A Twist of the Wrist

Wrist rehab has been going well.  PT is three times a week and I've gone back to the same place that I went for rehab when I had shoulder surgery years ago.  They're a great place, extremely knowledgeable and most importantly – aren't afraid to push to get the most out of the rehabilitation process.  Loren and Ann have been doing their best to make things difficult for me and it's been great, albeit painful and uncomfortable most times, but the results are tangible and I can see improvement every day.  I've wanted to make sure with the wrist that I've been doing everything possible to get back to normal, as quickly as possible.

While the PT has been going on, I've been going back to the gym the last couple weeks.  I'm not doing nearly the weight on things as I have in the past, but just building back up and doing the same exercises, which has been another form of PT to get things moving, stretched and back towards normal.  Spin classes have also been a big help – just the vibration of bouncing up and down on the pedal bike while breaking a sweat has seemed to help so far.  I've also been wearing a brace to help stretch the wrist and improve range of motion, while also doing stuff with putty and icing it every night.  I can tell there is better range of motion than there was before the surgery – which was a limiting factor in my riding last year.  All this is encouraging and the winter weather has certainly made sticking to the plan a bit easier.

New x-rays were taken earlier this week and I sent them over to San Diego for Dr. Chao and Dr. Rotenberg to look at (who both did the surgery).  They said everything is looking good and healing as it should be, which was certainly good news to receive.  All the PT in the world can't speed up blood cell growth and bone healing/meshing, so that's a bit out of my hands.  Diet is about all I can do to help maximize the healing process it seems.

The most popular question people are asking is when the first return race is.  WERA visits Grattan the first weekend of May and I'm targeting that as the return date.  It's not all that realistic, given the prognosis I received of 6-12 months, but if I don't have a goal to push towards, the 2-3 times of working at it per day don't happen.  It's a long shot, but I'm remaining optimistic that it is doable.