2900 (24050/273350) or How I Ended Up at the Hospital Three Times in One Day

So yesterday, Jeff (my boyfriend) became an uncle. Jeff's brother's wife had a Cesarean Section yesterday afternoon, so when I left work on my bike, I just rode straight to the hospital. Except apparently they hadn't been moved to their room yet, and Jeff was still at home, so I rode the rest of the way home.

Then, around 8:00, we went by and actually got to see the twins (which were cute, a boy and a girl). So, hospital visit number two.

From there, we went to our softball game. We were up to bat first, and I'm third in the order, so I got up and ended up getting walked. We had one out, so I was running if the ball was hit on the ground by the guy behind me, and it was, so I took off to second. His hit went past the third baseman and into shallow left field, so I decided to go for third, since no one was telling me to go or stop. They were close to getting the ball to their third baseman, and they told him to tag me, since it wasn't a force out. Except instead of turning to tag me, he planted his foot in the middle of the bag right before I stepped on it, so I landed on his foot instead. My entire leg buckled and my right knee popped, sending me to the dirt in pain.

Apparently I skinned both of my knees and ripped a large hole in the back of my right thigh when I fell, but the knee hurt so badly that I didn't notice those until quite a bit later. After laying on my face in the infield dirt for a few minutes, two of my teammates (both doctors, incidentally) helped me to the dugout and I sat on the bench next to one of them (Anna). The field manager came and brought a bag of ice, which Anna held to my knee. I was definitely in shock, both when I was down in the field and sitting there on the bench, my ears ringing and my vision all blocky. I felt massively lightheaded and kept trying to shake myself out of it, tried leaning forward to get my balance but couldn't, and reached back to grab the back of the bench.

The next thing I knew I was on the ground, looking up at my teammates. I'd passed out and fallen forward off the bench, hitting my head on the cement. Anna caught me right at the end, so I didn't hit my head too hard, but I was totally confused about where I was and what was happening for a couple of minutes. The field manager called 911, and I ended up having at least one ambulance and a firetruck show up, a cadre of firefighters and EMTs crowding around and checking my vitals (which were fine) and asking me a million questions.

At that point, I mostly felt fine, except I was insanely dehydrated. I asked for some water and then started feeling lightheaded again, so I got laid back and the EMTs tried to convince me to let them take me in to get checked out. Now I know this is nuts, but I kept saying there was no way I'd go in the ambulance, because of the cost. I finally convinced them to radio in and get permission to let me go in one of our own vehicles, signed a form saying that I refused the ambulance, and then Jeff drove me to the ER.

I was not excited to go in, after everything that's happened this week, but I went. They checked me in but refused to give me water (something about not wanting to give me anything before a doctor saw me), and I waited a bit, but not too long. The whole thing took about 90 minutes, and I basically just got my vitals taken a billion times. But my BP is great, my O2 sats are always at 100%, and my resting heart rate is at about 50. Exciting.

So I was released with a diagnosis that my knee was probably just strained (which is not new for me) and that I fainted because of vasovagal syncope due to the pain (also not new - it's happened to me before). And all that for the low, low price of $190 (plus what ever UHC decides to charge me later).

My knee last night felt okay, but tender. During the night, it got worse, woke me up at 4:15. But I said screw it and went to practice anyway. I knew I was going to take it easy, and was really careful when I first started kicking. Right now I can't fully straighten my knee, and I can't bend it past 90º, so my kick on that side might have been at about 30%. Halfway through that first set of 75s I came up with the idea to wear a fin on my good side to try and make up for the lack of power and it worked pretty well (though doing one legged dolphin kick was really hard - I did manage the butterfly, however, somehow).

I spent the rest of the workout either pulling (when it was swimming only) or using the one fin method. Doing that, I was able to do the entire workout without cutting anything, and with very minimal pain. My turns were a little ridiculous (not only could I not push off with my right leg, but I couldn't even tuck it out of the way, so it made the push really pathetic) and I had a little trouble getting out of the pool, having to pull myself out backwards at the gutter and then couldn't get up from the pool deck. I made Evan come help me, heh. :)

Also, and this is mostly for Rob, I used my H20 Audio Interval system during my warmup today and I LOVED IT. The ear pieces I picked fit really snugly and didn't slip or move at all, and made a tight seal in my ear. The sound quality was great, about what I'd expect from any headphones. I obviously wasn't doing anything crazy, stroke wise, but the device didn't move around or bother me on my goggle straps, and it was easy enough to skip songs or change the volume while I was wearing it. Also, it made the 500 meters I swam go by SO fast. I can definitely see myself going to swim on the weekends more now that I have this thing, to keep me from getting bored and lost in my own head. Music is definitely motivating to me when I exercise, and I love being able to have it in the pool now as well. :)

300 swim, free/back by 50 (warmup)
200 kick, free/back by 50 (warmup)
4 x 75, kick/swim/kick, odd choice, even fly
6 x 50 free, odds on :50, evens on 1:00 (pull)
400 pull (with paddles)
3 x 100, 25 kick / 25 right arm / 25 left arm / 25 swim
200 free, negative split (pull)
3 x 100, 25 swim / 25 kick / 25 fingertip drag / 25 swim
3 x 100 free on 1:50 (pull)
50 pull (warmdown)

Total: 2650 SCM (~2900 SCY)