Arrrrrrrrgh

[jayfurr]

I haven't said anything about our Florida vacation for several reasons:

1) no one gives a damn that I was in Florida scuba-diving and relaxing over Christmas while they were back home in the cold or dealing with family and pressure and stuff, and,

2) I tend to want to make really good vacation summary posts rather than just saying "went to Florida for a week, it was fun, now we're back" and in the end wind up not writing anything, and,

3) I tore my left calf muscle taking a "giant stride" off a dive boat in the waters off Key Largo, Florida on December 21. And that, my friends, is the main reason I haven't said anything. The throbbing, aching pain from my left leg is at times bad enough that I want to say nothing at all to anyone for long periods of time and just go hide somewhere with a big ice pack. (Side note: it WAS NOT the 'bends' that caused the injury. It was my first dive of the day and first dive in months and it happened as I was GOING IN.)

It's a minor, but very painful, tear that I thought was just a bad cramp at first. I didn't even abort the dive when it happened - I did normal cramp recovery flexing and continued on, then did another dive later that afternoon with no issues. If you've ever had a bad charley horse you know that your leg can feel stiff and sore for quite some time after the cramp has largely passed. That's pretty much what it felt like. The leg ached and was stiff, but it didn't feel like I'd done myself real damage. I genuinely thought it was just a lingering stiffness from a bad charley horse and proceeded to do four more dives while we were down in the Keys. Carole was sort of pleased by an inadvertent consequence of the injury: I walked slowly and in no great hurry and for the first time since we met 13 years ago she found herself more than able to keep up with me.

Then we flew home. The leg still felt mostly okay when we landed on Saturday afternoon, December 27. But sometime after we got home I did something that made it worse. I'm not sure what. Perhaps it was all the work of lugging heavy suitcases up the stairs in our house or something, but in any case, Sunday afternoon was just pure agony. I kept gobbling ibuprofen like candy and putting heat on the muscle and was rewarded for my efforts by a giant purple bruise on my left foot the following morning where blood had run down and pooled under the skin. Sort of nasty looking. Ack.

I went to the doctor Monday morning and got a diagnosis of a tear in a small muscle at the top of the calf. The doctor didn't prescribe any pain medication, simply recommending that I ice it every time it started to hurt and take ibuprofen in the meanwhile. So that's what I've been doing. Ice definitely helps. I should have spent more time icing and less time with heat on it, whether or not the heat felt 'good'. The heat probably caused the purpling of my foot by bringing so much blood to the leg.

Over the last day or two the pain's lessened, but just now, sitting at my desk at my office for the first time in two weeks, it's started up again. It hurts a lot, to be honest. Fortunately, I'm not teaching today, so I'm going to grab my laptop and head home and get busy icing it.

Sigh. What a drag it is getting old.

Comments

[bethzebra.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear that you got hurt. I'm a big believer in ice, so I hope it helps.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Sigh. What a drag it is getting old.

*nods* The only advantage to being old is that you already know what you like :)

[jhvilas.livejournal.com]

Tear: Ugh, I'm sorry. That sounds painful. Yeah, ice works better early on (48 hours, maybe? not sure). Then heat after that.

I have a buttload of Vicodin for the case of shingles I got for Xmas. It's also helped with my back, which is not so good because of moving activities. Wish I could give you some. :)

[tafkad.livejournal.com]

I believe one of Terry Pratchett's characters said about living to an extremely old age that we all get the same amount of "young"; very old people just get more "old".

Hope you're healed up soon.

[l-l-u-w-d.livejournal.com]

Back in 2005, I tore a calf muscle, as well. And, of all the things I could have been doing to injure myself in such a manner, I had to choose the one that is, admittedly, about the most embarassing for me. I was line dancing. Of all things. Except the music was over, and I was doing that last little step, and then walking off the dance floor. I didn't trip, or stumble, or slip, either. I just happened to turn my foot/ankle/leg just the right way, with just enough torque/pressure, and step just so...and I thought I had a gigantic charley horse! Yikes! It HURT! I hobbled and limped over to my seat, because the concert I was there for was about to begin, and sat down, and tried to work out the cramp. Except it wouldn't work out. And, when I tried to walk on it, I couldn't. It was too painful. And, for me and my pain tolerance, that is something right there that tells me that something is wrong. When the pain is too great for me to do something, it's definitely time for a trip to get it checked out. BUT, I stayed for the concert. The friend that I went to the concert with was such a sweetheart. He carried me, on his back, piggy back style, all over the bar that night, if I had to go to the bathroom, or whatnot, and even piggy backed me up to meet the singer that night. It was fun, and awesome, and mortifyingly embarassing, all at once. And, then, after the concert, he went with me to the ER to get it checked out afterward. Yep, I tore a calf muscle, and ended up on crutches. By the time I got home, I had that same blood pooling under the skin from the tear that you had, as well. It finally got better, but I did at least get some Vicodin out of my dr visit. Plain old OTC pain killers weren't doing anything at all for me.

I hope you feel better soon. :)

[jayfurr.livejournal.com]

Owwwwwww.

Seriously.

Sigh.

I am glad to report that my calf is starting to feel a bit better. Haven't had to ice it this weekend, thank Jeebus.