Where Have I Been?

That is a question that even I have muttered to myself in the past month but i believe I actually have a good excuse for the layoff from blogging. At about 2:15 pm on August 2, 2008, I was struck by an on-coming car while riding my motorcycle. No significant damage to the bike but my left hand was shattered into 20 pieces along with minor injuries to my lower leg. My hand will require three reconstructive surgeries over the next several months before I can begin formal rehabilitation.

The bad news... my hand is totally effed and is going to set progress of my training back roughly 2 years. The good news... my hand injury is so severe that it required surgical intervention from the top hand specialist in Boston.

During my pre-op doctors appointment, the first surgeon I saw just dropped his jaw after looking at the x-rays. I asked him if he was going to be doing the surgery and he just laughed. I was told that there was only one person qualified to handle the extent of my injury. Apparently they see injuries as severe as my hand "once, maybe twice a year."

I Caution You About the Following if You Have a Weak Stomach:

This shot is a little blurry but it was taken roughly 30 minutes after the accident.

Note the finger displacement and the laceration on my index finger. (i almost lost that one just from the impact)

This is one of my first x-rays at Beth Israel Hospital.

Take note to how low my middle finger rests. It should rest higher than my ring finger along with the index finger.

I boxed out the main breaks in my hand.

Both the index finger and middle finger (metacarpals)in my hand are shattered into 10 pieces each. Along with a fracture of my medial phalange of the middle finger.

This is the side view of my hand.

If you look close enough you can see the dislocations of fractured bones on top of and under my wrist.

The hand specialists reduced the dislocations to the best of their ability while i was in the emergency room.

My hand one week from the accident and only a few days before the first surgery.

This X-ray is two weeks post-op and is a clear visual of the five pins they put in my hand to hold it together.

My hand uncasted 2 weeks post-op. I'm definitely going to have a bad ass scar on the top of my hand.

They also performed a carpal tunnel release because they expected so much swelling.

Prognosis: 1 year recovery time.... 10% loss of function in my left hand

The Impact On My Body and Training Since the Accident

It has been a little over a month since the accident and yes I am still training but obviously not at the same level. I have lost about 15 lbs of muscle. I struggle cooking and cleaning dishes since my left hand is almost totally useless so I cannot fuel my body properly. I cannot deadlift. I back squat but since i cannot grip a bar with my left hand and cannot close it to create tension, I feel uncomfortable with as little as 315 on the bar.

I have created a device that attaches to my left upper arm and allows me to hang from a pull up bar to do body weight pull-ups.... but hang a 16kg k-bell from my foot and it feels like my arm will fall off.

Lots and lots of modifications.....

High volume 24kg snatches

Modified get-ups

1 arm swings

Bottoms up drills up the wazoo

Modified pull -ups

modified cable high pulls (attached to my distal bicep)

Get the idea?

I'm am making it work for me. Yes I will need at ton of remedial work to fix my imbalances when this is all said and done with but keeping my fitness up will increase my blood flow and boost the healing process.