Monday, December 8, 2014

Forced Rest

A couple weeks ago I was out on an early morning trail run with my friend Mike when I had a pretty bad fall. I tripped stepping over a large rock and fell hard on my left arm. I knew right away that something wasn't right. It hurt much more than a usual digger. My first thought was that I jammed my elbow really bad (if that's even possible?). Mike asked me if I was alright and I said I thought so. Still being a couple miles from our cars, I got back up on my feet and we continued on.

As we started running again, I felt better and thought that I was probably fine. However, when I got back to my car and examined my arm a little more closely, I realized I had a bigger issue. My left arm below my elbow was very swollen and I couldn't bend my arm without a lot of pain.

After a fun visit to the ER I found out that I had fractured my radial bone in two places right below the elbow joint. Luckily, the bone wasn't displaced. Had it been, it would have needed surgery to pin it back together. Whew!

The following morning I went to an orthopedic where I was given a beautiful full arm cast. Like any injured runner, I wanted to know when I could get back to running. The orthopedic told me it was not advisable to run while I had the cast on. This came as a pretty big disappointment, but I understood. In hindsight, after wearing this cast for about two weeks, I realize that it would be pretty difficult to run with it anyway, not to mention how smelly it would become with all my sweat getting inside of it. I don't want to be the stinky guy at work.

Getting injured is a runner's worst nightmare. We do everything in our power to prevent an injury from occurring because we know how important running is in our daily lives. However, we know we're not invulnerable. Injuries happen in running. It's part of our sport.

I take comfort from knowing that what happened to me could have been a lot worse. I could have broken my arm to the point where I would have needed surgery. Or, when I fell I could have hit my head on a rock. All things considered, I feel very lucky. Being laid up for a few weeks with a broken arm isn't the end of the world. Sure, I wish it didn't happen, but I'm doing my best to take a positive from a negative. I know this forced rest period will do my body some good. (At least that's what I'm telling myself, haha!)

I constantly preach that we should never take running for granted. This point doesn't ring more true than now. Running is a gift. We don't have to run, we get to. I know when I get back out there I’ll be carrying an even larger appreciation for it.

No comments:

Post a Comment