Injury Update

I went to Dr. Voss in Lafayette today to have my second post-injury follow-up x-ray.  Things are coming along great compared to six weeks ago.

June 11th (day of injury) x-ray on left, today's (July 22nd) x-ray on the right. 

The initial displacement of the chunk of fibular head (as seen on the left) has fully re-placed itself and has (according to Dr. Voss) now about 80% bridged back to the fibula itself.  The x-ray image on the right is of much poorer quality, but things are coming along well.  There's a bit of a gap still left on the lateral edge of the break that has yet to fully calcify, but despite this Dr. Voss already recommended extensive weight-bearing activity--biking, hiking, etc.  He even said a little bit of very light jogging might be appropriate to help stimulate bone growth, but I think I'm going to hold off on that test for another week or so--see how it holds up to some hour-ish or so hikes first, and also give my quadricep some time to fully regain some girth.

While this is all very exciting for me, the past six weeks haven't been totally void of activity. The first couple of weeks following the leg injury did involve a lot of sitting.  And icing.  After the swelling had gone down, I eventually became much more mobile with the crutches and began to get out to do things.  One of the most exciting things was crewing for Joe at the Hardrock 100 a couple of weeks ago, even if my busted leg meant that I couldn't do much more than hobble around and take pictures and maybe give him the occasional slap on the ass.  Luckily, he had D-Bow and his wife Deanne to help with the more crucial aspects of in-race management.

Joe leaving Grouse Gulch (mi 42) at HR with D-Bow, Deanne, and myself in the background. Photo: Bob MacGillivray.

Of course, just being at Hardrock was immensely inspirational and motivating to try once again to get into that race for 2012.  All of the downtime this summer has given me plenty of space to think about what kind of and which running events I want to pursue next year, but I suppose those topics are really more appropriate for a separate, future post.  In the meantime, I'm just looking forward to getting back out on the trails (if only hiking) and maybe even pursuing a little cross-training (biking).