Jason Lancaster

On Sunday, Emily and I decided to do a quick impromptu bouldering session at the local climbing gym. Unfortunately, I did something bad that I’m afraid is going to haunt me for quite a while. While holding on to a really funky and hard to use hold, I heard a “pop” as my hand forced me to let go and fell to the floor. I stood up to try and get back on that hold and felt a really sharp pain in my wrist.

I gave up on that hold and moved on to a couple more climbs but we had to go very soon. I went home, took a few ibuprofen, and hoped it would feel better in the morning. Today, it’s still swollen and aches all the time. I’m icing my wrist as I speak.

My second climbing related injury! I’m not even sure if I wrote about the first, but I tried to campus on a few holds and miscalculated a reach and punched a plastic hold very hard, fracturing a knuckle. That hurt for a long time but I was able to deal with the pain and keep climbing since there wasn’t anything to immobilize in order to heal. I’m not so sure this injury is going to be as simple.

It’s likely one of my pulleys. I have a doc appointment next Friday. Until then, it hurts to type, hurts to climb, hurts to do just about anything so I’ll probably be moping around wishing I had warmed up and stretched better for my short climbing session on Sunday.

After being on crutches since the 20th of November, I came off yesterday and immediately found pain in the old area, a tender spot on the bottom of my foot. The side of my foot healed up in the 9 weeks I was off it, but they’ve said I have sesamoiditis and don’t expect that crutches are going to be of much help for the rest of my pain. Resting, ice, ibuprofen, and cortisone seem to be the solution for now.

They gave me a cortisone injection and sent me off to have a MRI performed. A followup appointment will be made in early February assuming nothing odd is found in the MRI.

I had a long struggle with tendinitis in my right elbow back in high school and don’t look forward to a similar struggle with the foot. I pretty much had to stop all activity that bothered it for years until it finally healed. This has been a real bummer for me; at least when it was my arm I could easily take it easy. The feet are a much harder thing to rest.

So it looks like the early part of this year will be spent continuing my one-footed, or at least mostly one-footed climbing. Once the tenderness of the cortisone shot goes down I’ll be able to spend some much needed time at the house finishing up the final projects in order to move in March 1st.

I found out on the 20th of November I fractured a sesamoid bone in my foot just behind my big toe. So, I’ve been on crutches since then and will be until January 1st. What a bummer. A lot of activities will be impacted including work, climbing, dancing, and even holiday travel plans.

On the bright side, I’ve had some major problems with that big toe joint, perhaps what is called sesamoiditis. At least I’ll be giving that some time to rest and heal. I hope in the new year I can cure some more of these aches and pains I’ve been having. Being off my foot for six weeks is a good start.

In my quest to become a bionic man, I think I’ll ask for a new left wrist. If that requires a hand replacement, so be it. But if I get a hand replacement, I want to be able to crush things with that hand like Will Smith in I, Robot. Or I’d just settle for a chainsaw attachment! 

The real bummer here is that I haven’t been able to climb or even dance very well for the past week since last Tuesday I somehow sprained/strained something in my left wrist climbing. At first, I was barely able to move my wrist and in a ton of pain but things have improved to the point where I can get by doing most things without really wincing in pain. It’s still a little hard to wash my hair or grab my car’s seatbelt behind me — and I surely can’t climb. But at least I can still dance as long as I’m careful not to twist my wrist.