Ouch

Francis got a light week post-Blue Rock. Partially by design to let him recuperate after working hard, partially because work was crazy and I was playing catch-up from being out of the office, and partially because I couldn’t really breathe properly.

See, in true Olivia fashion, I managed to bash myself in the chest SUPER hard with the butt end of my crop while at Swan Lake. Adrenaline carried me through the rest of the show, but it started hurting more and more acutely. Laughing, sneezing, coughing, and taking deep breaths all caused pretty severe pain. As did turning my steering wheel with my left arm. All of which I basically ignored because ugh whatever.

But then I hopped on for a hard ride over the weekend, and had to quit early since I couldn’t catch my breath. No deep breaths = getting winded WAY too quickly. I’m only willing to ignore things until they interfere with my riding, so I went in for medical attention.

The good news: there’s no fracture! Hooray for keeping my bones intact.

The “eh” news: there’s a deep bone contusion, and the treatment is basically the same as if I’d fractured an upper rib. Hooray!

I’m now on a medication to manage the inflammation and resulting pain, another for the resulting muscle spasms, and get to play with a fun toy called an incentive spirometer 4x a day for the next 10 days to make sure I don’t get pneumonia.

Yeah it’s totally normal to rattle this around at the office. Totally. Also mine goes up to 4000, am I set up for failure?!

The especially fun part is that breathing deeply is still painful (though the anti-inflammatory helps a TON). Don’t injure anything near your lungs, kids. It’s annoying.

Luckily I’m medicated and on the mend, so we can get back to our regular training program without lurking fears of a punctured lung. Sorry Francis, hope you enjoyed your break while it lasted. Your mama is broken, but not broken enough to stay out of the saddle.