August 15, 2008

Step 3 - The Diagnosis

Five days after my bike crash, I finally got the official diagnosis on my shoulder. I have good news and bad news. It's Friday, so let's start with the good news:
  1. I am the proud owner of a shiny new Cervelo P2C tri bike. I won't have it in my possession until they locate my size and I'm able to do the fitting, but it will be patiently waiting for me in a box at Cadence. Retail therapy works wonders, I feel better already!
  2. I finally found a doctor to remove my stitches. I begged my orthopedist so he did it reluctantly, I think he felt sorry for me. And it turns out the PA that stitched me up in the Nyack ER did a beautiful job.
  3. I'm allowed to bike on the trainer and use the elliptical as soon as I feel up to it. I can also do kicking and one-armed drills at the pool.
  4. I have no ligament or tendon damage in my shoulder.
Now for the bad news:
  1. As suspected, I have a fracture in the greater tuberosity of the humerus in my left arm. It's non-displaced, which is great, but broken none the less.
  2. My triathlon season is over. My next triathlon will most likely be Ironman 70.3 New Orleans on April 5, 2009.
  3. I won't be swimming for at least a month, but more likely 2+ months. This is the type of injury that will hurt for awhile and severely limit my range of motion.
  4. I can't run for now, not even on the treadmill. I've had one week of resting and wearing a sling and my doctor would like a minimum of two more weeks. I'm hoping I can maintain some level of running fitness on the trainer and elliptical.
In this MRI image, you can see the fracture off to the right side, the vertical line toward the edge of my bone:


I'm disappointed for sure, but I was pretty much expecting this. I'm thankful the damage wasn't worse and I'm hopeful I can still have a good NYC Marathon once I get back into training. It might be difficult to reach my sub 4-hour goal with this setback, but I'll see how I feel and re-evaluate my goal if needed. I'm just happy to have a running season to look forward to along with a lot of indoor training on my new bike once my shoulder is ready.

I'm getting up at 3:45 a.m. tomorrow to go to the triathlon I was supposed to be racing, the Sandy Hookers Tri Club race in Long Branch, NJ. I signed up with my swim buddy Roberto and then invited Barb from my JackRabbit training group to join us. Since the two of them have never met, I felt like I'd be ruining everyone's weekend by not going. Besides, sitting around here feeling sorry for myself would just ruin my weekend so I decided to go along for support and to serve as the unofficial photographer for the two. I'm sure I'll feel some sadness and a sense of loss, but I'm hoping that being there and experiencing the day with friends will also be uplifting. I have so much to look forward to next season.

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