recovery progress

Two weeks after my swan dive from my bike to the pavement, today's visit to the doctor and control x ray shows that the pneumo thorax has healed completely and that the ribs are depositing calium. This is both bad and good news. Bad news because it means that the ribs were broken instead of cracked and will take longer to heal. Good news because it means that inspite of the lack of decrease in pain and stiffness, they are actually healing.



On other fronts, most of the bruising around my eye and temple is gone. The road burns and scrapes have sluffed the scabs so I am no longer looking bloody, just raw and skinned. The small melon sized swelling on the hip joint is down to about fist sized and all of the violent violet purple bruising along the side of my thigh and hip are subsiding to an ugly yellow, green, gray and brown splotch. The doctor of course, also cheerfully mentioned that since the melonoma was so large and not subsiding it probably meant I had a "pointer" or a chip off the femur or hip joint and if it didn't go down soon, he would send me to an orthopedic specialist. Oh fun!



Monday I woke up feeling quite perky. So perky in fact that I walked an extra mile with the dog and attempted some gentle stretches, mostly prone with the exception of some old lady toilet squats.



Unfortunately three days later, I am feeling distinctly less perky. It is depressing to see how fast the muscle tone has deteriorated. My thighs are sore enough that it is painful to walk. At least it takes my mind off my ribs but the thought of how long and how much hard work it is going to take to get back any sort of condition to ride or even train again is really, really , depressing and discouraging. Sigh.....



Part of this misery of course is that the pain pills are making me stupid and slow. I am consciously cutting back, trying to hit a balance between having enough pain relief that I can function and not enough to make me dopey and stupid. Maybe that helps to account for the fact that the gentle exercises wiped me out so badly- this is me really feeling the effects of post accident recovery without the screen of massive pain relief.



My sister, who I helped nurse through her post heart surgery recovery, keeps reminding me my own advice of taking it slowly and in baby steps. I know this but it sure makes me grumpy and impatient that it is actually going to take time. I want to be better now!



Alors, it is happening, slowly but just not to the timetable I want. Since I am somewhat of a control freak in regards to my own life, this does not set easilywith me.