Not much to report these days. Surgery was two weeks ago so I'm still more or less useless. Work has been busy so it has stepped up to fill the void, and I've taken to watching a bit more TV, playing with my kids a bit more, and eating food and drinking good beer more regularly too. I'm developing a gut to prove it.
This coming week is fantasy football draft week. I'm in two leagues this year, one with neighbors and one with work buddies. Looking forward to draft nights, getting my roster set up, and football getting started.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
X-Rays of my New Hardware
These X-Rays were taken of me while I was still under, so I only know by the time stamp on them when they were taken.
This first one was taken at 3:04pm, about 2 hours after I went under. I only count 5-6 screws at this point in the procedure.
This one was taken at 3:27pm, and it looks like the remaining screws are in place 14-15 in total.
And here was the last one stamped 4:36pm, about an hour before I woke up.
This first one was taken at 3:04pm, about 2 hours after I went under. I only count 5-6 screws at this point in the procedure.
This one was taken at 3:27pm, and it looks like the remaining screws are in place 14-15 in total.
And here was the last one stamped 4:36pm, about an hour before I woke up.
Monday, August 17, 2009
X-Rays of the Fracture
This is an X-ray that was taken about 30 minutes after my bike crash on Aug 6th.
I'll try to pick up one from radiology over at the hospital when I'm back over there for a Dr. apt on Wed. That one will show off the bionic shoulder I'm now sporting.
To orient you a bit, this is my right shoulder. The bone is broken into 4 pieces, although only 3 are visible here. I've marked the pieces with arrows. The top pointy piece nearly came through the skin as a compound fracture. Then there is a small fragment that runs up and down, and the last piece which has a fracture in it is lowered by the weight of my arm, but runs left to right.
It is a bit confusing to view this 3D image in 2D. Your ribs on your back come up higher than the front, so all of the ribs that appear above the clavicle are in the back. This bone had as much forward protrusion is it did, upward protrusion, but that isn't really evident as you can't see that without the 3rd axis.
I'll try to pick up one from radiology over at the hospital when I'm back over there for a Dr. apt on Wed. That one will show off the bionic shoulder I'm now sporting.
To orient you a bit, this is my right shoulder. The bone is broken into 4 pieces, although only 3 are visible here. I've marked the pieces with arrows. The top pointy piece nearly came through the skin as a compound fracture. Then there is a small fragment that runs up and down, and the last piece which has a fracture in it is lowered by the weight of my arm, but runs left to right.
It is a bit confusing to view this 3D image in 2D. Your ribs on your back come up higher than the front, so all of the ribs that appear above the clavicle are in the back. This bone had as much forward protrusion is it did, upward protrusion, but that isn't really evident as you can't see that without the 3rd axis.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Changes
A lot has happened since I last posted. To get everyone up to date, I was on a training ride last Thursday night, and as I was approaching a sharp right hand bend, a truck was approaching from the opposite direction. The truck cut the corner of that bend, came all the way over into my lane of travel, and to avoid getting hit, I dove into the ditch. Within a few feet of coming off the shoulder or the road, I lost control of my bike and was launched over my bars.
My power meter said I was travelling 17.5 mph when the accident happened. I landed on my right elbow and shoulder, and immediately felt my collar bone snap.
I've had 3 major injuries in my life now. A dislocated knee cap, a fractured femur, and now this. I have to say this was very close to as intense at the moment right after the break as the femur fracture was, however the collar bone pain has lingered much longer, and pretty much any time you move, it is terribly painful.
The weird thing about this injury is that the outboard piece of the bone is sagging from the weight of my arm, and it is causing that piece of the bone to put pressure on several nerves that run down my arm. A lot of my pain is from these nerves and is felt in my arm versus the bone itself. I get sensations of ice, then sensations of rubbing alcohol being poured on an open wound. Very strange.
Immediately after the crash, I was able to get my phone out of my pocket and began to call my wife, and my friend David. David came and picked me up and took me to the ER where I met my wife.
Its is a long story and an investigation is pending, but someone did get a license plate and leaving the scene of an accident without exchanging information is a felony. The driver, took one look at me after it happened, then sped off.
So my collar bone is fractured in 4 places, and later this morning, I am going in to have surgery to have a plate installed over the pieces of bone.
The prognosis is that I'll be in the hospital over night, then will be in a sling for 7-10 days. No weight bearing activities for 4-6 weeks, then some therapy to regain range of motion and strength loss.
Thank you very much for all of the emails and text messages that many of you have sent me. It really helps to cheer me up. I'm very lucky to have such great friends.
Thanks also to my wife. She has been nothing short of amazing. She is the most caring, patient, sympathetic, giving, practical, loving, and strong person I've ever known.
I'll check in again when I'm typing with two hands again.
My power meter said I was travelling 17.5 mph when the accident happened. I landed on my right elbow and shoulder, and immediately felt my collar bone snap.
I've had 3 major injuries in my life now. A dislocated knee cap, a fractured femur, and now this. I have to say this was very close to as intense at the moment right after the break as the femur fracture was, however the collar bone pain has lingered much longer, and pretty much any time you move, it is terribly painful.
The weird thing about this injury is that the outboard piece of the bone is sagging from the weight of my arm, and it is causing that piece of the bone to put pressure on several nerves that run down my arm. A lot of my pain is from these nerves and is felt in my arm versus the bone itself. I get sensations of ice, then sensations of rubbing alcohol being poured on an open wound. Very strange.
Immediately after the crash, I was able to get my phone out of my pocket and began to call my wife, and my friend David. David came and picked me up and took me to the ER where I met my wife.
Its is a long story and an investigation is pending, but someone did get a license plate and leaving the scene of an accident without exchanging information is a felony. The driver, took one look at me after it happened, then sped off.
So my collar bone is fractured in 4 places, and later this morning, I am going in to have surgery to have a plate installed over the pieces of bone.
The prognosis is that I'll be in the hospital over night, then will be in a sling for 7-10 days. No weight bearing activities for 4-6 weeks, then some therapy to regain range of motion and strength loss.
Thank you very much for all of the emails and text messages that many of you have sent me. It really helps to cheer me up. I'm very lucky to have such great friends.
Thanks also to my wife. She has been nothing short of amazing. She is the most caring, patient, sympathetic, giving, practical, loving, and strong person I've ever known.
I'll check in again when I'm typing with two hands again.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Disco Triathlon
The Disco Triathlon is in the bag. This was my 3rd time doing this race, ('05, and '07) and the 3rd time taking on this course out at Lake Ray Roberts in North Denton (the '05 Disco was in Grapevine, but the '07 Texas Man was on the current Disco course).
This course has owned me in the past, and while my goal was to prevent that from happening this time, I'd give myself a "B" in my efforts today. I've come to understand I have a pacing problem. I can't hold back and I absolutely wilt on the run. This course is not the place you want to be wilting on the run. It is undulating the entire time, and is usually very hot.
The swim went as well as possible from a time perspective. I was in a wave with 39 and under men, and while I was the 4th guy out of the water, I was out first for my age group. I paid for it though. I was gunning it from the start and by the time I realized I was trashing myself, I couldn't settle down.
The swim started off right into the sun, so we couldn't see the buoy until we were right on top of it. Other than that, it was a fairly normal swim. I was on my own for a bit, with a guy for a bit, then got dropped by that guy in the last 400 yards or so.
Swim: 19:23, 1st AG (out of 27), 8th overall (out of 273 men and women)
T1 was brutal. I was so tired running up the beach, along a path, and into transition. I thought I was going to pass out. More evidence that I blew my wad in the swim. I took my time trying to settle down in there, put my bike jersey on inside out (on accident) and was off.
T1: 2:45
The bike was alright. I've decided now that this bike course is deceivingly difficult. It never really is flat with many rollers, lots of chip seal roads, and a few chewed up roads that slow you down a bit. No one ended up putting up a blazing time, and I just managed to hold better than 20 mph out there, a little off from my last few efforts. I tried to keep it calm on the bike, and was favoring my right leg injury from the bike crash the week before just a bit choosing to stay in the saddle when there were a couple of climbs and accelerations I'd have preferred to stand up on.
Only 3 guys in my age group passed me on the ride.
We got lucky with the weather today. There was cloud cover for the first half of the ride, and the highs are a good 10 degrees off the mid 100s we had earlier in the week.
Bike: 1:08.47 10th AG, 83rd overall
T2 was quick and easy 1:01
The run was the part of this race I anticipated the most. As I said, I've run terrible on this course in the past. Early on off the bike I could tell that I'd probably already been anaerobic a bit too much earlier in the day, and that it was going to be lactate buildup in my legs that was going to be the limiter on the day, not HR, and probably not heat.
I tried to settle in to a decent pace. The course is out and back, part on paved paths in tree cover, and part out on an open road with no shade. I was really trying to hold back on the out thinking best case, I could negative split the run, but the more likely scenario was that it would be conserving energy to keep me from walking later (a problem every time I run out there)
I believe I was able to average around 8:50 miles on the way out (the way out is a little longer than the way in). On the way back, it was a struggle. I hung in there pretty tough, walked some aid stations, and literally shuffled up the big hill on the paths, and average around 9:35 back home.
I got passed by 4-5 guys in my age group in the last 10 minutes of the run which was disappointing, but tried to hang in there as best I could.
Run: 56:36 18th AG, 122 overall
Time: 2:28:29, 13th AG, 72nd overall
I believe this is the first time I've been under 2:30 in an Olympic race, but the bike was 1.8mi short of an official Oly distance race, and I actually think my 2:32 in Galveston this year on a 450 yard shorter swim, but 5 mi bike, and 0.3 mile longer run is a better time. It was much cooler then, and a much easier course than Lake Ray Roberts, so I think it is a solid effort today.
The family came up to the State Park to watch the race, and got to enjoy a really cool beach on the lake. My kids and the McClain kids had a blast swimming around, though no one brought suits so we had to improvise a bit.
Here are a few photos our friends the McClain's took. Katie (the photographer) is one of Ingrid's girl friends, our kids play together several times each week, and Patrick did the race with me (and did quite well in his 2nd tri ever, and 1st Oly ever)
Family photo, Jake and his dong
This course has owned me in the past, and while my goal was to prevent that from happening this time, I'd give myself a "B" in my efforts today. I've come to understand I have a pacing problem. I can't hold back and I absolutely wilt on the run. This course is not the place you want to be wilting on the run. It is undulating the entire time, and is usually very hot.
The swim went as well as possible from a time perspective. I was in a wave with 39 and under men, and while I was the 4th guy out of the water, I was out first for my age group. I paid for it though. I was gunning it from the start and by the time I realized I was trashing myself, I couldn't settle down.
The swim started off right into the sun, so we couldn't see the buoy until we were right on top of it. Other than that, it was a fairly normal swim. I was on my own for a bit, with a guy for a bit, then got dropped by that guy in the last 400 yards or so.
Swim: 19:23, 1st AG (out of 27), 8th overall (out of 273 men and women)
T1 was brutal. I was so tired running up the beach, along a path, and into transition. I thought I was going to pass out. More evidence that I blew my wad in the swim. I took my time trying to settle down in there, put my bike jersey on inside out (on accident) and was off.
T1: 2:45
The bike was alright. I've decided now that this bike course is deceivingly difficult. It never really is flat with many rollers, lots of chip seal roads, and a few chewed up roads that slow you down a bit. No one ended up putting up a blazing time, and I just managed to hold better than 20 mph out there, a little off from my last few efforts. I tried to keep it calm on the bike, and was favoring my right leg injury from the bike crash the week before just a bit choosing to stay in the saddle when there were a couple of climbs and accelerations I'd have preferred to stand up on.
Only 3 guys in my age group passed me on the ride.
We got lucky with the weather today. There was cloud cover for the first half of the ride, and the highs are a good 10 degrees off the mid 100s we had earlier in the week.
Bike: 1:08.47 10th AG, 83rd overall
T2 was quick and easy 1:01
The run was the part of this race I anticipated the most. As I said, I've run terrible on this course in the past. Early on off the bike I could tell that I'd probably already been anaerobic a bit too much earlier in the day, and that it was going to be lactate buildup in my legs that was going to be the limiter on the day, not HR, and probably not heat.
I tried to settle in to a decent pace. The course is out and back, part on paved paths in tree cover, and part out on an open road with no shade. I was really trying to hold back on the out thinking best case, I could negative split the run, but the more likely scenario was that it would be conserving energy to keep me from walking later (a problem every time I run out there)
I believe I was able to average around 8:50 miles on the way out (the way out is a little longer than the way in). On the way back, it was a struggle. I hung in there pretty tough, walked some aid stations, and literally shuffled up the big hill on the paths, and average around 9:35 back home.
I got passed by 4-5 guys in my age group in the last 10 minutes of the run which was disappointing, but tried to hang in there as best I could.
Run: 56:36 18th AG, 122 overall
Time: 2:28:29, 13th AG, 72nd overall
I believe this is the first time I've been under 2:30 in an Olympic race, but the bike was 1.8mi short of an official Oly distance race, and I actually think my 2:32 in Galveston this year on a 450 yard shorter swim, but 5 mi bike, and 0.3 mile longer run is a better time. It was much cooler then, and a much easier course than Lake Ray Roberts, so I think it is a solid effort today.
The family came up to the State Park to watch the race, and got to enjoy a really cool beach on the lake. My kids and the McClain kids had a blast swimming around, though no one brought suits so we had to improvise a bit.
Here are a few photos our friends the McClain's took. Katie (the photographer) is one of Ingrid's girl friends, our kids play together several times each week, and Patrick did the race with me (and did quite well in his 2nd tri ever, and 1st Oly ever)
Truck'n it into the finish shoot
Family photo, Jake and his dongSaturday, July 18, 2009
This has me Fired Up!
Preseason matches have commenced. Talk of a Peter Crouch signing has me intrigued. This clip is gas on the fire.
I hope this doesn't jinx it!
I hope this doesn't jinx it!
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