Ramblings From Justin Penney

This evening I went for a 15 mile ride on my motorcycle and loved every minute of it. I'm paying for it (via soreness) now, but do not regret my decision to motor around for a while.

Five weeks ago I was practicing panic stops in a parking lot fell over going about 30 miles an hour. Overall, I was pretty OK after the fall and following slide. I had a little road rash on my knee but got up quick and then had very deep concern for my machine that was now lying lifeless on the ground. When I reached for the handlebars to right my fallen steed I noticed that my left thumb was not taking input from my brain. This was the point that I knew I had a reasonably serious injury.

Luckily, I was with Nick and he rode my bike to my house to pick up my truck. He returned to the parking lot and I drove my truck, and Nick rode his bike, to my house. This was a perfect opportunity for ice and ice cold beers.

After a few hours I decided that I should go to an urgent card facility and get my amazingly immobile, and now very sore, thumb looked at.

I broke it. The X-ray displays a little jagged piece right where my thumb meets my wrist. This little anomaly on the image meant that I would spend many weeks with my thumb and wrist immobilised in some device of modern medical bondage. I did, fortunately, escape surgery and pins.

After four weeks the orthopedic surgeon gave me freedom from the thumb spica splint that impeded my existence. He also moved me into the land of sore shrunken hands.

In my daily existence, I use my hands a tremendous amount. Typing, wrenching, instruments ... all of this lead to pretty strong dexterous hands. After years of honing their fine, powerful movements of purpose, four short weeks in a splint demolishes my left hand. It's now a diminutive mirror of it's eastern brother with dry, loose skin and a tendency to shake when called in to action. Every movement require and inordinate amount of thought and planning.

I was wholly unprepared for the extent of an injury such as this. I was lucky through the decades of skateboards, inline skates, and bicycles that I never had more than a week or so out of commission. I am still in denial about the recovery time of this injury ... and that denial is pretty painful.

# posted by Justin @ 10:46 PM