SPLAT!

Today, I should have been on Day #10 of the training system P90X, but unfortunately, I am only on strong pain meds and anti-inflammatories ...

WHY?

Fracture of the greater tuberosity of the left humerus. Can you see it?

If not, let me help you out a bit ...

HOW?

Innocuous fall forward while on my snowboard onto my outstretched left arm that *tried* to catch me.

SPLAT!

Pretty embarrassing that I was only coming down off the chair lift. I didn't want to hit the "loiterers" straight ahead of me so had to stop quickly but I must have hit a rut. Wish I had a better story to tell you all, like ... "I wiped out on a Double Black run and did a triple somersault before striking the ground!"

The pain was so intense, I couldn't breathe, so the Ski Patrol had to give me oxygen during the transport. Pretty incredible how they manouvered me on that stretcher from the top of the mountain all the way down, considering all the moguls they had to go around!

I only WISH I'd passed out from the pain, it was horrible. Thank God I was not alone!

RB and my son TMH rushed me to the closest hospital 20 min. away, Granby Hospital, where it took less than five minutes to get treated ... I guess the loud crying helped. The triage nurse sent me into the examination room right away. My loud scream in pain when she tried to take the glove off my injured limb prompted her quick decision.

Nurse: "Go straight through to the back and they will undress you there."

(RB told me later she rated my pain 10/10 when he went to give her my medical info.)

Two injections of phentanyl, lots of shivering from shock, x-rays, another injection of a longer-acting pain-killer, extreme nausea and dizziness ...

Doctor: "Well, I've got good news ... It's NOT dislocated!"

My mind raced ... if it wasn't dislocated, then what the hell was causing all this f*cking pain?!?! Why couldn't my shoulder just be popped back into place and then the pain go away? I felt desperate.

Doctor: "It's broken but non-displaced. If the bone doesn't move, the healing will be straight-forward and you'll have no future problems. With dislocations, one will always have problems."

SS: "How long will it take to heal?"

Doctor: "Your snowboarding season is over."

I broke my shoulder ... I can't believe I broke my shoulder!!

RB brought my son and I home and I promptly vomited but at least I finally got rid of the nausea.

***********************************************

So now, post-accident 10 days, I am still immobilized and still in great pain. As explained to me, the rotator cuff muscles attach onto that piece of broken bone. My pharmacist told me that the pain-killers that I was taking were between morphine and heroin ... crap, I can still feel the pain.

Had another set of x-rays done in Montreal and saw the orthopedic surgeon yesterday. I'm healing well and the bone fragment remains non-displaced. YAY!

SS: "When will the intense pain go away?"

Doctor: (looking me right in the eyes) "YOU BROKE A BONE!"

(Dang, the ER doctor at the Montreal Jewish General Hospital said the exact same thing in the exact same way two days after my accident ... yes, I unfortunately had to pass though Emergency again to get a consult appointment with the specialist.)

I then explained my predicament (Ironman and my need to return to training) and the doc said he'd release me early from my sling if all went well ...

March 1 will hopefully be my "release date"! Cross your fingers for me!

Ottawa Fall Colours 5k, Oct. 11: My only race this year!

The past year certainly has been fraught with injury.

Hip pain = no running = no marathons = no triathlons

Sigh ... I'd even taken a good three months completely off running which helped a bit, then started running again lightly in late July hoping to be able to enjoy some part of the racing season before it was over.

Thought I'd race a Half Ironman in Ottawa in August, then thought I'd settle for the Sprint Tri because of my lack of training and the fact that my bum hip was still fragile. Nope, didn't end up racing at all ... As the Gods would have it, I had a film shoot the day before race day AND my friend's baby came early, meaning that staying at his house would have been pandemonium!

Then I thought about running the Ottawa Fall Colours 5k and encouraged my friend RB to do his very first race ever at the same time. I hate 5k's but for a friend, I was willing to tough it out.

We drove up bright and early to Ottawa from Montreal. My kids weren't too happy when I woke them at 5am, well, when I *tried* to wake them up that is. (I wasn't happy getting up at 4:50am either.) I told them they could sleep in the car. And sleep they did. We let them continue sleeping in the car in the parking lot as we went to pick up our race kits and I registered my youngest son for his race.

It was a beautiful day, a little cloudy but sunny nonetheless. But boy was it frigid! BRRRR! The morning temperature was down close to freezing and the sharp wind pierced our many layers of clothing. We were happy to get back into the car and await the start of the race.




This cosy little race was well-organised and very friendly. The 10k racers completed a loop around the field before heading out of the park and then it was our turn to line up. Where was the start line? RB and I just went with it and stood anywhere. I bid farewell to my son GMH whose race start would come up after we finished running our loop in the park.

The thing I hate about 5k races is the fast start, and then unfortunately, it usually only gets faster.

RB was pumped with adrenalin, this being his first race and all, and sped ahead of me, though I think he thought he was running beside me. I, on the other hand, had absolutely no surge of adrenalin coursing through my body but only wished I did, since I think it would have helped me to overcome the sudden tightness in my lungs due to the cold air rushing in quickly. Damn asthma!

I've never been good at fast starts and tend to get faster only after a few kilometers of warming up, then I'm usually good to go for another 15 or more km! Ha ha!

Nope, 5k races are not my favourite ... Don't let the smile on my face fool you. I'm only posting the good pic, the pic where I'm aware of the photographer, not the candid pics caught of me grimacing from not being able to breathe.

I told RB to go ahead, since clearly his legs and lungs were ready to take him much faster than I. Great, more pressure on me to keep up. Course was quite pretty as it wound through the quiet neighbourhood and semi-countryside. Two good little hills which I creeped up slowly ... Are we almost done? Geez, I don't remember marathon runs being this arduous. Then back into the park we went for the last loop, and lo and behold, finally, the Finish Line! Yay!

My results:

Gun time 29:42
Pace 5:57
Category place 5/23
Gender place 44/188
Overall place 127/315

RB's results:

Gun time 29:42
Pace 5:57
Category place 9/13
Gender place 83/127
Overall place 126/315

Hmmm ... There must have been some walkers since we weren't running that quickly.

My younger son decided to run the 3k, though when he was 7, he ran the 5k with me in 37:16 totally untrained. I was able to convince him to run this time since there was a medal at the end :-D Like mother, like son! GMH didn't want to wear run-specific clothes though so he ran it with his clunky sneakers, big jacket and jeans. Oh, and of course, my race gloves since he got cold waiting for the race to start. What can a Mom do?

GMH's results:

Gun time 17:03
Gender placement 28/37
Overall placement 28/63



Of course, we had to celebrate with food afterwards ... yummy Italian in the Byward Market. Ottawa is truly a beautiful little city!