At this point, everyone who might have been upset to learn this sort of news from the web in a blog post, instead of from me directly, knows. So I can post this bit of personal news without fear of repercussion.
A couple Monday’s ago, I tore one of the biceps tendons in my left arm doing chin-ups before my martial arts class. I’ve had a personal goal of being able to do 20 at a shot and I’ve been working at it about 5 years now. I’m not built to do chin-ups/ pull-ups (long arms and heavy), but I’ve made good progress. I’d reached 15 at one point over the Summer.
Anyway, I felt the grinding in my elbow on the first rep. I stopped and walked around a bit trying to get a measure of whether it was an injury or if I’d just tweaked something. I went back to try it again, but could only make it about 3/4 the way up before the pain stopped me. Even so, I didn’t realize something more was afoot until the next day when I noticed numbness in my forearm (due to swelling in the area, according to the orthopedic guy) and an inability to tense the muscles in my upper arm. I also can’t turn my forearm in the palm-up direction with any strength.
So next Wednesday I’ll be having surgery to repair the injury. I’ll basically be useless for about 2-3 months afterwards. The first month of recovery will be dedicated just to regaining the full range of motion in my arm. I won’t be able to pick up anything heavier than a cell phone. The full recovery schedule is 6 months if there are no complications.
Suffice it to say, the timing couldn’t have been much worse. I won’t be able to finish the cutting a chopping cord wood; nor plow and shovel snow; nor (easily) haul wood in to feed our fireplace; nor do pretty much anything that requires 2 functional arms.
About the only thing I’ll be able to continue normally with is managing the kids. Though, I won’t be surprised if they decide to test Dad to see if they can get away with a little more. They’ll only make that mistake once.