Week 6 update

Yesterday was 6 weeks since I broke my elbow. The major milestone of this week is that I can touch my shoulder with my left hand. I guess that's a certain marker for range of motion progress, because it's what my PT told me to work on while he was on vacation last week. So mission accomplished.

Boom!

In other news I lead my first CTS DVD workout the other day. It was quite exciting with the video crew, hair and make up, and director shouting instructions. Don't worry, you'll get to see it because they'll be released just in time for the holidays, and that's all you'll be getting from me for Christmas this year.

They asked me not to wear Robo-Arm, which to tell you the truth I only wear a couple hours a day anymore, just when I'm doing something "dangerous" like walking to work. Someone told me I looked like Bob Dole holding a pen with my rigid, crookedy arm holding the stop watch all workout. Awesome.

Commuting

I've been commuting to work via foot a few days a week since I can't ride bikes outside. Now that it's summer it's a nice stroll through the hood in the mornings. It's about a 30 min walk each way, which for me right now counts as exercise.

Crookedy Arm

I don't really need Robo-Arm to ride the trainer anymore. Instead, it's just me and Crookedy-Arm because this is how much I can straighten it.

Thing is, I'm just not that in to riding the trainer so mostly it's just been 30 to 60 min just EZ spinning 4-5x a week. I certainly wouldn't call that training, but I that doesn't seem to bother me much. I'm still not back to 100% physically. I'm slightly past needing naps everyday, but I'm still kind of tired and usually have to go to bed when it's still light out, so real, legit training seems a little optimistic right now. I'm just being patient with it; in some ways it's kind of nice to have some down time.

No more bandage

A lot of progress this week. Not only did I ditch the bandage on the formerly gruesome hole in my arm, but I achieved a few other firsts with the broken arm. Picked up and drank from a cup of cofee, touched the back of my head, scratched my nose, slept on my left side, and put the duvet cover back on the bed. Next up, trying to blow dry my hair. That's my goal for the end of the weekend.

p.s. Notice I now have grandma arms since I haven't had the ability to contract my triceps for the last 3.5 weeks.

Me and my buddy RoboArm

Me and my buddy RoboArm had a pretty busy weekend.

We rode the trainer. I made it a whole hour on Saturday. That's a record. RoboArm is pretty good just resting on the bars now that I've flipped the stem and put it them up a few spacers.


We went on a little hike in Red Rocks Canyon Park. I usually do this more in the fall, but with my new buddy RoboArm I have an excuse to go there this summer. It's real purty there. I should go more often, it's only 3 miles from the house.


RoboArm likes that you can see the Garden of the Gods from Red Rocks, and enjoys how much less crowded it is with tourons from Kansas.

I thought it would be fun to do some bouldering, but RoboArm did NOT think that would be a good idea. RoboArm needs 4 more weeks to achieve full bionic status.

RoboArm did like chillaxin in the sun though. Note how RoboArm has enough range of motion to be placed on the top of my head; however RoboArm still lacks the strength to lift itself from that position. I have to give it a little help from "regular" arm.

I did find out that RoboArm hand can be quite handy as a water bottle holder.

RoboArm was also helpful in other household chores, like spackling the wall in the garage. Now that I have so much free time from not racing I can get a lot of household tasks done.

RoboArm also helped with doing the grout on the tub.

I think RoboArm starting to get a life of it's own, it's even getting mail now.

That's all for now. RoboArm and I are going to watch some Law and Order later because as I've found out with all this recovery time, there is some version of Law and Order (regular, SVU, CI...) on at any given time of the day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Addendum

I don't love my PT as much as I did this morning. Tonight I love my ice pack. He really put my arm through the ringer today, but got me to near full extension by the end of the appointment. It's the good kind of pain, right?

PT update

Can I just say I heart my PT Peter deJong. He's great, and today I hit a milestone of tying my hair back in a pony tail. It's not pretty, but its still progress. I go to Total Function downtown which coincidentally is right next door to where I used to live. See that grey, dreary building on the right? I lived there for 3 or 4 years. The only good thing was that it was only 4 blocks from Starbucks and the center of downtown.