welfareloser's rule #17: do what your doctor tells you to do
today's the day! it's now been six weeks since my right ulnar nerve transposition surgery. the ban on any repetitive motions or hefting over 5 lbs is officially lifted, and i can now resume normal activity - with my right hand, anyway. the left hand is still good and fucked, which precludes playing the banjo, unfortunately. i haven't been able to play it much at all since about january, and since my hand surgeon moved to another state, i had to start over, waiting 2 months to get into the new hand surgeon's schedule. that's at the end of this month, and the surgery will be scheduled a week or two after that, then it's another 6 weeks of recovery after that, so it'll be october before i can really get back into banjo picking. fencing, on the other hand, is a go, since all i have to do with my non-weapon hand is keep it the hell out of the way.
now, other than the incision itself aching, my right arm has felt pretty good and functional for over 2 weeks. i felt like i could have started practicing with the foil again, if not actual stabbing at targets, at least point-control exercises like circling a doorknob, moving between blade positions, footwork, etc. and if i was 20, i may well have done something like that. but i'm not 20, i'm a month shy of 33. that's middle age, and officially old enough to be scared of doing permanent damage to useful body parts.
JokerJitsu, also about my age, is in a similar position. two fucked-up knees in need of surgery; he got one torn ACL repaired about the same time i got my arm fixed, and he just got his other torn ACL repaired last week. one of these knee injuries is brand new, but the other one is about 10 years old. 10 years ago, he hurt his knee, then felt better, and went back to martial arts training, and it wasn't right, but he didn't worry about it, and almost subconsciously compensated for the injury. then, last winter, he blew out his other knee. he stayed off it, then it felt better, he went back to training, and he didn't feel right... so he went to the doctor.
now, i find the activity restriction during the recovery tough; my trains-20-hours-a-week, amateur-world-champion-in-several-combat-styles friend feels like a rat in a cage. but when i asked him if he was scaring the hell out of his physical therapist, the answer was, well, of course (it's hard not to be scared of the 6'4" shaved-headed menace), but he was damn well following his instructions to a T. no pushing it, no testing limits, and even a hint of pain means sit the fuck down and relax. i've been doing the exact same thing. we admit it - we're old. we turn the music down, drive the speed limit, and above all, we do what our doctors tell us to do. cripes, in the two weeks immediately post-surgery when i couldn't do much more than sit in a recliner with a computer in my lap, i felt a twinge of an ache at my wrist, and immediately switched to an ergonomic trackball with a gel wristpad, and severely limited my keyboard time, as well, because FUCK carpal tunnel syndrome... not. going. there. (also, limiting my facebook scrabble playing was a good thing. i should have realized that since i was on enough narcotics that i would nod off in the middle of instant message chatting, i probably shouldn't have been playing a bunch of scrabble. my rating dropped about 100 points in just those two weeks, and it was only this week that i got it back up. this is my brain on drugs, spelling "dog" and "the." oops!)
so. i've had today circled on my calendar; i've REALLY been looking forward to going back to fencing tonight. last night, i picked up my practice weapon for the first time in two months. it took all of about 5 minutes of target practice for my elbow to start hurting. not because of the nerve, which is good - function and sensation are at 100%.
muscle mass, on the other hand? kinda pathetic. when the surgical wrap came off a month ago, i was amazed by how super-model skinny the whole arm was. my forearm had straight lines instead of curves and there was no discernible bicep. but, hey, that all comes back in time... a LOT of time. as i was describing to PRM how, after 4 weeks of light activity, i seem to have only gained back only 50% of the muscle that used to be there, he informed me that the rule of thumb is for every week you spend losing muscle, you have to spend 4 weeks to get it back.
now he tells me! so, yeah, i *can* stab, but without the full musculature to provide stability to the elbow, the joint hurts a bit. a good compression brace helps a lot - more than i expected, and it was only $6.95, to boot! i managed some non-stabbing practice today without any pain or instability, and i'll probably go ahead and go to fencing tonight, but i sure as hell won't be bouting the entire 3 hours. when it hurts, i quit. period. in fact, i'd prefer to quit before anything hurts. it'll be another couple of months before i'm good as new. the muscle is slowly building up again. from fencing practice, from herding feral children, and most of all from housework. nothing like scrubbing the holy hell out of three bathrooms that have been neglected for months to get my ass all buff and swole again!
and i am SO okay with the wait. of all the sports-related injuries to have - and i'm realizing that virtually anyone who engages seriously in any sport goes through some version of this at least once - this one is FINE. i expect to recover fully and permanently, which is more than you can say for a lot of injuries. you blow out a knee, you may never enjoy running again. you need back surgery, it's going to reduce the pain and increase functionality somewhat, but nowhere close to good as new.
so. in my last post of fencing pictures, i forgot to post the ones of me. so, since of course you find fencing as fascinating as i do, here you go! me and StabbiLongStocking:
i initially yelled at HappySquirrel for posting this picture of me obviously giving up a point, until StabbiLongStocking directed my attention to the scoring box. two white lights lit = two off-target hits. so i may not have retreated fast enough, and i may not have riposted accurately enough, but by god, i parried well enough!
damnit. okay. looking at these pics again has made it obvious that my stance consistently rises during panicked retreats. bad foilist. bad, bad foilist. gonna go work on keeping my stance low during retreat drills as soon as i finish this blog post.
and, finally, this is the sabre strip on the left, and the foil strip on the right, with me directing in the center. which may be what i mostly do tonight. because i am old, and i do what my doctor tells me to do.
then again, i could just play in the sabre sandbox. a sabre slash doesn't require full extension at the elbow. and actually, being target practice for 7-foot-tall saberists doesn't require much in the way of elbow action at all!
now, other than the incision itself aching, my right arm has felt pretty good and functional for over 2 weeks. i felt like i could have started practicing with the foil again, if not actual stabbing at targets, at least point-control exercises like circling a doorknob, moving between blade positions, footwork, etc. and if i was 20, i may well have done something like that. but i'm not 20, i'm a month shy of 33. that's middle age, and officially old enough to be scared of doing permanent damage to useful body parts.
JokerJitsu, also about my age, is in a similar position. two fucked-up knees in need of surgery; he got one torn ACL repaired about the same time i got my arm fixed, and he just got his other torn ACL repaired last week. one of these knee injuries is brand new, but the other one is about 10 years old. 10 years ago, he hurt his knee, then felt better, and went back to martial arts training, and it wasn't right, but he didn't worry about it, and almost subconsciously compensated for the injury. then, last winter, he blew out his other knee. he stayed off it, then it felt better, he went back to training, and he didn't feel right... so he went to the doctor.
now, i find the activity restriction during the recovery tough; my trains-20-hours-a-week, amateur-world-champion-in-several-combat-styles friend feels like a rat in a cage. but when i asked him if he was scaring the hell out of his physical therapist, the answer was, well, of course (it's hard not to be scared of the 6'4" shaved-headed menace), but he was damn well following his instructions to a T. no pushing it, no testing limits, and even a hint of pain means sit the fuck down and relax. i've been doing the exact same thing. we admit it - we're old. we turn the music down, drive the speed limit, and above all, we do what our doctors tell us to do. cripes, in the two weeks immediately post-surgery when i couldn't do much more than sit in a recliner with a computer in my lap, i felt a twinge of an ache at my wrist, and immediately switched to an ergonomic trackball with a gel wristpad, and severely limited my keyboard time, as well, because FUCK carpal tunnel syndrome... not. going. there. (also, limiting my facebook scrabble playing was a good thing. i should have realized that since i was on enough narcotics that i would nod off in the middle of instant message chatting, i probably shouldn't have been playing a bunch of scrabble. my rating dropped about 100 points in just those two weeks, and it was only this week that i got it back up. this is my brain on drugs, spelling "dog" and "the." oops!)
so. i've had today circled on my calendar; i've REALLY been looking forward to going back to fencing tonight. last night, i picked up my practice weapon for the first time in two months. it took all of about 5 minutes of target practice for my elbow to start hurting. not because of the nerve, which is good - function and sensation are at 100%.
muscle mass, on the other hand? kinda pathetic. when the surgical wrap came off a month ago, i was amazed by how super-model skinny the whole arm was. my forearm had straight lines instead of curves and there was no discernible bicep. but, hey, that all comes back in time... a LOT of time. as i was describing to PRM how, after 4 weeks of light activity, i seem to have only gained back only 50% of the muscle that used to be there, he informed me that the rule of thumb is for every week you spend losing muscle, you have to spend 4 weeks to get it back.
now he tells me! so, yeah, i *can* stab, but without the full musculature to provide stability to the elbow, the joint hurts a bit. a good compression brace helps a lot - more than i expected, and it was only $6.95, to boot! i managed some non-stabbing practice today without any pain or instability, and i'll probably go ahead and go to fencing tonight, but i sure as hell won't be bouting the entire 3 hours. when it hurts, i quit. period. in fact, i'd prefer to quit before anything hurts. it'll be another couple of months before i'm good as new. the muscle is slowly building up again. from fencing practice, from herding feral children, and most of all from housework. nothing like scrubbing the holy hell out of three bathrooms that have been neglected for months to get my ass all buff and swole again!
and i am SO okay with the wait. of all the sports-related injuries to have - and i'm realizing that virtually anyone who engages seriously in any sport goes through some version of this at least once - this one is FINE. i expect to recover fully and permanently, which is more than you can say for a lot of injuries. you blow out a knee, you may never enjoy running again. you need back surgery, it's going to reduce the pain and increase functionality somewhat, but nowhere close to good as new.
so. in my last post of fencing pictures, i forgot to post the ones of me. so, since of course you find fencing as fascinating as i do, here you go! me and StabbiLongStocking:
i initially yelled at HappySquirrel for posting this picture of me obviously giving up a point, until StabbiLongStocking directed my attention to the scoring box. two white lights lit = two off-target hits. so i may not have retreated fast enough, and i may not have riposted accurately enough, but by god, i parried well enough!
damnit. okay. looking at these pics again has made it obvious that my stance consistently rises during panicked retreats. bad foilist. bad, bad foilist. gonna go work on keeping my stance low during retreat drills as soon as i finish this blog post.
and, finally, this is the sabre strip on the left, and the foil strip on the right, with me directing in the center. which may be what i mostly do tonight. because i am old, and i do what my doctor tells me to do.
then again, i could just play in the sabre sandbox. a sabre slash doesn't require full extension at the elbow. and actually, being target practice for 7-foot-tall saberists doesn't require much in the way of elbow action at all!
posted by welfareloser at 11:22 AM
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