I competed in the Boulder Box's first competition and earned 3rd place in the Men's Advanced Division, as well as 3rd place overall.
Three weeks later, on the first day of SUU's Winter Break I broke my arm! I was working on an indoor problem where the last move was a dyno from a sloper to a cow tongue jug on the roof. I caught the jug, but unfortunately I had too much momentum and my legs were carried away from the wall until I was parallel with the ground. I couldn't hold on any longer and belly flopped 12 feet on to the floor.
*Snap!*
"Shit!!!"
My right wrist had hit the ground before anything else and snapped backwards. I rolled on my back cradling my forearm, the gym was silent. My friends checked on me and I instructed them to evaluated the pulse, circulation, sensation, and motor movement below the break. After the assessment we determined that I didn't need to go to the hospital in an ambulance.
Once admitted to the ER, the nurse helping me was convinced I hadn't broken my arm, but I assured him many times that I knew it was broken. About 30 minutes later the X-Ray tech came in to take my photos. She instructed me to extend my elbow as much as I could so it would lay down on the film. My body was in such pain that my biceps muscle was in spasm and I couldn't extend my elbow. For a split second, the X-Ray tech removed her hand from my wrist and it fell over like a tree......Where's the disbelieving ER nurse when you need him....
Two hours after being admitted I finally saw the doctor on call. He explained to me that I broke my radius and ulna, and that they both had been broken at such a steep angle that he couldn't set my arm without it sliding out of place again and that I would need surgery. At this point I didn't really care and was just happy to receive some painkillers.
The surgery went well and two weeks later I met with orthopedist to remove my soft cast and to discuss getting a hard cast. Because the orthopedist knew I'm an athletic training student and was so impressed with the amount of healing I had already experience he gave me two options: wear a hard cast or make myself an Orthoplast splint/brace. Guess what I chose......the brace! After this he pulled my stitches through my skin with just a pair of pliers, it had to been the weirdest sensation I've ever experienced.
I wore my brace all of the time except to shower, sleep, and perform my range of motion exercises. That is another plus of working with physician that knows what you are studying; I was able to develop my own rehab plan. A month and a half later I saw this beautiful picture:
This X-Ray determined that I wouldn't need to wear my brace anymore, that I could start the strength training portion of my rehab program, and start climbing really easy stuff. The doctor said that I healed twice as fast as he had expected, but he would like me to wait another month before I really start pushing myself climbing again.
That was a week and a half ago and I have been climbing twice already. I haven't climbed anything harder than a V3, but everything has felt great so far. I've been trying really hard to be patient and not over do things. I'm just happy I that I have started climbing again.
I will post more updates on my progress as time goes on.
