While having lunch at the dining room table today, a house finch was eating at the feeder when no other birds were present. Upon a closer look, it was obvious the bird had a significant growth around its eye. Its behavior was atypical for such a small bird; slow movements, seemingly relaxed, but obviously struggling to stay alive… This bird was in a tough situation and its survival was obviously in the balance. When I saw this bird, I realized it was truly in peril. Sad, but it helped me bring my current situation into perspective…
12 days ago, very early in the morning, I went next door to help a neighbor with some damage control necessitated by a faulty plumbing connection. A substantial amount of water had sprayed out of a faulty feed connector and flooded several areas of her home. We worked quickly to remove water, rip up soaked carpet and move furniture as needed to minimize damage. A big bummer for her, but not a big deal physically eh? That is, until I lift the corner of a bed with my right arm and a loud ripping sound emanates from my elbow and I cringe in pain. Yikes. What the hell just happened?
I had just been climbing in the Utah desert for the last four days, cranking my body weight on my arms at will many times during the trip. Suddenly, I can barely move my right arm without a yelp and I can no longer effectively help my neighbor. I walk home a bit shocked. I take a quick shower with my good arm and carefully drive off to work. A couple of hours later, I’m at my cube when my notebook starts to fall off my desk. I instinctively reach for the book with my right arm to keep it from dropping to the floor when I hear another popping noise from my right bicep and I find myself wincing in pain in my 6x6’ corporate cube… What the hell is wrong with my arm??
A couple of days pass, the pain lessens slightly and Callie and I leave for a four day birding trip to Cape May NJ to celebrate her birthday. My arm is quite tender and I have to be very careful even wielding the weight of a camera… but it is less painful than the first couple of days. At this point, I’m still convinced that it’s just a partial muscle tear and it will heal on its own, although I make a point to shake hands with new acquaintances solely with my left hand… We have a really fun trip despite lackluster weather and head home Monday evening. A couple of days later, I’m concerned that my right bicep seems to be changing shape, becoming even softer and less responsive. This injury is making me nervous now…
Acknowledging Callie’s concern about my arm, my own intuition and the suggestion of a good friend who is an experienced physical therapist, I make an appointment with a sports medicine MD to check out the arm. The doc performs a series of kinesthetic tests, pokes around a bit and proclaims “you have significant defect in your right bicep… at least a grade 2+ tear” and recommends an immediate MRI scan at the local hospital. We wait in the exam room while the doc goes above and beyond the call of duty to work with his assistant to get me into the imaging center at Boulder Community Hospital that afternoon. We leave his office and drive straight to the hospital’s imaging center and next thing you know, I’m assuming the “superman” position for 30 minutes of MRI scanning to see what’s going on in my arm. The position is somewhat uncomfortable, but I hold as still as possible to get the best possible images for radiological evaluation.
After about an hour at the hospital, we leave with a CD that contains a copy of my scan dataset. With my work in the medical device industry over the last 14 years, I’ve seen a lot of MRI scans, but almost all of them were cranial or spinal studies. As I look over my arm scans, I realize I have no idea what I’m looking for, but there appears to be a significant injury site near the elbow… We finally head off to bed while my mind wanders, wondering what information the scans will provide to the expert. In the morning, Callie departs for the airport to attend services for her recently deceased Grandmother. I head out to our garage to continue the post remodel organization of the “man cave”, trying to only use my one good arm.
About 9am I come into the house for a cup of tea and I see that I have a message on my cell phone from a number I don’t recognize. I punch in my password and listen to the message. It’s the doctor from yesterday – he has reviewed the MRI scans. He says “you have severed your distal brachial biceps tendon and it has retracted 4.5 centimeters so far… I have called the orthopedist in order to fit you in asap… please give him a call as soon as possible”. What does this mean?? It means that I can either live with a 70% reduction in the flexor strength of my right arm for the rest of my life, or I can have the biceps tendon surgically reconnected… Not many options eh? My heart sinks. I’ve never had surgery. I’ve never been down for 4-6 months. I’m 50 and I don’t heal quite as fast as I used to. I have K-Mart connective tissue…
Although outpatient orthopedic surgery and a 4-6 month recovery time is certainly not tragic in the grand scheme of things, it does represent a major paradigm shift in my life. How will my body heal from the impending surgery? How will my brain deal with the physical down time? Will I recover to 100% strength? How will Callie deal with the challenges of a gimped out Dave for months at a time?? Thank goodness I know I will have Callie’s full support, no matter what goes down. Stay tuned for more info…
Here is a link to a site that provides an excellent summary of the condition if you might want more information:
http://www.eorthopod.com/eorthopodV2/index.php/fuseaction/topics.detail/ID/79791a8f7dd9f446b38653cbeab9a955/TopicID/34ffbd965d3b9e5830200ca769d460e2/area/8
1 comment:
Hurt Dave=Cranky Dave!
No worries. I can handle a cranky Dave. :)
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