Two Steps Forward...

I did something to my elbow overnight Friday. I have no idea what, I woke up when the pain hit so I don't know what came before. 

I'm hoping that what I did was twist it in such a way that I pulled some scar tissue loose from the surrounding area. That happens with surgeries and injuries. The scar tissue adheres to the tissue around it and ends up limiting mobility. It's not good when it happens and you can work it loose. Or tear it loose. 

Horrific story that illustrates it...

A friend of mine had her knee replaced and was having a hard time in recovery. Could not get her range of motion back. Had some pain that wasn't going away. One day while she was home alone trying to maneuver around the house she fell down a flight of stairs. Horrific pain and tearing feeling in her knee. She was sure that it was wrecked. Ended up in the hospital getting scans and xrays and they were testing her range of motion and...it was better. She was where they thought she should be. And it was already starting to feel better from when she fell. 

She tore loose all of the scar tissue that was binding her new knee up. By falling she actually helped her healing. 

So that's what I'm hoping. That what happened is the scar tissue loosened up. Which I do have a ridge of scar tissue in there that I can feel and it seems like maybe it's a little more mobile now. Either way I'll keep an eye on it for awhile. 

My therapist did warn me that there would be moments of stepping back in the progress. That it was still going to take a year (or more) to fully heal. To not rush it, or get discouraged if I felt like I lost some progress. So I'm trying to make sure I keep that in mind. 

I also did not book any tours in Hawaii with beach or open ocean loading. We will snorkel from the beach and just cruise around being fancy on the boats. And no kayaking. It's going to be a really low key trip for us for a change. Which could be fun. Or it could be a reminder to keep doing my PT exercises and keeping fit overall so we can continue to have active Hawaii adventures!

But Brent was right, it just wasn't really worth the risk, even if I thought the risk was minimal. It also wasn't worth stressing him out, because he would be stressed each time we loaded, and each time I swam to a ladder, and this vacation is really needed for him to destress. 

Though he did tell me that he's almost always slightly worried about how I'm going to hurt myself...

I mean I could be insulted but the variety of bruises, scars and healing injuries I have sort of proves he has at least a little bit of a reason to worry!

So that's where I am. Not as good as I was last week this time, but still holding out hope that it is actually a good thing. 

Two steps forward, one step back is still going in the right direction!