Talkin' Bodies

February's blog starts in Las Vegas, yep: Sin City. I was half way through a 4 month visit to Project Walk when I took a nice little 6 hour road trip to meet a friend in Las Vegas for the night. I told myself I had earned it, all that hard work in the gym; this would be the perfect release.

We spent the day at Wet Republic (a day club pool party), the drinks were flowing and I had a great time... Until I woke up the next day. I needed to get back to San Diego for Easter Sunday with my Project Walk friends, so I woke up early and as I picked up my left leg to put some clean clothes on for the day I heard a sound no one ever wants to hear come from their leg.

It was the sound of a fractured tibia and fibula. My heart dropped, straight out of my chest. Lucky for me though my brain is VERY persuasive. It didn't sound or look good, but if I couldn't pin point anything that happened during my night that could have done any serious damage then surely it was fine right?

Wrong.

I finally went to a doctor two days later and was told I needed surgery to realign the bones. Lucky for me I had travel insurance, so once I was stable to fly they put me on the next flight home with strict instructions to immediately go to the emergency department of my local hospital.

I handed my x-ray over to the doctor on duty who then called for an orthopaedic consult. It was during this time that we discovered after just one week in a cast I had a pretty serious infected pressure ulcer on my heal that had gone unnoticed. The surgeon took a look at my x-ray and then asked me a question I will never forget:

"Do you weight bear?"

I replied no... Not currently.

The surgeon then explained to me that because I didn't weight bear that there was no need to do the surgery, that it was unnecessary. I rejected this reasoning immediately. Just because I didn't currently stand or walk it shouldn't be ruled out that I won't in the future. Please don't let an injury go untreated and run the risk of it not healing correctly just because I can't currently weight bear without assistance.

It seemed ludicrous to me that I had to argue for medical treatment. I may not be able to use or feel my legs, but I look after them - they are a part of me! One day in the future when a cure is found and I'm next in line, I want to know that I tried to keep my WHOLE body in reasonable shape.

Like I said, I'm very persuasive.

It was a long recovery, 6 months in a moon boot and then another follow up surgery to remove the fibula plate. Not to mention heal my nasty ulcer - I'll spare you the photographic evidence of that one.

I'm really glad I remained firm in my position on this one. I've done enough damage to my body through complacency over the years, I don't need a doctor adding it to it. I think this is important for us all to remember - This your body, YOU are in control of it. As we only get one, I suggest you do your best to take care of it.

It may be broken, but it is mine.