I can’t swim, bike or run for 10 days, and it’s making me crazy

I can’t swim, bike or run for 10 days, and it’s making me crazy

Behold the Frankenstein-esque strip of stitches on the back of my leg. Self portrait.

Happy Halloween!

For eight straight days now, I’ve been forced to skip swim practice. I’m not allowed to run or bike, and the doctor tells me even brisk walking is out of the question.

A few weeks ago, a biopsy showed “abnormal cells” in a suspicious spot on the back of my calf. Last week, my dermatologist excised the patch, and left a Frankenstein slice held together with seven exterior stitches and a host of subcutaneous ones.

My prescription? No strain on that leg for 10 to 12 days.

I’m lucky the doctors found the spot. I’m from the generation that slathered up with baby oil and spent hours baking in the sun every summer. To make it worse, a few years had passed since my last skin scan. I’m grateful things aren’t worse.

But….

I’m intolerable. Fire is raging in my belly, fitness is draining from my soul. I’m twitchy, ornery, impatient and incredulous that anyone can live an existence that’s primarily sedentary. And in the back of my mind, a tiny voice is peeping out thoughts like “This is how it starts, you’ll never exercise again,” and “Your days of fitness are numbered, Chica.”

I’m used to waking up at 6 a.m. five days a week to make swim practice. I bike and run regularly, too, and spice things up by crawling through caves, water skiing, hiking and more. But suddenly it’s gotten easy to sleep in. What if I can’t get back to my routine?

This morning, I nearly cried when I found out Halloween swim practice involved swimming laps while clutching tiny pumpkins. (I missed that? No!) I missed an early morning run in the briskness of the first cold front of the season. I don’t do well sitting at my computer with my stitched-up leg elevated next to me.

All this might not sound bad to you, but ask my husband and he’ll tell you: It’s been hell.

It’s sucked for me, too.

But sunshine looms ahead. I’m hitting the road for five days starting tomorrow, and I get to remove my own sutures on Saturday. That’ll be cool – I’ve never cut my own stitches out, so yay adventure – and when those are gone, I’m legal to climb back in the saddle.

Which is good, because the weekend agenda includes, among other things, horseback riding in southern Utah.

 

 

 

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I wrenched my back and I’m bad at recovery

I wrenched my back and I’m bad at recovery

She’s down! Pam LeBlanc, passed out in bed this morning after wrenching her back water skiing. Chris LeBlanc photo

Things I don’t do well:

  1. Sit.
  2. Stay.
  3. Heal.

This morning’s water ski run didn’t go as planned.
The water looked smooth and almost glassy up by the Pennybacker Bridge when I zipped up my life vest, yanked on my neoprene calf sleeve (to stop bruising from water spray, which is a real thing) and slipped on my slalom ski just before 7 a.m. today.

Chris hit the gas and I popped up – and almost immediately dropped the rope, thanks to a sharp jab of pain in my lower back.

Here I am water skiing last week. Today’s run didn’t go as well. Chris LeBlanc photo

I’ve been covering adventure and fitness for more than a decade, so I consider it something of a miracle that I haven’t wound up injured more often. I can count my battle wounds, a lathat scene in “Jaws” where the boat captain shows all his scars, on one hand: A broken wrist sustained while horseback riding when I was a kid, plantar fasciitis and a pulled calf muscle sustained while training for a marathon, and a weird thing that happened to the inside of my knee while researching a rope swing story a few years ago.

But I can only walk short stretches – hobbling is more like it – and am headed back to my bed with a heating pad as soon as I finish this post.

But there’s an upside to this. It reminds me how lucky I’ve been thus far to stay healthy and upright, and what a role physical activity plays in keeping me happy.

Onward!

 

 

 

About Pam

I’m Pam LeBlanc. Follow my blog to keep up with the best in outdoor travel and adventure. Thanks for visiting my site.

Where is Pam?

Click to open a larger map

Follow Pam