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New and Creative Ways of Hurting Myself...
Haven't been on much as I'm killer busy with work and travel. This relates to the note above. Pretty sure I mentioned early on that I'm always hurting myself in new and creative ways. The first time I damaged my knee and need surgery was in 5th grade thanks to a wiffleball incident. I've had four concussions - the best was trying to jump ATVs in the Vegas Desert. I lost partial vision in one eye for months before it came back. My personal favorite was the time I missed a shoot after a swarm of hornets attacked my face after I disturbed their nest while trimming the bushes. I have a good photo from that one. The list is endless.
Last Saturday I was in Augusta filming a concert for a project I'm on and opted to step off a four foot riser onto a folding chair. Mind you I knew it was a bad idea and avoided doing it all 14 hours I was on this location. Well, my hard case was packed away and I went for it. The chair instantly collapsed on my leg and I took the four free fall. A nasty hamstring pull and deep deep bruise just above the knee have me sidelined. I was having a great training period. I'm hoping to do some swimming but am probably being ambitious.
Anyway, just want you all to know that I'm the Mr. Magoo of TRS Racing. At least the concert was solid. Share some fun odd injuries if you have em.
Great Uncle, Average Father, Mediocre Triathlete
Comments
Brinz - TRS East - Boston Chapter
And for about 3 years my shin was weirdly brused or something because it was numb to the touch untill this past year(update: just touched it and it still feels kinda funny). This was from rollerblading in a quarter pipe and landing on my shin on the 2 inch diameter metal coping. The only thing I willed myself to think on that one was "oh it feels like soft wonderful marshmallows are dancing on my shin! This does not hurt at allllll!" Real mind game with that one.
I feel your pain.
I tore the ulnar collateral ligament in my thumb skiing when the pole strap wrapped around my thumb, I planted the pole in ice, and it tore my arm backwards when I skied past it. I skied the remainder of the day (it is rare when the backside of Sugarloaf is open, and it was all fresh powder…). Got to my car, arm throbbing, and realizing: I drive stick. This'll be fun to do one-handed…2.5 hours back to Portland, proceed directly to ER, where they tell me I have a strain. Technically, they weren't wrong…realized there was a problem when I could dislocate my thumb and it didn't hurt to do so.
I tend to average one dumb ER visit per year. I hadn't had one in 2012 and 2013, so I was due in 2014.
I think I've covered a couple year's worth with my 2014.
Bike Crash Free Since August 4th, 2014
My wife is a pro at this too; she got a paper cut on her eye yesterday while presenting at a meeting. Couple winters ago, I called her on the satellite phone from somewhere in the Caribbean and she said "I broke my butt!" - she had slipped on the stairs taking the compost out, and got a bruised/fractured tailbone. That was really fun to deal with while alone with two 6-month old boys
As for me, I've had 10+ "concussions", or at least hard enough bumps that I had to go get checked out and a Dr. claimed I had at least a mild concussion. At least 4 or 5 were pretty serious. I've never broken a bone, and rarely hurt anything else - my great rectangular brick of a melon always seems to get there first.
Concussions include (but are not limited to):
- "splitting my head open" (as my mom always says when relating the story) on a pool deck at age 4 (stitches)
- bashing my eyebrow open on the corner of a cinder block while spinning circles in the dark with my cousin (stitches, scar)
- bonking my head on ice (every Canadian has done this) when my dad was pulling me super fast with his scarf
- exploded my nose on a slalom gate (inspiring a homemade slalom helmet using miniature straw hats, curtain rods, coat hangers, styrofoam, and a ton of duct tape)
- kicked in the nose with a butterfly kick ("You can go ahead of me, you'll never catch the guy ahead of you ...")
- fell off my bike when the chain skipped at 40km/hr and whipped my head onto the pavement (you've all done something like this)
I sat down and made a list at one point, but I lost it. Pretty sure the rest of em were minor enough that it's a bit of a stretch to call it a real concussion; although I feel like there's one more biggie that I'm forgetting. Comes with the territory I guess.
So now you know - my headbands are not just for fashion, they also provide a bit of a bumper, just in case.
Great Uncle, Average Father, Mediocre Triathlete
In 2014, I spent just under six months in a cast and another three or so months in physical therapy.
I broke my distal radial in February trying to snowboard for the first time ever. Didn't realize it was broken for about a month, then went to the doctor, who looked at me a little crosseyed when I told her how long I'd been like that. Seven weeks in a cast.
In May I got hit by a car while on a training ride. Entered the roundabout, buddies behind me yelled, and I looked left just in time to see the car passing on the inside of the roundabout. Lady was on her phone, never even saw me. Some road rash and a broken triquetrum. Drove myself home, took about an hour long shower, used an arm sleeve and the ice packs from my compression knickers to make a cast and drove myself into the urgent care. Another seven weeks in the cast!
Then in October, I landed wrong on a trail run and apparently stress fractured my tibia. I didn't realize it was a fracture, though, so I kept running for another 4 miles. Walking was difficult the rest of the week. Only got the boot off on 2 January, been doing slow PT to get back to running again since.
Lesson: We're definitely the "Special Kids" race team.
TRS East
TRS East
I'm the polar opposite, in that the fact that I don't get more injured more often is a complete enigma to all who know me. I've only ever broken 1 bone in my life (a finger) despite all the crazy/stupid/dangerous shenanigans that I regularly engage in. Go figure...
seems like kind of an asshole
Bike Crash Free Since August 4th, 2014
seems like kind of an asshole
Bike Crash Free Since August 4th, 2014
I also tripped once when I was young and fell, no big deal until I saw there was a rock the size of a dime lodged under my knee cap. Oh, and it was pressed against a nerve. Screamed so loud people in our building thought I was being murdered. I had to take the rock out myself because my mom started dry heaving every time she looked at the wound.
More recently while I was running home from work through the downtown core of Vancouver I tripped over a chain link rope-fence along the sidewalk in a very busy area of town. I went flying, landed on my arm (the Garmin wearing arm) and smacked my head hard on the concrete. People came to help instantly and they looked really concerned, I kept insisting I was fine, just a bit sore and embarrassed, then one woman said, "your head is gushing blood!". Turns out there was a nice open slice above my left eye. I didn't want to make a fuss so I got up and walked toward a bus stop. My Garmin was destroyed. Turns out I had also fractured a rib, pulled or torn some kind of cartilage in between my ribs and had a mild concussion.
While not quite the klutz that @GentlemanJerseyDave seems to be I can sympathize with being an accident prone idiot
Rest up and heal up so we can all plot an IcyHot crotch revenge against the injury free @Theo
TRS WEST
Luckily I grew out of that phase a few months ago.
Ps- anything in "like" in this thread really stands for "holy shit!" Except for @Theo that's bullshit man!
@Scheck48
Two years ago I sustained a back injury while playing frisbee at the fire house. I missed a race and three weeks of training on that one. I had a straight leg hit a curb jarring my degenerated disc - I'm not particularly proud of that one but I'm here.
Next time I'll tell you about my allergic reaction to a cortisone shot after my IT Band injury - worse than the injury itself. Ha ha.
Great Uncle, Average Father, Mediocre Triathlete
The rest of my major injuries, a broken tailbone, broken elbow, concussion, torn meniscus in my knee, and a bruise-divot in my ass came on the dirt bike, but I'll save that story for another day.
Kelly Lentz
TRS Canada Chapter
Please direct all complaints to James Lange
2010, Thanksgiving Day, had been back from Afghanistan for about a month and on my brand new Trek Speed Concept (bought with my deployment money) and got hit by a car in Carlsbad California (by the Starbucks for my Cali Teammates). Tried calling my wife as I probably had a concussion as I hit the mirror head first - I still wear same helmet as of today - but she could not hear her phone as she was preparing dinner for family so I had to ride home.
1993, Got stabbed with a screw driver during a fight with my roommate, when on deployment to Okinawa (Camp Schwab). Walked to the BAS with my roommates. Doc said he couldn't sew me up because I'd been drinking. I told him I was about to pass out and to just take care of it. which he did and I woke up and went back to our Barracks room and started drinking again. Told the Platoon Sergeant the following Monday I fell down. I have a good polaroid of me and all the roommates with a towel wrapped around my head before we headed to BAS to get fixed.
TRS WEST - NOLA, Miller Lite Drinking Truck Driver
Let's do chronological:
1st time on a bike w/or training wheels I crashed into a wrought iron schoolyard fence and peed blood for a week or three, along with knocking out some teeth.
First grade: was doing wheelies on the sidewalk and went too far back, hitting my head in displaced concrete, then the handbags hit the front. Fractured skull, coma for, I don't know, a few days? And had to wear neighbor's motorcycle helmet to ride in once I was back up and around.
Still grade school, playing football, dove fore an interception (made it!) but landed face first in the mud. Face mask got stuck, pinched a nerve in my neck and was paralyzed to almost 2 days. Played the next week because I'm an idiot. Same year, was playing around in a half destroyed shopping cart, it flipped and a 'spoke' went through my ankle and stuck into the ground. Amazingly only needed a few stitches.
Middle school: broke my nose for the first time fighting. Then again that same month playing tag with my sister. She knew I was behind a door, but she didn't know I was crouching. Lotta blood from that one.
HS: broke my coccyx rollerblading and trying to grind down a railing at the Art Museum. Tore meniscus in my knee getting "tackled" playing soccer because the other team didn't like that I was American (was playing in Portugal). Thought I disloacated my finger (which I've done multiple times and am used to just popping them, and my toes, back into place), tried to put it back. Repeatedly. Finally stopped when I pushed skin through the bone. Which ended my piano playing days.
Post HS: broken fingers, toes, ribs. All multiple times. At least a dozen, serious, concussions, probably 4 or 5 that had me unconscious. Most recent was last April when I got jumped and had my nose broken again (That's the surgery I had last Thursday, which I live tweeted). Bike crash in Aug '13. Originally thought I just had road rash and some bruising. Turned out had 8 broken ribs, torn cartilage, torn pectoral muscles, bruised lung, fractured wrist. And, last Monday, I crashed a jet ski in Key West and wife wanted me to go to the ER to see if I broke my hip. It was just a bruise. But an awesome fucking crash.
First, how many of you have dealt with post-concussion syndrome symptoms? I had about three months worth of migraines, light sensitivity, dizziness, etc. following my last crash (3rd or 4th documented concussion, for what it's worth). If you have: anything beyond time/rest that you found useful? I'm still trying to recover some of my short-term memory.
Secondly: I am talking with CPSC regarding MIPS helmets and the like, trying to determine actual reduction in likelihood of concussions. Current helmets are great for preventing skull fractures…concussions, as we know, not so much. Is there interest in this at all? Additionally, what helmets are you wearing now?
Now, if we're going to go into full on injury history:
Got hit by a car when I was ten walking across the street to catch the bus. Somebody was distracted and never hit the brakes until they were five feet in front of me. Hit the car and bounced off it, landed on my right side. Broke the wrist pretty well, including the growth plate. So my right wrist is smaller than my left by a decent amount. (Insert limp-wrist joke here.)
Got clipped by the mirror of a car out riding for my first long ride aboard my new tri bike in 2010, starting a whole long line of me destroying carbon frames. Got lucky in that I managed to keep it upright until being forced off the shoulder of the road. Hit and run. No major injuries.
Broke my foot in a trail run in 2013 just stepping the wrong way. Earlier that summer I'd posted the following photo on the run at a race, proclaiming that I was attempting to rival Jesse Thomas for Hairest Chest in Triathlon:
Since that photo has been published, I broke my foot, won some AG awards, and fractured my spine. So, in other words, my transformation into his doppelgänger really just needs a pair of aviators to be completed.
Bike Crash Free Since August 4th, 2014
I was reading a recent study, however, that showed that activity -instead of rest- did a much better job of repair and recovery. So I think I'm going to try that next time.
I got to the irritability point big time as well, which was incredibly tough on Hannah. I also had some severe anxiety issues, as my brace/cast wouldn't let me take a deep breath.
Bike Crash Free Since August 4th, 2014
seems like kind of an asshole