socialy retarded

Rub some snow on it

Posted on 22. Jan, 2010 by Derrick in Random Ramblings

Thursday

I initially went into the Doctors office for a minor infection. After my mini physical, the doctor prescribed me an antibiotic and instructed me to quit drinking booze. As I was getting my pants on to leave, Doc commented on a contusion on my shin with a noticeable scab. I told him it wasn’t a big deal and was just painful when the dog’s tail smacks it. It’s a little swollen still and looks like someone took a divot out of my leg with a little melon-baller.

I explained to him the circumstances on how it happened. That I had a chance to snowboard 48 inches of fresh pow. That I turned on my toe edge to have cought my shin on a bolder hiding under the snow. That it hurt like a mother, but I didn’t cry(just complained).

At that moment, he grabbed my big toe and pushed it up towards the ceiling. I about sharted my pants it hurt so bad.

After prodding it some more with objects made from a medieval torture plan, He exclaimed that I had a large hematoma of the anterior tibialis. When I showed him the picture of my leg following the accident he said those are classic signs of anterior tibialis compartment syndrome. That’s when there is increased pressure within the muscular compartment. I told him “well duh, it looks like a grape fruit exploded in my shin.” This would be the reason I felt a slight numbing in my foot following the accident. My shin swelled so much it was cutting the circulation off.

He told me I was stupid for snowboarding 5 more runs after I had injured myself, I opinioned that I had only hurt myself. A small argument was then issued over the definition of “hurt vs injured.” Meanwhile the assistant had called over to Swedish medical center to find out if they could get me in for a CT, and referred me to an advanced orthopedic sports medicine specialist.

I made my appointment for Friday with the sports specialist guy and headed over to Swedish.

Once at Swedish, I headed for the radiology department and was met with about 15 forms to sign. They asked me if I was allergic to some chemical that I didn’t know of, so I marked “no”. That chemical was a contrast agent to help them evaluate if I’ve bruised my bone. When the contrast agent was injected, it made me feel all warm, like I was peeing myself. Very odd sensation.

The radiologist wouldn’t tell me if anything was wrong and said that they would send the results to the specialist.

Friday

15 more pages to fill out and I get to talk with sports Doc. He explains to me that I have trabecular microfracture of the lateral tribial platuau(TMLTP). I’m a little confused what the difference is between trabecular microfracture of the lateral tribial platuau and a bone bruise but then again I’m having a hard time keeping up with him in the first place.

This is what I gathered from him. Bone is comprised of small fibers which the body lays down in a kind of cross hatch pattern. It is this cross hatch pattern of fibers which then fills in with calcium to produce the strength inherent in a bone. When I struck my tibia, I broke some of these fibers. If I had broken enough of these fibers, my tibia would have separated and it would have been a fracture instead of a (TMLTP). He said that if I strike the area again after it is partially healed, I would be damaging new, poorly protected fibers that my body has just laid down. Thus, my body will have to stop its rebuilding process in the re-damaged area and remove these fibers and the associated calcium before it can resume rebuilding. That would add significantly increased healing time. He said that there isn’t a lot of current evidence, but in his opinion, if I don’t give it a couple months that I may have some degenerative tissue changes in that area that could lead to future ACL injuries. He also thinks that without proper rest that something like this can lead to arthritis of the joint near the affected area.

ACL injuries? Arthritis? Posible longer healing times? I was ashen and then he got to the point I was trying to avoid.

He is also concerned that my constant use of my legs has created a possible lateral tear of the meniscus. He wanted me to do another MRI to confirm if I needed a partial meniscetomy or if rehab would be enough. If I had the surgery it would require a 2-4 week recovery, and then a brace for the rest of the season.

Unfortunately only time will tell. His recommendation : Give it till the beginning of march and do a CT/MRI again to see what it looks like. If better, then I can resume snowboarding and triathlon training. If my tibia isn’t healed by then, he wants me to give it 6 months to recover. This would be a total avoidance of all activities (July time frame). This treatment would kill my snowboarding season, it would kill the Leadville 100, it would kill the MS 150, and it would kill any chances I have to do a half Ironman. It would essentially kill me. 6 months without being active??? What the hell am I going to do?

As far as doing a meniscetomy, If I can endure the pain (I have for years) I’m not doing any surgery that I can put off. However if I don’t do anything about it, he said that it can become complicated to try and fix years down the road.

The good news. I get to ride my road bike all I want and swim all I want for the next 6 weeks.

Sadly, I’m going to miss somewhere around 8 days of snowboarding/skiing. I won’t be able to make my 30 days on the slopes like I had wanted. I’m not sure how missing 6 weeks of running is going to affect my training. Lastly, Guinness is getting pleasantly plump and I can’t take him on any hikes in the next month and a half.

But if I don’t lay off my leg, He may prescribe 6 months of rest. I’d rather him chop my leg off.

Tags: leg, Snowboarding, Triathlon training