Saturday, July 3, 2010

Arm Status

I've had a rocky road with my broken left arm.
Two doctors agreed, no cast, no surgery, no nothing.
The MRI showed my rotator cuff is fine. There's some ligament and tendon tearing on the back, which allowed the shoulder to go forward out of the socket. So the dislocation is healing fine.
The arm is potentially bad news.
4.5 weeks: Almost tripped but didn't, while getting ready for bed. I jolted so violently that my fused arm broke again. It was audible and it hurt like hell for three days. Almost went back on pain meds.
5 weeks: I woke up in pain. Somehow, I re-broke it in my sleep moving around. Again, hurt for three days afterward.
5.5 weeks: I was getting dressed as normal, being real slow and careful. Must've moved 1mm too far when tieing my shoes. Ouch. Again, hurt for three days afterward.
6 weeks: Just about to drift off to sleep. A spider bit me on the left elbow. I jerked, jumped, and rolled to scrape the spider off on the bed-sheet and if it didn't scrape off, it would get crushed. Only that was rather destructive to my broken arm.
But wait, it ain't over!! So I'm about to go to sleep again, and a 2nd spider goes waltzing across my left shoulder! I swiped it into oblivion without any further damage to my arm.
You probably think the spider attacks are done, now, right? Think again! A half-hour later, a Grand-daddy Long-leg bit me on the left thigh, under the sheets, causing me to jerk again. I don't know if I did any additional damage, but it sure caused additional pain. Grand-daddy long-leg? Bite? They can't, right? Their fangs are too short and small. So no, it didn't put some fangs in me, but Grand-daddy long-leg spiders have the most potent venom in the world. Did you know that? Nobody does, because nobody gets bitten by them!!!! Ever had a hornet drag it's stinger across your skin without actually stinging you? That's exactly what the Grand-daddy Long-leg felt like.
So why did 3 totally different species of spider bite me in one night, including one that never bites humans? Sounds like a Hitchcock movie. "Goodeev-unning."
Then the house next door cranked a party up starting at 12:30am. If my arm wasn't broken... If it was any louder, I would have called the cops. That house used to be a really bad party-house for years. I'm not going to be very lenient. The previous owner almost got his house taken away from him. The cops started the legal process to confiscate it, permanently, and auction it off, but the owner managed to head it off with some lawyers and get it sold to a different landlord.

So I haven't been sleeping much, mostly because of the arm.
But to hell with it!! I hiked 18.6 miles, three laps around Red Rocks, today, with the Run Rebellion group for wayward racers. It was a very hot day. I drank over a gallon of fluids and still ended up a little dehydrated. When I was done, I sat in the cold stream.
So I managed to run 39 miles so far this week, and I still have a day to count. This is more mileage than I've done since the LT100 last year. Not bad for a cripple, huh?

2 comments:

  1. A broken arm, unrelenting spiders, and a party house next door? Someday, you'll look back and laugh about that night.

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  2. Ha!! Already laughing, Shannon!

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