Unscheduled Rest

Yesterday was interesting. I was planning on a four mile run to see how my hip adbuctors were going to react to two days in a row. But, I didn't sleep particularly well Monday night because of a persistent toothache. Throughout the day the pain became worse. At times it became absolutely unbearable. I finally threw in the towel and decided to call a dentist. I found one that could see me at 7:30 PM (he is my brother-in-law's wife's ex-husband). I got there and xrays were taken. The xrays were quite an eye opener! Remember that bike crash back in June? (http://therunningfatguy.blogspot.com/2008/06/down-for-while.html). Well, turns out that the nerve in tooth#3 involved had necrotized and had created a huge abscess under the tooth. Luckily, the dentist was old school who basically does everything himself! An hour later, the root canal was done and I was on my way.

No running today. I will be in the kitchen cooking up dinner! Wishing everyone the best this Holiday Season!

Four More Weeks

Went to the doc yesterday and got my stitches removed! The difference is night and day from a week ago! It's amazing what modern medicine can do!

Actually, I need to give a lot of the credit for post accident care to my wife. She was the one that religiously made sure that I kept my scrapes and abrasions clean and gooped up. Every day she cleaned the abrasions with a water/betadine mixture and then applied the bacitracin zinc ointment to my face and hands. The transformation was amazing! Here is before:


And here is after:


Now for the bad news. The doc is still worried about the jaw break. Right now everything is healing up nicely. Nothing had to be done with the break because nothing was displaced. But, he is worried that the repetitive jarring caused by running could cause some displacement in the fracture, so I need to wait four more weeks before I can start running again. I guess that means that I'll be putting this training cycle on hold.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be adjusting my diet to deal with the lack of exercise. As soon as I can, I'm also going to get back on the ergometer to work some calories off. I'm hoping that I can get going here in a week or two.

Getting Better

I'm starting to feel much better these days. In fact, much of the facial road rash is actually gone. The spots that were scraped deeper are still scabbed over, but my face has been peeling for a couple of days now. I was actually able to shave all except my lip yesterday, so I look a little less sketchy.

I also spoke to my doctor last night. He said that the stitches should be able to come out today or tomorrow. I'm hoping that I'll be cleared to start running again sometime soon. My dream would be to be able to start the half marathon training program with Cal Coast this upcoming weekend and get back on the marathon recovery track. We'll see what happens.

Down for a While

Okay - so I was trying to be real careful with my running - trying to make sure I didn't overtrain and injure myself. Well - unfortunately it happened - not running, but on my bicycle.

After the marathon I thought I would turn a new leaf in my fitness regimen - biking to work a couple of times per week. I was on my way home from work, when it happened. I was riding along the Upper Back Bay Trail when I was cutoff at a trail merge. I immediately grabbed my brakes and instinctively turned my wheel, and promptly went over the handlebars. I managed to stop the pavement with my face, knuckles, and knees.

In reality, it was much more serious than that. I remeber hitting the ground. Someone came up to me and asked if I was okay. I could already see blood running quite profusely all over the ground. I asked for some help taking my bike up to the street a few yards away. I called my wife to let her know we were going to need to go to the hospital (I was 3 miles away from home). I remember looking up at the Marriott Suites Hotel. I remember the building moving.

The next thing I recall was 3 hours later in surgery. The plastic surgeon was putting the last of the 200 stitches in my lip.

A later CT scan showed that despite the concussion, there was no bleeding in my brain. I did have a non-displaced fracture of the mandible. I have three teeth that are now bonded to see if they are going to stay in. But all in all, my helmet saved my life. I hit with enough force to break my helmet, but a couple of days later, I'm at least here. In some pain, but otherwise healthy and happy.

I'm being told that I can't really do much for the next 3 or 4 weeks. I'm on a soft diet until my jaw and teeth resolve. It's going to be interesting shaving while my face heals though....

I'll post here every now and then, but things will probably be quiet on the running front for the next few weeks.