another beer.
Finally, about 8PM, I left to head home. I was in a slightly different part of town at the restaurant, and still a little tipsy from the alcohol (though not enough that I thought biking would be an issue), and for some reason I decided to take a different path than I'd taken before to get home. The road I biked down has a set of those curvy railroad tracks and again I didn't take them at the correct angle and got my tire stuck, went down on my left side again. I stood up immediately (I was in the road, and I knew there were cars around me), took one look down at my left arm and knew instantly I'd dislocated my elbow.
The next half an hour or so was a blur. A couple women from different cars pulled over, and one asked if I was okay (I said "no" as I was already in a lot of pain and really out of it). Someone said they were calling 911, and I made a weak effort to tell them not to (as is my custom), but they did anyway and an ambulance arrived pretty quickly. The EMTs asked me questions and I answered mostly without issues, though I kept calling my husband my fiance, and I couldn't remember the code to get into my phone so they cold call him.
I ended up strapped to a backboard with a c-collar (my neck hurt a bit, and they had to take that precaution), then loaded into the ambulance and taken to MCR in Loveland (about 25 minutes away) because my blood pressure was low enough to classify me as a trauma (even though the EMTs agreed that I wasn't really - my BP and pulse are just low in general). The downside of having such low blood pressure is that they couldn't give me any painkillers, so I was in quite a lot of pain all the way to the hospital.
Being a trauma, however, does get you in the door at the ER without any waiting, heh. Once I was in there they took off my pants and cut off my sweater (boo), then shot x-rays of my left arm while they stabbed me half a dozen times in my right hand trying to give me a second IV (I got the first one on the ambulance). Admire my obligatory x-ray photo!The doctors knocked me out with Propofol (and gave me drugs for the pain, hallelujah), reduced the dislocation, and wrapped me up in a splint. I ended up only being in the hospital for about an hour, and was headed home by 10:30.
I had to wear the splint until I saw an orthopedist (Dr. Seiler) the following Tuesday. The good news is that I didn't need an MRI, didn't need surgery, and no longer needed to wear anything to restrict my motion. The bad news is that I'm not allowed to swim, ride my bike, or lift weights for six weeks.
Today is exactly four weeks. I see Dr. Seiler again next Tuesday and I really, really hope I can get clearance to ride my bike again (though I'm not holding my breath for anything sooner than six weeks). My range of motion is very close to normal by now, though I can't fully extend my arm, nor can I bend it all the way. I am optimistic that I will get it all back (some people don't after dislocation).
Anyway, going from swimming four times a week, riding my bike everyday, and going to three strength training classes at the gym to, basically, riding a stationary bike was not working for me. I started going to my gym classes again after only a week off and just doing the lower body and core parts, then modifying the rest. My sister was running on Wednesday mornings, so I started running with her, and then we added Thursday mornings as well. For the hell of it I started running on my own on Monday and Friday, and quickly discovered that I didn't struggle with 3 miles like I always had previously. I decided that I was going to train for a 10K and ran a five mile training run.
Having a goal has been huge for me this last month. I was really depressed the first two weeks after the injury, and have been off and on since, but I'm doing a lot better than I would be if I didn't have something to strive for. Running like this is something I never thought I'd be able to do, and going after it and succeeding is such a great feeling. I love training, I love being an athlete. I can't wait to be back on my bike, but in the meantime becoming a runner feels awesome.
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