Good and Bad News. The Alien is back!

First the good news: I signed up for the Leadville 100 in August on Wednesday,7 months to get ready, and then Thursday came.

Well now for the bad news. I've had a huge setback this week, after accelerated strides the first 15 days. We made it to Solana Beach on Monday and it has rained for 5 straight days with some respites of sunshine. Thursday I decided to go to a physical therapist, I found one near the house. I had asked for a recommendation from the San Diego Track Club coach and contacted someone else earlier in the week, but had not heard back from him and went ahead and made the appointment with the local PT. Certainly my zest for accelerating my recovery was at the forefront of my mind and clouding judgment.

Needless to say there were warning signs from the minute a walked in the office, those I did not heed. She worked on my incision points and proceeded to do some soft tissue work around my hip incision where they removed the hardware.

I left feeling not quite right, went to the grocery store and by the time I got home could barely walk. I crawled into an Epsom Salt bath, got out and applied ice and within an hour required crutches to get around. Severe swelling had overcome the entire area and it was extremely painful, more painful than any other day of recovery.

Thursday night was no picnic, hot and cold flashes, hammering headache, the works. At 4:30am we moved upstairs to the couches (needless the say, the bed in our rental sucks and compounds the issue with my leg).

Friday morning I called my doctor in Boulder to get direction and explain the situation, I also talked to the PT that was recommended to me and he referred me to the CORE Orthopaedic Medical Center. I was miserable all day and in intense pain. The swelling was huge and throbbing and rock hard, no amount or duration of icing or Traumeel was having any effect. I made it to the appointment and they confirmed what my Boulder doctor had thought, I had a mild, superficial infection on the hip incision and a huge hematoma. I freaked. They explained, the hematoma is simply a collection of blood in the body caused by a broken blood vessel. So essentially on Thursday, the PT either aggravated or caused the blood vessel to rupture and create a hematoma. CORE gave me antibiotics for the infection and vicodin for the pain. I have a follow-up appointment Monday morning, if the hematoma doesn't grow larger over the weekend, in which case I was told to go to the ER.

We slept upstairs again last night (kind of a sleepover type thing - I woke at 2am and Annie watched a movie with me, sort of fun in that regard). All in all last night was good, however this morning the hematoma is looking larger, I'm in my favorite position these days, horizontal, hoping that it will subside a bit otherwise we'll be in the ER later today.

Greg arrives with his Mom this afternoon. I'm looking forward to that, a nice social distraction. A friend of mine, Andrew has a really good perspective on "being present". I am practicing patience in that presence at the moment. I'm pretty disappointed in myself and this whole situation. I knew better and didn't practice good judgment and neither did the PT, who should have known better professionally then to do work on me.

What am I focusing on? All the small things that make this better. Annie is the best, she takes such good care of me in every aspect, ever patient and loving. I am appreciating the value of drugs (I am normally against them). I took a shower today and changed clothes after two days, WOW that felt good. I have a great view of the endless ocean form the window, which reminds me of endless opportunities. Finally, of course I am visualizing a positive recovery and return to the trails.

Annie made a good point yesterday, perhaps this is a blessing in disguise. If I hadn't developed the hematoma, I might not have gone to see the doctor and discovered the infection, which in these circumstances could have been life threatening, if left untouched and untreated.

I'm in relatively good spirits, lessons learned:

1) Trust your initial instincts, don't compromise and expect the same results. I should have waited to see the PT that was recommended to me by the track coach.

2) Surgery is surgery, it takes awhile to recover no matter how good you feel, be patient and don't push it.

3) Don't buy ice packs that claim to last 8 hours, if you think it's too good to be true, well, it is.

4) Love is more powerful than fear.