Physical Therapy

It’s a Monday night, and I worked today, and I’m having a beer (actually two) after getting off work.  Though this may sound routine to many, it’s far from that for me.  In fact, I can barely conjure the memories from a past life of teaching where it was common to finish the work day, squeeze in some play time, make dinner, consume a beer, and ready myself for hitting the “repeat track” button of life four more times til the weekend.  Uff, I don’t miss it.

(Shmelfie of broken helmet that was attached to my Camelbak and probably saved my spine from imminent doom)

As many of you know, three weeks ago I managed to graduate to one of those dreaded “1 %’s”.  That’s right, I broke my scapula.  Apparently, 1 % of all bone breaks are of the scapula (shoulder blade aka the vestigial wing).  Even rarer, I broke the “acromium process”, which is basically the far lateral horn of the wing that kind of caps the AC joint (shoulder) and serves as the attachment point of the deltoid (the muscle that annoyed your teachers for always raising your hand to ask “Why?”).  In the fifth of six stages of “Enduro Racing” in Big Sky on August 6th I had managed to finally find my groove on a straightforward cross country trail when I stood to really hammer on the pedals and managed to perfectly tap my left pedal to the top of a rock lodged in the trail which sent me supermanning through the air with zero time to brace for it while the only thought I birthed was “Wow, I’m not coming out of this one conscious”.  Miraculously I did, and when I stood up I even marveled that my femurs and hips were in tact.

Sweet!  I’ll just pick up my bike and keep riding… just lost a half minute from that wreck!  Oh wait, I can’t pick my bike up.  Ouch! What the heck is up with my shoulder.  Try again here, OUCH! SON OF A!  Hmm, okay I guess I’ll just walk down the last couple miles.  Wait, that’d take forever!  Forget that, I’m riding.  Urrrggghhhh, ouch, ooh, ouch, yow!

That was my conversation with lots of the last part for the bumpy couple of miles I managed to ride down to the bottom of the stage. A quick assessment by the volunteer and friend who happens to be a P.A. diagnosed me with a broken scapula.  He let me make the big kid decision to not finish the 6th and final stage and then drove me down to the clinic where the doc confirmed the fracture.

(Shifting focus- Heading into the Bob to camp and hike outside of Ovando)

Bummer.  There went the summer I thought.  Bummer, my wife is gonna be bummed.  Bummer, how am I supposed to work?  Bummer, I’m not the rider I thought I was.  Bummer, guess this will teach me patience on being still just in time to have a kid.

After a painful few days with little sleep and a vote for no surgery, I found my way into a new and thankfully brief chapter of life. I did have a brief honeymoon of getting to spend more time at home and with Jen, and sleeping regularly, and not working.  That was pretty breezy, but it also came with the stamp of reality haunting me that light duty waited the next Monday morning.  As firefighters, we dread light duty.  To take away our ability to do our jobs which require great physical strength at times and crew unity is comparable to castration.  Instead we find ourselves in the unfamiliar position of minimally physical jobs, sitting at computers, and working as an isolated planet akin to Pluto who’s not really a planet of the solar system, but somehow got lumped in according to our 6th grade teacher.  And the worst part, we do this 5 days in a row!  I’m sure by now you may be getting a little fed up with my complaints as they perhaps describe your daily existence.  So, I’ll play my own devil’s advocate for a minute…

(My newly discovery buddies- 6th’s toes!  I remember learning symmetry is key to reproduction in the wild back in high school bio)

I have rediscovered weekends, and they are amazing.  And I’ve rediscovered routine sleep, and it is phenomenal.  We humans have the amazing ability to always sneer at that darn neighbor’s perfectly cut green grass that is squarely edged to his sidewalk that the city recently relaid taking out all the cracks, holes and unlevel joints.  Working 24/48’s has left me jealous numerous times of my friends who always can have dinner with their families, or always squeeze in an after work ride with the boys.  The friends who get off Friday afternoon and don’t have to go to work 60 hours later, the friends who get to sleep through the night (except those fortunate few with babies).  Then, I’m sure for every time I’ve coveted their lives, they’ve coveted my mid week jaunts up some lofty mountain in Glacier or knee-deep powder on a weekday.  So it all kind of evens out in the end, we each take a handful of the dislikes and exchange them for a whole different set when we decide to chase after the All-American dream of that greener grass and that three story house with the white picketed fence.  I’m kind of taking you on a rabbit trail at this point, and I’ll attempt to exchange some of the rabbit pellets for some Bunny Grahams.

(Pano from the summit of Longfellow Peak in GNP- Erich P. and I had a spectacular big day amidst the smokey conditions)

While I’ve struggled with injury and having my faculties and freedom snatched out from under me, I’ve also found solace in a shifting of focus.  I’ve been able to step away from the oddly routine life of balancing 24 hour shifts, bicycle training and racing, social gatherings, husbandry responsibilities to created some new patterns.  I’ve realized I can adapt quite easily and make due.  I’ve realized it’s refreshing to shift my focus and live in the moment perhaps a little better than I have been able to in the past. I’ve also realized that it’s no lie that we do tend to take our health for granted and it is an incredible gift to be healthy and capable of doing whatever it is one wishes to do.  Tonight, I toast to the 9-5’ers out there in the world!  We couldn’t do it without you!  And I also toast to being able to pick up a full beer with an outstretched right arm with fairly minimal pain 🙂

(A day later the smoke cleared and Jen and I spend a day as tourists complete with Park Cafe breakfast and Ptarmigan Tunnel hiking)

***Side Note- Pics are totally random and not in order of story, as if you didn’t all ready notice that.  Just a sampling of the latest