Swell time

A real case of I told you so today.

Strangely it was me telling myself I told you so. At least part of me gets to feel smug about being right.

Yesterday I mentioned that I thought I might have been getting a bit carried away with my training, particularly after my 120km on the bike yesterday morning. Turns out I might have been right with significant swelling becoming apparent at one end of the incision last night and this morning.  The swelling was isolated but significant with a very swollen spot about the size of a $2 coin above one end of where the plate that was inserted.

When I saw it last night my immediate fear was infection. I wasn't sure how the infection might have occurred since the wound has been healed for weeks. But after the surgery the doctors had emphasised that infection was a big concern so that is where my mind went first.

I went to bed hoping that the swelling would be reduced in the morning, but sadly it wasn't. That got me concerned enough to head to the doctor. My surgeon is away and given it is a Sunday I didn't have a wide range of choices so I just headed to a local GP. After all I just wanted confirmation of whether I needed to be concerned or not. The GP was great and was able to assure me that it wasn't showing any signs of infection, it wasn't red, or sore to the touch or weeping etc. She suspected that it was soft tissue swelling and asked if I have been over exerting the injury recently. Who me???

Fair to say that yesterday's ride may have counted as over exertion. I didn't actually tell the GP about the ride (I may felt just a little bit silly), I just sort of made the leap of logic that 120km on the bike was overdoing it all by myself. The diagnosis makes sense since the swelling has occurred above one corner of the plate. I imagine 120km of bumping and jolting simply caused the plate corner to irritate the surrounding tissue. I guess 120km is a lot of time to be taking load. That would probably be enough to irritate anyone. Ironically the shoulder wasn't sore at all yesterday and other than the swelling it is feeling really good today. Oh well. 

The doctor recommended hitting the ice fairly hard which is what I have been doing today. So far the icing has been getting results with the swelling reducing significantly in the last few hours. That gives me confidence that her diagnosis is correct. I will keep it up and see how it is in the morning, but I am confident of it coming good. If the swelling doesn't continue to reduce (or it gets worse) then it will be straight back to the doctor for me.

Lesson learnt though, I can't treat my body as if it hasn't been through anything, that simply isn't the case. Slow and steady is the key. The fitness and the healing will get there in the end, I just need to give it the time in needs. Smashing myself this early doesn't really gain me anything.

Given all this I didn't train today. When I woke up in the morning it was pretty clear to me that I needed to be giving my body a break until the cause of the swelling was known. Now that it is known it seems even more obvious that rest is required. I may head down to the pool in the morning or I may give it another day to come good. I will see how the swelling is looking tonight before making that decision. It is obvious that I need to take everything back a gear though, which is what I will be working on this week.