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Climbing and Me- A Recovery (Read 35584 times)

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#25 Controlling Relationship [with Climbing]
October 15, 2013, 09:07:07 pm
Controlling Relationship [with Climbing]
5 October 2013, 10:45 pm



Why do I feel the need to train? Will it make a difference long term? Who do I think I am, obsessing about training anyway?

Well. It sure as hell won't make a difference long term. I mean, yeah, I had short term goals- but what's a year of my life?

I wondered about these questions. But I've finally worked it out.

It's 'training' because lets face it, rocking a broken leg, it's the nearest to climbing I'll get.

Long term, I don't mind the loss of progression time. I'm 22! That's one of the best things about climbing... you can just go on forever.

What do I actually want out of this training? Massive strength gains? No. What I want is that feel-good, feeling tired, putting physical effort in endorphin buzz. Doing something linked to my favourite activity.

That is what will keep me happy. Is that actually training? I suppose in the sense that it's inevitibly  structured being fingerboarding. But it's not training in the "this'll gonna be the real deal, I'm gonna be STRONG MAN" sense. It's more of a mad, "LETMEGOCLIMBINGORI'LLSCREAM", psychological dependancy sense.

And that's the thing about climbing isn't it? You think you're strong, but then it ensnares you and you realise you're a slave to it...

Just to clarify though, this IS gonna be the real deal.

p.s. An electron is driving down a motorway, and a policeman pulls him over. The policeman says: “Sir, do you realise you were travelling at 130 miles per hour?” The electron says: “Oh great, now I’m lost.”

Source: Climbing and Me- A Recovery


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#26 Baby Steps
October 15, 2013, 09:07:07 pm
Baby Steps
6 October 2013, 10:46 pm



Finally a training setup is starting to take shape! After an afternoon of toil, my awesome boyfriend (with the help of an awesome friend) has made a doorframe-friendly mount with interchangeable front panels for more than one fingerboard.

Being suitably Manly

Had a quick go tonight. Excited!

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#27 The Climbing Community
October 15, 2013, 09:07:07 pm
The Climbing Community
9 October 2013, 10:46 pm



Before I broke my leg, I'd always thought the so-called 'climbing community' was great. Lots of like minded yet different people who for the most part get on well.

But I have to say, despite the fact that I've met a lot of people through climbing who have become great friends, I had no idea how kind and encouraging people I've not met would be.

And it's really helped me not just to survive the first few weeks of being broken, but to feel happy and positive.

When you're really into something like climbing (and this must be true for any sport) you feel like the people who can most understand the situation are the people who do the same sport.

There are a huge number of people that I'd like to thank for making me smile, so in no particular order:

Thank you to the UKB admins for making my blog do the thing... I didn't even know what an rss feed was... and for their words of encouragement. And to everyone who reads it so I feel like someone's listening to me vent (unless it's one person reading it repeatedly in which case thank you for pretending to listen). Thank you for the kind comments from UKB-ers especially regarding timescales and for not laughing at me for writing 'another climbing blog'.

Also thank you to my employers at the Depot, my absolute favourite climbing centre ever, for not minding that I just abandoned ship (the day before a shift!). I've loved working there from the start and I couldn't be employed by a better company. And to the other staff at the depot for being great friends, and the climbers that make up the Depot community who have also been very supportive. I'll be sad to miss the Battle of Britain in Notts on the 19th, it looks like it's going to be flipping awesome.

Thanks to Alistair for the days spent in the garage building a Super Duper Gucci fingerboard mount, and to Alistair and Seb for helping me train. Watching someone fingerboard... it doesn't get much more exciting than that!

In addition, thank you to Tim Wager of Wagerholds for kindly providing me with a couple of really nice wooden edges to hang off.

Thank you to Beyond Hope for taking pity on me and providing me with a couple of excellent Metolius fingerboards that I otherwise would not have been able to own, as well as some Grip Savers (warming up on a fingerboard. Well, normally I'd boulder for 20 minutes. Ha!) and some prAna clothes. It was incredibly generous, and certainly cheered me up. I thank you from the bottom of my average forearms. That and the mount have left me with so much training scope that the door frame has essentially turned into a footless indoor climbing wall. It's brilliant! Pictures of the training setup (and me happily flailing) will follow.

Revering the Metolius Contact Board. And what a beast it is! Yet surprisingly light... Artistically directed by Sebastian Smith.

And thank you to Tom Randall, who I went to see for training ideas a month or so ago and who helped me to write an excellent training plan that I embarked on a week before I broke my leg. Thanks for the enthusiasm in finding ways to do all sorts of things on a fingerboard and for making me feel like I can still do a whole lot provided I can find the motivation, and thanks for the ongoing support. I can do motivated, but that's not a lot of use without knowing how to train!

My family and friends have also been amazing. My parents 'popped up to Leeds' from Bristol to take me to lunch. Pretty awesome.

So that's it really for today,

And thank you :)

Source: Climbing and Me- A Recovery


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#28 Training
October 15, 2013, 09:07:07 pm
Training
13 October 2013, 10:48 pm



Today was a training day. I've been trying out different holds on different boards and I have to say, that although the Metolius contact board is enormous, there really isn't any wasted space.

I know writing a review when I've been given the board might arise suspicion but the board has a huge number of edges (half pad, 1 pad, 2 pads...), four depths of pockets, variable slopers, variable pinches (which are more than just a gimmick- you can make them pretty hard to hold if you hold them low down). Because there are so many different depths of edges, progression isn't a problem either. It's got over 30 holds, if you only count variable holds as one.

Ali was proud of his lighting solution- the bouldering lantern...

It's an absolute treasure trove of a fingerboard. When your skin dies on the edges, you can move onto the slopers. And for me, there are still holds that I can't hang and  certainly wouldn't use for several seconds so there's plenty of room for improvement.

The one thing about the Metolius contact that annoyed me when I was trying to buy one was the lack of information about hold depths and decent in-depth reviews so I'll write up a technical review of it in the next week or so.

If you lock off high enough- you get to wear the lampshade!

So I've had a great time on the board. I've really enjoyed the training too. One thing I've noticed though, about the training, is how tiring it is. I mean, with shorter times to achieve the same things, you expect high intensity on a fingerboard of course. But it's the level of overall exhaustion afterwards that seems to go more with the broken leg than the climbing. And in that sense I can understand why it's important to be careful training with an injury. If everyday life is tiring, you'd expect to be floored by something you'd find tiring normally I guess.

But a week after I've started getting back into things, I'm feeling pretty positive :)

Deadhangs. The crutches make a really useful phone stand

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#29 Keeping Up
October 15, 2013, 09:07:07 pm
Keeping Up
14 October 2013, 10:49 pm



One of the things I've found difficult about the broken leg is knowing how much I can actually do, and how much to reasonably expect from myself.

The days I've felt good, I've tried to fill, but then I feel worse the next day.

It would be lovely if all I had to think about was finger boarding and fixing my leg, and I realised that those things are all I've blogged about. But this blog was supposed to be useful for anyone else injured and if I read this, I'd probably think "Well this is great, but it's not like you've got anything else to keep up with".

I'm a student. But before you think "Ha! Then it's not like...", it's not quite that simple. Physics isn't a particularly soft option, and the fact that I don't have to be in university to study is as much a curse as a blessing. The difficulty is that although the  university knows I'm broken, there's only so much concession that can be made. Extensions to deadlines still have to fit in with the rest of the year and in order to do well I really need to keep up while I'm away. And with a science subject, it's a lot easier if you can try to understand things by discussing them with friends.

Studying from home has really been the main source of stress in the broken leg situation. Everything takes longer with the broken leg and most of my time is spent on physics. I miss the sleeping!

One thing about having to fingerboard though is that owing to higher intensity, training takes up a lot less time. Which is just as well, really. I have no idea where that time used to come from.

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#30 Touching Base
October 17, 2013, 01:01:17 am
Touching Base
16 October 2013, 10:53 pm

As the number of lectures I am behind slowly but surely piled up, the need to at least meet up with my project supervisor at university became increasingly pressing.

So I went to university. This, like everything in the last few weeks was much more of an undertaking than I'd imagined. I saw my project supervisor briefly, saw my personal tutor equally briefly, collected some notes and crossed the university campus twice. The whole thing took nearly three hours. And I'd got a lift to uni and back.

The biggest problem was that it took nearly 20 minutes to cover the distance which is equivalent to the distance between two lectures (most of which are back-to-back). And this was when the corridors were empty. I realised that I'm going to have to carry on having my own little personal university and bedroom lab, and that going to university will have to be pretty selective until I can put a lot more weight (than the current amount- none) on my leg.

Blah.

There was more training today though. And here's what I thought of the Metolius Contact:



Source: Climbing and Me - A Recovery


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#31 Re: Climbing and Me- A Recovery
October 17, 2013, 07:44:55 am
Frequent users of the "Urban Dictionary" may have expected more from today's title. Not me, obviously.

Nice review, Lisa. Very luxurious hair, too.

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#32 Acceptance
October 21, 2013, 01:00:36 am
Acceptance
20 October 2013, 7:53 pm

When I wrote to my tutor at the beginning of the academic year, I said and thought two completely different things. In my email to the university tutor, I wrote about how having a broken leg and taking strong painkillers would make it harder to study and would inevitably have an effect.However, in my head I thought that it would be the same studying at home as if I went to university and that keeping up would be no problem.

But I'm starting to realise that it's just not possible to get as much work done as I would have done otherwise. I spend all my time trying to do physics, but I just can't keep up. I think that the university will make allowances for this with deadline extensions and so on, but I certainly hadn't been making allowances for it.

As a result I'm completely exhausted and demotivated this week, after trying to study nearly every day.

For some reason I had accepted that my climbing will take a hit, and hadn't felt the need to feel guilty about it- perhaps because it's a physical thing, like breaking a leg.



Source: Climbing and Me - A Recovery


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#33 Re: Climbing and Me- A Recovery
October 21, 2013, 07:49:46 am
I don't know if you read here Lisa but if you were one of my students I'd have urged you to give serious thought to suspending studies for a year. I still would.  I know it can seem like a massive step back but is often the right decision in the long run.

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#34 Climbing and Me- A Recovery
October 21, 2013, 08:05:16 am
I don't know if you read here Lisa but if you were one of my students I'd have urged you to give serious thought to suspending studies for a year. I still would.  I know it can seem like a massive step back but is often the right decision in the long run.

Like Andy I'm another senior (in rank rather than general character!) University academic - and if you want any advice about this or someone to sound some ideas off - feel free to DM me...

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#35 Re: Climbing and Me- A Recovery
October 21, 2013, 08:29:24 am
Likewise

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#36 Re: Climbing and Me- A Recovery
October 21, 2013, 02:14:15 pm
I don't know if you read here Lisa but if you were one of my students I'd have urged you to give serious thought to suspending studies for a year. I still would.  I know it can seem like a massive step back but is often the right decision in the long run.

Like Andy I'm another senior (in rank rather than general character!) University academic - and if you want any advice about this or someone to sound some ideas off - feel free to DM me...

I appreciate this and will be in touch. Thanks  :)

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#37 Six Weeks
October 24, 2013, 01:01:13 am
Six Weeks
23 October 2013, 9:35 pm

I saw a specialist for the six week (and two days) mark yesterday. This was well timed as I'd allowed myself to get pretty fed up. I was missing climbing, and fed up with having a sore leg, and generally losing motivation.

But the specialist seemed happy with the X-rays and said that hopefully walking with crutches for balance should commence in another 6 weeks. For now I'm allowed to slowly begin partial weight bearing, which has made balancing slightly easier. I'm still getting blisters on my hands because although I made some nice foamy handles for my crutches, the foam has slowly died to the point where it is now paper-thin. I have ordered some rowing grips. Hopefully these will be as 'oarsome' as their brand name... ;-)

It was actually going to the Depot that cheered me up and got me feeling motivated again. Most of my friends are there and six weeks seems a long time to be away. Though slightly intimated to be in a climbing centre at first (mostly because I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb, and people kept rudely falling off climbs as though it were completely normal to do so) I didn't get as envious as I thought I would.

It did, however, prove impossible not to do any training at all. A few pull ups were done, and some aptly named dead hangs (I wished I was by the end of the set...) and I felt pretty good :-)

I guess I need to get myself to the climbing centre more then.

I discovered I can feel the screw heads in my ankle. It is my new favourite thing to show to squeamish people. I want to know though, are they slotted or phillips?

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]I reckon Phillips[/td][/tr]
[/table]



Source: Climbing and Me - A Recovery


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#38 Chapter Five
October 28, 2013, 06:00:43 pm
Chapter Five
28 October 2013, 5:53 pm

Today has been the hardest day since breaking my leg. You see, I can divide my recovery so far into four parts:

The floor of the climbing centre,

The hospital,

Alistair's parents' house in Ilkley and

Leeds with Alistair

Things have been hard, of course, at different points in those four stages. But I've never been alone. I've always been able to hold Ali's, or someone I love's, hand at the start and end of each day. And though I'm very lucky to have Alistair, I'm perhaps unlucky in the sense that in the four years we've been "going out" with each other, we've never yet had a chance to live together. We're both students working towards that end.

And what's so very hard about stage 5 is that at some point, Ali had to return to Sheffield to carry on with his own life, and I had to learn to reclaim my independence. It won't be the first time I've learned this- I suppose it was the same when I left home for the first time. But this time feels a good deal scarier.

So while people I know have said I've been brave, and done well- I haven't really. I haven't had to cope on my own and although I have friends, I will- for the first time since I broke my leg- have to completely run my own life. Now is when being brave starts.

And I think that doing that with a broken leg is probably the hardest thing I've ever found myself up against. I still feel so vulnerable, without complete physical health. And so isolated from the real world.

I know that in theory I could get on a train and see Alistair tonight. But we both know that in practice I can't. Because unless I wait until I'm fully mobile, which could be a while, it's not going to get easier to start on my own no matter how long I leave it.

It's not just not having Ali around to help that will be hard. I'll miss the opportunities having a car around gave me to get out of the house during the week to places that I just can't get to on crutches. I'll miss the swimming too. And of course, I'll miss living with the person I've wanted to live with for years now anyway.

I hope I can do it.

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How not to get fat and weak with a broken leg
31 October 2013, 10:13 pm



  • Crutch half as far as you'd normally walk.
  • Fingerboard.

That's pretty much it. I'm knackered most of the time from crutching and healing but somehow my life is working out just fine and I'm as happy as I've been since before I broke it. It's not because I'm being super-positive. There are some moments I just want to throw my crutches on the floor, stamp my right foot (well, hop) and cry. And indeed I do, more often than I'd care to let anyone see.

But just recently some little changes have been happening in my recovery that have put me on top of the world. First of all, I can feel myself putting more and more weight on my leg when I crutch. I stand on two feet without crutches now- which is SO much easier in so many ways. OK, so it's not 50/50 and I'm marooned, but it's a start. My triceps are more efficient and crutching is slightly easier*.

When I think about the day it happened too much, I'm able to really look at how far I've come. At how, incredibly after only two weeks after physio exercises, I'm now maybe 2 degrees off straightening my knee, not 15. There's a long way to go, but these changes happened at a time when I really, REALLY needed to see some improvement.

I've also been to a few lectures. Now, I'm not the most enthusiastic in a lecture. Don't get me wrong, I do care about my degree- but I don't ever really fancy a nice lecture. But I'm absolutely loving the normality. Going to the lectures gives me a buzz, it's a real shame it'll wear off in a couple of weeks! I suppose I'm cherry picking lectures too, on the basis that dragging myself up the hill to university 5 days a week is still too much for my triceps and/or leg.

This week's been a week of training. Shoulders were fairly insistent. Who am I to refuse them, the poor dears?

*Ah, crutching. It's fair to say that I've never hated an inanimate object as much as I hate those crutches. I hate them with a passion. Perhaps it's because they've come to symbolise everything I hate about having a broken leg. A loss of freedom, a tiring method of moving around, and the sodding untangling of arms every time I want to put them down. None of these suit someone as impatient as me. Mostly, it's because they're not as good as walking.

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#40 Re: Climbing and Me- A Recovery
November 01, 2013, 05:45:40 am
lovely post, Lisa.

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#41 Re: Six Weeks
November 01, 2013, 07:27:40 am
Six Weeks
23 October 2013, 9:35 pm


I discovered I can feel the screw heads in my ankle. It is my new favourite thing to show to squeamish people. I want to know though, are they slotted or Philips?

Most are hex socket or star drive nowadays.

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#42 One Crutch
November 08, 2013, 12:00:35 am
One Crutch
7 November 2013, 10:33 pm

I went to see the physio today- and she took away one of my crutches! Well, she tried. I wouldn't quite let go. So now I'm just using one!

It's a revelation. I can carry tea... and plates... and anything you can carry or use with just one hand. I had no idea how much difference it would make. Nor how much weight I was allowed to bear. On the other hand, the amount of walking I have to do to get around lectures all day is too much for just using one crutch at the moment and just hurts, so I'm sort of swapping between 2 and 1.

I love physio exercises, it's like training for climbing- if you put enough hours doing the right things in, it's so rewarding. My knee does the thing that knees do now!

The screws hurt though... :(

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#43 Re: Climbing and Me- A Recovery
November 08, 2013, 11:03:32 am
One Crutch
7 November 2013, 10:33 pm

I went to see the physio today- and she took away one of my crutches! Well, she tried. I wouldn't quite let go. So now I'm just using one!


Snap! I'm 8 weeks post op today, with a much less severe injury by the sounds of it (fractured calcanium), so you must be doing OK. You'll be one-footed bouldering before you know it :)

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#44 Top-Roping
November 09, 2013, 06:00:45 pm
Top-Roping
8 November 2013, 9:00 pm

I went for my first top-roping session today.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]Checking I'd tied in properly...[/td][/tr]
[/table]

I guess I'll start with fear. Was I scared? Not when I was climbing. I was very intimidated by the main wall at the foundry- but if I'm honest with myself it always makes me feel small! Had I not known my belayer so well, I might have been scared. But Ali's been my climbing partner longer than we've been going out. I knew he'd look out for me. The other thing was- I've never been hurt top-roping, and it's not much like bouldering!

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]The level of knee-bend achieved here is, if I say so myself, pretty amazing![/td][/tr]
[/table]Although I wasn't scared I was, as I say, very intimidated. There was certainly some nervous chattering to myself as I embarked across the roof of the Foundry main wall. One thing it put into perspective was my psychological need to wear down turned shoes on steep indoor ground. The boot was so useless, that although my other shoe was a size too big, I found it would stand on almost anything.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]This was optimistically taken before I realised that this

 wasn't a function available to my left leg

and just took it off the wall and pulled instead.[/td][/tr]
[/table]

In many ways, it wasn't anything like climbing as I know it. The movement was totally different, I didn't know how to use my foot- because even though it can't do a huge amount, it could certainly have borne more of my weight than it did. But it was a good laugh, and I can only improve.

[tr][td][/td][/tr][tr][td]A more honest portrayal of my 'footwork'[/td][/tr]
[/table]I managed a rather nice pink and purple spotty jug route though ;)

For now, at least, top-roping will remain a game. I'm not ready for training with feet. But it's nice to be able to do something else.

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#45 One or Two?
November 09, 2013, 06:00:46 pm
One or Two?
9 November 2013, 2:39 pm

I'm not sure I'm totally enamored with using one crutch. For one thing, it's extremely slow and makes me feel about a million years old. It also hurts my knee and ankle.

I had to get my housemate to rescue me by bringing a second crutch to university (I'm glad I didn't let the physio take it away) because it hurt too much after a while.

He was very excited and asked to be blogged about... perhaps he hasn't realised how small the blog is :D

I wonder if the physio just doesn't know how much walking between lectures there is compared with being in an office? Or perhaps I showed off too much...



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#46 Déjà vu
November 12, 2013, 12:00:51 am
Déjà vu
11 November 2013, 11:05 pm

Crutches...and rain...are a terrible mix. They seem to think, the University of Leeds, that a horrendous combination of rubber and lino floors are a great idea. Yes, maybe they last longer. Yes, I'm sure they clean better. But for anyone less than steady on their feet- or even in a rush- they're an absolute nightmare when wet. Think climbing shoes on snow.

I've nearly slipped plenty of times, and it's pretty scary. But today both crutches slipped in opposite directions leaving me to slam straight down onto the booted leg. Which was pretty shit.

Fortunately there's a massive titanium rod in it this time, so the déjà vu ended there. But aside from pain, it was incredibly frustrating. I'm so careful, I put so much effort into the physio, I try so hard to get everything right- and then this. If I'd done it fingerboarding, I'd never fingerboard until it was better. But I was walking between lectures. I can't not live until I don't need crutches.

Stupid rain, Stupid floors.

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#47 Stupid Rain, Stupid Floors
November 15, 2013, 06:00:32 pm
Stupid Rain, Stupid Floors
13 November 2013, 10:40 pm

As I had no lectures on Tuesday, I'd decided to spend Monday night in Sheffield with Alistair. We talked about the fall in the wet and decided hopefully things would start hurting less soon.

On Tuesday afternoon I decided that, on the basis that I'd gone from taking no painkillers to a fair few, and couldn't weight bear, I quite fancied an x-ray.

So we popped to A&E for the evening at Northern General. Of course, we packed sweets knowing the wait in store (yes, there is a clearly emerging pattern of turning to sweets in times of distress. I have no regrets). They were quite happy to x-ray my leg; however our luck ended there.

The doctor had a look at the X-rays and took them to her senior, who looked at them and exclaimed 'Two MONTHS? That doesn't look like a two month old fracture! They said that they'd send a pigeon to Leeds who could organise a visit to fracture clinic within the next week, but warned me that pigeons sometimes get lost so I should chase it up.

So on Thursday afternoon, having spent all of Wednesday in a Tramadol-induced haze, I went to LGI. With a different friend this time, and different snacks.

A&E is a funny place. I'd only ever seen it from the ambulance side. But in the waiting room, it's just like being on a bus. Everyone seems so... normal. I mean, there's the odd person you can tell isn't quite OK, like the guy who held an oiled rag to his motorbike chain, thinking that if he ran the bike it would oil it so much faster, now holding that same rag stained red*. But some couples you can't even tell who it is. The anorexic girl and her nice-looking boyfriend, who are they actually here for? The two girls talking about 'real hair hair extensions' and their relative quality, are they just pretending to be OK or have they got the wrong place?

Leeds decided they'd send me to fracture clinic on Monday, and told me to just keep taking painkillers.

There was a very nice radiology student though. I liked him. Not as much as Alistair, obviously.

*Don't worry, he walked out with both hands, and even both thumbs. Minus a little bit. Plus a lot of gauze.



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#48 Healing Bones
November 25, 2013, 06:00:41 pm
Healing Bones
25 November 2013, 4:00 pm

One of this things that really surprises me, two and a half months after breaking my tib and fib- is how much effort if takes to re-grow bones. I need so much more sleep than I needed when my tib and fib were whole.

I suppose this catches me by surprise because as time goes on, I get stronger and more mobile and, the occasional slip aside- things continue to improve. But then at the same time, now that crutching is easier, I want to crutch further.

Sadly, too, I'm no longer the sleep machine that painkillers made me- so if I don't get enough sleep one night, it totals me until the next night I sleep well. I'm no longer capable of cheerfully snoozing the afternoon away.

Though slow, the process of recovery is full of improvement and new possibilities- so much so, that sometimes I forget that there's supposed to be something wrong, get excited, and have to catch up. Looking at the X-rays, the tibia at least is only really just beginning to hug the titanium and in many ways it's still very broken.

My concern at the moment is getting as crutch-independent as possible before the snow and ice begin. That, and getting back on a top-rope this week!

Source: Climbing and Me - A Recovery


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#49 Missing Climbing
December 03, 2013, 06:00:43 pm
Missing Climbing
3 December 2013, 4:06 pm

It's been three months since I broke my tib and fib. I'd love to say it feels like that's flown by, but it really hasn't. It's been frustrating, exhausting and upsetting. I've badly missed the social aspect of climbing and I've struggled to get my head around doing less.

I went to the fracture clinic today where I saw a very abrupt doctor- who said

"It's not doing much healing, are you on steroids?"

"...no" I said.

 "Well", he said, "Take the boot off and just walk everywhere".

He then started talking into his dictaphone about our exchange for about a minute or so. Thinking he was done, I started to leave, when he said "I haven't finished with you yet, come back"... and then dismissed me.

I suppose that's bad for climbing and good for walking. Bad for climbing in the sense that I guess it's not a good idea to go for anything but tight top-roping, and good for walking because, well, there's walking to be done. I feel disappointed in my bone for not doing it's thing since I'm trying so hard to encourage it.

The next fracture clinic appointment is at the fabled four month mark. At this point I was supposed to be walking normally... so I suppose I must be on track.

Though being able to fingerboard has been in many ways a lifesaver, there are days when it takes every last bit of motivation to do it. Sometimes I've put it off until 11 pm, knowing that it'll be the same as last time, give or take three seconds on a smaller hold- and not being excited by it at all. I'm amazed I can still be bothered. Until I broke my leg, the only reason I'd never used a fingerboard properly was that I found it boring. But there's boring, and then there's fingerboarding all the time.

The hardest thing is knowing if it helps. Because I see improvements in the finger boarding, but I never, ever, go for a session where I climb (obviously). Usually I've always been able to tell if I'm getting better at climbing by... climbing. And without climbing, I feel like I've just taken up finger boarding as an activity. And I can't always remember why...

I'm getting used to the recovery, and it's tediousness, but I still can't cope with "it'll be over before you know it". I miss rock climbing, too...

Source: Climbing and Me - A Recovery


 

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