Brilliant … But Bouncy

It Takes Too Long To Heal!

I crashed my bicycle a few weeks ago. One of my friends said, “Don’t you know you can’t crash at our age? It takes too long to heal!” And I ignored her.

Fast forward to three weeks later, maybe a month. I’ve lost count. The cuts on my skin are still there. That alone says one of two things. It either says, Those were some pretty deep cuts! or it says, It takes too long to heal!

The cut on my leg, which was not deep because I was wearing pants, is almost gone. I wonder if Shane had gotten the same injuries, if he would have been healed in a week. He’s only 40 years younger than me.

When I crashed, I landed on my right arm. Somehow this jarred a portion of my core; my entire right side hurts when I stretch. This is an improvement. It used to hurt when I moved even a little, and that went on for a week.

The landing also appears to have slammed something in my neck onto a nerve. A week after the crash, I woke up unable to lift my right arm. It took me several days and some consultations (with softball players, not with doctors) to realize that it was a pinched nerve. The giveaway: Bill pushed on my neck in one specific spot, and my brain spun. The whole room went around, and I was just lying still. It was insane.

After the room spin, though, my arm lifting got a little better. Unfortunately, at the same time I was revisited by sudden spells of vertigo. This morning when I woke up, I couldn’t hold myself upright. But hey, I can lift my arm! Not as well as I could a month ago, but … I can lift it.

If I stretch my neck a certain way and lie very, very still for a long time, my vertigo goes away. Mostly. This tells me that I’m correct about the pinched nerve. My softball buddy says he was told by two neurosurgeons that a pinched nerve requires immediate, drastic surgery of the neck. He chose to go to a chiropractor instead – something he didn’t believe in – and after three weeks, he was functional again.

Bill is my version of a chiropractor. He is very kind about trying to “fix” me – although I shudder to think what I would do without him. I sure wouldn’t be lifting my arm yet. To be honest, I’d probably have given up sports long ago if he didn’t assist with my ailments. He is a saint.

I suppose I would go to an actual doctor, or a chiropractor, if he weren’t around. But I trust Bill more.

So while I wait for him to come home from work so that he can work with me, I will just rest. (This, of course, is also thanks to Bill.) I am glad that we don’t have softball today, because playing without my throwing arm is unacceptable. By next week, I expect to be fully healed. Or at least by next month.

What I have learned from all of this is: don’t crash the bike.