I wish I could tell you an exciting story about how it happened, but it was silly. Last week I slipped in a Zumba class and fell, bending my arm in a way it was never supposed to bend. I went to the hospital and found I have an avulsion fracture of my elbow with a piece of bone floating in a very swollen joint. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I thought I would share my story, as there are some general principles of health and wellness that I discovered in the process, and I thought they might be useful to you. The first thing that helped me in the process was perspective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It happened on a Friday evening and the ER was packed, but I tried to maintain a positive attitude, not complaining about the wait and reminding myself that if I had to hurt something in a fall, my left arm was the way to go! I’m very right-handed, and I am leaving on a trip next week and would hate to have injured a foot, knee or hip! Having a positive and hopefully uncomplaining demeanor might have made it easier for the staff to deal with me. By a miracle, I left the hospital within 3 hours, complete with a cast. I’m not saying I got to jump the line, but a positive attitude and a book to read made the time seem to go faster than focusing on the slowness of the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, when the doctor told me I had an avulsion fracture showing on the Xray, I googled it and found that the Mayo Clinic described it as “an injury of young athletes”. I immediately did a screen shot of this important information and circled the “young athletes” part and sent this to everyone I know. My take-away was that the Mayo Clinic describes me as a young athlete. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may know that, as a chiropractor, I try and avoid pain medication. However this was the time for it and I took my Tylenol : Advil routine seriously through the weekend for pain management. It reconfirmed my desire to limit them, as I probably over-did it, activity-wise, leading children’s action songs, one-handed, for a church program on Sunday. I tapered off the medication by Monday and returned to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of you saw me in the office. With a cast on my left arm I was able to do most things, though I had to accommodate and use my knee at some times that I would normally use my hand. I got so adept at it that a couple of patients didn’t notice the cast before they lay down and were surprised when they sat up to find I had been working one-handed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What was important for me to recognize was that while some things came easily, some were very<\/em> difficult; some movements created a twinge of pain, some a jolt! I could work in my office, but it was difficult to put deodorant on my right armpit. I could take my contacts out of my eyes, one-handed, but I couldn’t wash them and put them away, I had to rely on my wife to do that. Having a constant underlying level of pain and the physical challenge of doing things one-handed (which makes everything <\/em>take longer) can be exhausting and lead one to be irritable with those around them. (not that I ever was \ud83d\ude09 It is important to be patient with yourself, get extra rest, and apologize to those around you when you aren’t your best self. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I am happy to report that I got the cast off after 6 days, replacing it with a hinged brace that allows more movement. This will be handy as I am leaving this week to go to Europe for the first time! I will share pictures of our trip in next month’s newsletter. I still need to keep monitoring my energy levels and looking at the accommodations I’m making for my arm. At my chiropractic appointment on Saturday, it was obvious that my mid-back was taking up a lot of the slack for what my arm couldn’t do, and I need to do specific stretches to release that tension. Maintenance is crucial!<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are working through an injury or a chronic condition that affects your ability to perform certain activities, try to listen to your body as much as possible, so you don’t overdo it. If you have taken pain medication, be extra cautious if you pick up the water jug (or lead children’s action songs) that you don’t do it in a way that you wouldn’t if you hadn’t taken the medication. Get the rest that you need- being in pain and accommodating an injury is exhausting. Be patient with yourself and ask for patience (and perhaps forgiveness) from those around you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Often our October newsletter talks about gratitude, as we celebrate Thanksgiving this month. The more you can find gratitude (even if it is for which<\/em> arm you broke) the more it can change your outlook and ability to manage the new challenge. My challenge was pretty minimal. It isn’t over yet, I’ll keep you posted. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I wish I could tell you an exciting story about how it happened, but it was silly. Last week I slipped in a Zumba class and fell, bending my arm in a way it was never supposed to bend. I went to the hospital and found I have an avulsion fracture of my elbow with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":995,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"\n I wish I could tell you an exciting story about how it happened, but it was silly. Last week I slipped in a Zumba class and fell, bending my arm in a way it was never supposed to bend. I went to the hospital and found I have an avulsion fracture of my elbow with a piece of bone floating in a very swollen joint. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I thought I would share my story, as there are some general principles of health and wellness that I discovered in the process, and I thought they might be useful to you. The first thing that helped me in the process was perspective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It happened on a Friday evening and the ER was packed, but I tried to maintain a positive attitude, not complaining about the wait and reminding myself that if I had to hurt something in a fall, my left arm was the way to go! I'm very right-handed, and I am leaving on a trip next week and would hate to have injured a foot, knee or hip! Having a positive and hopefully uncomplaining demeanor might have made it easier for the staff to deal with me. By a miracle, I left the hospital within 3 hours, complete with a cast. I'm not saying I got to jump the line, but a positive attitude and a book to read made the time seem to go faster than focusing on the slowness of the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, when the doctor told me I had an avulsion fracture showing on the Xray, I googled it and found that the Mayo Clinic described it as \"an injury of young athletes\". I immediately did a screen shot of this important information and circled the \"young athletes\" part and sent this to everyone I know. My take-away was that the Mayo Clinic describes me as a young athlete. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You may know that, as a chiropractor, I try and avoid pain medication. However this was the time for it and I took my Tylenol : Advil routine seriously through the weekend for pain management. It reconfirmed my desire to limit them, as I probably over-did it, activity-wise, leading children's action songs, one-handed, for a church program on Sunday. I tapered off the medication by Monday and returned to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of you saw me in the office. With a cast on my left arm I was able to do most things, though I had to accommodate and use my knee at some times that I would normally use my hand. I got so adept at it that a couple of patients didn't notice the cast before they lay down and were surprised when they sat up to find I had been working one-handed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What was important for me to recognize was that while some things came easily, some were very<\/em> difficult; some movements created a twinge of pain, some a jolt! I could work in my office, but it was difficult to put deodorant on my right armpit. I could take my contacts out of my eyes, one-handed, but I couldn't wash them and put them away, I had to rely on my wife to do that. Having a constant underlying level of pain and the physical challenge of doing things one-handed (which makes everything <\/em>take longer) can be exhausting and lead one to be irritable with those around them. (not that I ever was ;-) It is important to be patient with yourself, get extra rest, and apologize to those around you when you aren't your best self. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I am happy to report that I got the cast off after 6 days, replacing it with a hinged brace that allows more movement. This will be handy as I am leaving this week to go to Europe for the first time! I will share pictures of our trip in next month's newsletter. I still need to keep monitoring my energy levels and looking at the accommodations I'm making for my arm. At my chiropractic appointment on Saturday, it was obvious that my mid-back was taking up a lot of the slack for what my arm couldn't do, and I need to do specific stretches to release that tension. Maintenance is crucial!<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are working through an injury or a chronic condition that affects your ability to perform certain activities, try to listen to your body as much as possible, so you don't overdo it. If you have taken pain medication, be extra cautious if you pick up the water jug (or lead children's action songs) that you don't do it in a way that you wouldn't if you hadn't taken the medication. Get the rest that you need- being in pain and accommodating an injury is exhausting. Be patient with yourself and ask for patience (and perhaps forgiveness) from those around you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Often our October newsletter talks about gratitude, as we celebrate Thanksgiving this month. The more you can find gratitude (even if it is for which<\/em> arm you broke) the more it can change your outlook and ability to manage the new challenge. My challenge was pretty minimal. It isn't over yet, I'll keep you posted. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Signed “the Young Athlete” (the Mayo Clinic said so!)<\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column]\n\t\t\t[\/et_pb_row]\n\t\t[\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Signed \"the Young Athlete\" (the Mayo Clinic said so!)<\/p>\n","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-blog"],"yoast_head":"\n