Thursday, July 15, 2010

Deferral

I won't be racing the NYC triathlon this weekend. I don't think swimming in the Hudson is the best way for my wounds to heal but more importantly is my left hand isn't working well enough to grip the bars to ride safely.

Oh well.

I had my niece, Doctor Wannabe Caitlin (a 3rd year medical school intern-ish student) remove my stitches from my right hand Wednesday night under the guidance of my sister, a real life medical professional with a lot of initials after her name on her name tag (BS, RN, NP, PhD). My second niece DocWannabe Rachael (a going into second year medical school student) looked at my hands beforehand and said "Ewwwwwwww, that looks gross." I commented that she must have not taken the bedside manner course yet. Realize all of this is for my "good" hand.

With my "bad" hand, I have an appointment with a hand specialist on Monday. There are certain flexes that my hand cannot do, most notable is the ability to ride aerobars. My sister, the one with more initials after her name than me (but I still have a US Patent, so there) said that there was probably something broken in either my hand or wrist or a pinched nerve/tendon in there. She said in order to find out the real deal a MRI may be required but even so there may not be much they can do except give it time.

The road rash on my face has healed to the point where I was able to shave yesterday. I'm thinking that makes my wife happy. I've ordered a new helmet and found I needed new lenses in my Rudy Project cycling glasses as the lenses had road rash too. Writing that is a little frightening to me. I still haven't downloaded the file to see how fast I was going when I face planted. I may not ever.

Racing this week wouldn't be a good thing for me. Healing, in contrast, would be a good thing. I need a good thing.

14 comments:

Patrick Mahoney said...

glad you are healing up...

Big Clyde said...

Heal up...to race another day.

Kathleen said...

Yes, you deserve a good thing!

Sue Sitki said...

I hope you heal quickly!

Unknown said...

You my friend have earned the right to some serious R&R! Find a couch, grab a beer, and let the good times roll!

KovasP said...

Absolutely heal up first!

teacherwoman said...

Sorry to hear you are not racing, but glad to hear you are healing!

Shelly said...

Healing takes time. I know its tough to turn down the competitive voice in your head, but you know you are doing the right thing.

Caratunk Girl said...

Get better soon - healing is a good thing!

Tricia said...

happy to hear youre healing up!

Al's CL Reviews said...

Sorry about the tri, but glad you are healing.

Middle Name Marie said...

Sorry about missing your race. I am sure your wife is excited that you can shave again! Happy healing!

64 CLASSIC said...

Thanks for dropping by and following my blog. It led me to your post today.

Wow--everything sounds painful to say the least. With some healing time though, everything sounds pretty much fixable.

I agree with Dangle The Carrot... the next little while needs to involve a couch and your beverage of choice.

Hang in there.

64 CLASSIC said...

Looking back over your post, having your helmet on was huge. Being a junior high teacher, the kids sometimes get a heehaw at me for wearing my helmet.

I discuss the general idea of riding a bicycle on pavement with cars speeding past as well as the head/pavement issue...

I have a friend locally who crashed and burned and the company took his helmet back and provided him with a new one.

Yours most certainly did its job. It maybe saved your life. Best of luck getting healed up.