Sunday, February 7, 2010

Derailed

I'm way to busy for a real post, but I've got so much to say!

Friday night I went to a pool party at UBC and was jumping off the 3m diving board and faceplanted in the water and the net result is I'm pretty sure I got a concussion. I heard my teeth clap together and I've had a headache since. How did I do this you ask. Well it was pretty much like this:



yeah, pretty stupid. And it HURT!

How did I feel about this? well, this photo summarizes my feelings quite well.


The net result:


I can't believe the lack of focus I've had. Unable to concentrate on anything which is really inconvenient because I have a lot of work to do in the lab this week.

As much as I've read about concussions, they say you need to get rest and drink water. I've been able to do about 50% of that, however, today I have been in the lab for 15 hours so far and when contemplating going home I'm thinking that this would be a "short" day. Last week I managed over 100 hours over 6 days! Gross. It feels like I am on Christmas holiday when you no longer know what day of the week it is.

Why am I so busy you may ask? It's because I have a committee meeting this coming Friday where we are deciding my future. Can I start to write up my thesis? Has my progress been adequate? Soon I'll have to make real life decisions which is scary. I much prefer the alternative:

But, in all reality I do need to start wrapping things up and moving on.


How does all this relate to triathlon you may ask? And what was derailed? Well, I've read plenty about how with concussions I shouldn't be physically exerting myself. Something about causing more brain damage. As a result I have had to postpone my 50 day running challenge. I will probably delay it until Friday. Hopefully the headaches are gone by then. This has been a huge bummer because we had a 500m swim test set yesterday where I "cruised" trying not to get my heart rate up and just focus on Distance Per Stroke and managed a new PB of 7:12. Had I not been concerned with raising my heart rate above 140 I feel like I could have gone much faster. Even that exertion was too much and my head was spinning for the rest of the day which led to my conclusion that I needed a break. Even walking up stairs is rough. This sucks because I was right on track for an awesome 5k run time trial this coming Wednesday. Instead I'll just have to spectate.


Thankfully with the help of Advil, I can control the head and get some work done. The only issue I've noticed is that my focus is completely gone. I need to try really hard to get anything done this week, even writing this post I kept getting distracted and off topic. Oh well. Hopefully some of my cartoons have been at least entertaining. If nothing else this post has been:


Have a good weekend everyone!

Oh wait, its Monday...

3 comments:

Derek WL said...

OHhh man.
I know where you're coming from. Imagine me as a competitive diver and you'll have a pretty good idea of how I can relate to you...

I hope this week gets better for you and your head recovers quickly!!! Be careful with those concussions though!

Michelle said...

I liked the cartoons :) Very helpful on a very boring day at work...

Chloe said...

I hope you are feeling better :( damn diving boards. But the cartoons gave me a pretty good laugh. ;)