And the answer is....Surgery

I went back to my orthopedist today, and after his review of my MRI and another x-ray, he decided I should have the surgery. The picture below is one of the images from the MRI. I'm pretty sure you can see where the break is. This is a side view of my wrist and the break is on my radius. That part on top seems to be sliding further down and that's why the doctor wants to do surgery and put a thin metal plate in there. He is afraid it could slide further and really give me problems later on.I have a tentative surgery date for Monday afternoon. The surgery itself should be about an hour. They will put me under anesthesia, but I should be able to go home afterwards. Unfortunately, I will have to take about a week off work to recover. If only this happened in August, I'd be able to use my sick days, but my work has a rule about not being able to access your sick time or vacation until you have been there a year.

The good news is this will speed up my recovery time. Instead of wearing my cast for another 4 weeks, I will only need to wear a splint after the surgery for 1-2 weeks and then begin physical therapy.

Medical Update

Yesterday I went to the Orthopedic to get my cast put on. He did an x-ray before putting the cast on and saw that the part of my radius that had the large break was not perfectly aligned. He showed me the image, and if he hadn't pointed it out, I wouldn't have even noticed the offset, but I did see it. He said he wanted to get a CT scan of it to see if I need surgery. He said because I'm so young, it's important that it heals correctly.

So that afternoon I went to the imaging office and got the CT scan. They sent the information directly to my Orthopedic, so now I'm just waiting to hear back from my doctor.

I'd rather not have to go through surgery, but I do want my wrist to heal well and not give me problems later on. Please keep me in your prayers that God will heal my wrist one way or other.

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, my long weekend started out with a bang....or should I say break? Thursday night I was playing volleyball at my league in Oakland. I was playing up at the net when I got a set that was far outside. I was moving backwards to reach for it and I tripped on the base of the pole, twisting my ankle and then landing on my wrist and breaking it. My wrist looked like it caved in and then bulged out like a crooked road. The pain was excrutiating, but the other players were very supportive, getting me ice, calling the ambulance, and a couple guys on my team even drove my car home for me since I took the ambulance to the hospital in Berkeley. They called my roommate, Marisol, for me and she came out to the hospital to sit with me and give me a ride home. Oh, and my friend Scott from my volleyball team followed me to the hospital and stayed until Marisol got there. He was really sweet as well.

My other friend, Sonia, and I were planning on leaving at 6am the next morning for our road trip to Oregon and Tahoe, so I asked Marisol to call her and let her know what happened. Without me even asking her to, Sonia drove out to Berkeley from Concord as well! I feel so lucky to have a couple of really good friends here. They are super sweet and I don't know what I would've done if I had to go through all that alone. Especially since right after Sonia came, the doctor reduced my wrist. This meant the doctor was on one side of me and the nurse on the other side and they pulled my wrist and reset it in place! Even though they had just put more morphine in my IV and injected two shots of something else into my wrist, I still cried out in pain and squirmed in my bed! To make a long story short, my ankle turned out fine, just a little sore, and my wrist was broken with multiple breaks in the radius and a small fracture to the ulna. We ended up leaving the hospital at about 2am. I am now wearing a splint and a sling and I go in today to get a cast put on.

As for the trip, Sonia and I still did our road trip, we just left a little later and she drove the whole way. It was so great to visit with my family (I was really wanting my Mommy at that point) and it was great for Sonia to meet everyone. She was amazed by their cabin and took lots of pictures.

On Sunday, we got back on the road and drove down to Lake Tahoe where her parents were staying in their timeshare. This was my first time at Tahoe and it was beautiful! This time I took most of the pictures. Sunday evening we went out for sushi with her parents and then stayed in their condo. Her parents are very nice and interesting people. Her dad is from the Czech Republic and her mom from Slovakia, so I love hearing their stories about how they came here and all of their travels.

The original reason for wanting to go to Tahoe was for Sonia and I to train for our Tahoe Relay that we have on June 13th. Well, now that I have a broken arm, I won't be running the race so we're looking for someone to replace my leg of the race. Sonia still got up Monday morning and tried to run 4 miles of her uphill portion, but she said she died at 3.5 miles....maybe it's a good thing I'm not running.

That afternoon, we all went for a hike down to a beach area of the lake. It was absolutely gorgeous! After we we finished our lunch on the sand, we started to hear thunder and heavy clouds began to move in. It was the neatest thing! It just started sprinkling as we were leaving. What a great day! Even with a broken wrist I was able to have an awesome weekend!

What a workout!

Lately I've been trying to amp up my running. For one: I'm training for the Lake Tahoe Relay next month. Two: I want to run a marathon by the end of the year. Three: I just feel out of shape and want to work on that. I've been running, but I can only push myself so much on my own. I've found that some of the sports stores around here offer free group runs in the evenings, so I decided to try one out last night. Well, I went to this particular one once before back in the fall, but I haven't gone since.

I just wanted to share the little story of last night because, looking back on it now, it's kind of a good one!

So I started out running with the group kind of towards the front (there were a few guys who were way ahead of me and I didn't even attempt to keep up). We ended up running in Shell Ridge rec area, which is up on the grassy hills with oak trees. It was a beautiful place and I was running well, keeping up with these two men. People started dropping off and turning back. I told myself I would run 30 minutes before turning around. I had a volleyball game at 8, so I couldn't run any longer than that. Well, the men came to the turnaround point right about that time, so I turned with them. They chatted with me a little bit, then slowly got ahead of me. I could still see one guy up ahead, so I just followed where he was going. Suddenly I didn't recognize the trail anymore. 'Am I going the right way?' I thought. The guy ahead slowed to a walk and I was able to catch up with him. "Are you part of the group run?" I asked. "No. Are you?" he responded. Oh no, I was following the wrong person! He helped me figure out which way I wanted to go to get out of there and so I took off, hoping to catch up with the group.

I got off of the trail and back to the streets, but it didn't seem like the same streets we came in on. I kept following the street I was on and looked up at the sign to see what street it was. 'Marshall Dr' haha, how funny is that? This was not the right street, but I kept following it hoping it would lead me to a familiar street. Well, it just seemed to keep winding around. It was a really pretty street with adorable houses and lots of shading trees but if I didn't find my way back soon, I wasn't going to make my game. 'At least I know I'm going the right direction,' I thought, because I was running toward the sun. 'Wait a second...the sun sets in the west and I'm pretty sure the store is north of here, so I'm not going the right direction!'

It seemed like a friendly enough neighborhood, so I decided to wave down the next car and ask for directions. Along came a car, and I stopped and waved, but apparently I'm not good at waving down cars because the lady just waved back and kept driving. Then I saw a couple doing some gardening in their front yard so I asked them for help. They were very sweet and seemed so excited just when I said hi. They eagerly directed me out to the main road, but I was a lot further down from the store that where I left from (and also downhill), but I had to hurry to get to my game. So I pushed up the hill, keeping up my rushed pace that I had been running for the last 10 minutes or so.

I finally made it back to my car at 7:50, so I had to immediately drive to my volleyball game. Good thing I brought my knee pads and volleyball shoes with me. I ran into the gym where my team was already warming up. Luckily they hadn't started on time. They were all relieved to see me since; they were starting to get worried. It'd be a great ending to my story if I said that we won.......but we didn't. :( My team hasn't been doing so well this season. Oh well, they're fun to play with and I definitely had a good workout last night. I ran for over an hour (and fast too, probably about 7 or 8 miles) and then I played volleyball for 45 minutes. If only I could keep this up every night, I'd be in great shape!

Hiking

Shortly after I moved here, I bought a book called "100 Hikes in the San Francisco Bay Area" and I haven't done any of them yet! So I decided to this weekend, and I have to say it was awesome! My goal now is to do all of them....eventually. It was a great day! I started out by driving to Berkeley because there were a few stores I wanted to go to there, then I went to the hiking location which was at a National Park just east of Berkeley. It took me a little while and some turning around a few times to find the location, but the drive was beautiful, so I didn't mind. So here are some pictures:

The spot where the trail started was called Inspiration Point. Can you see my car in the background?

Here are some pictures of the trail. I ended up doing about 9 miles and I'm proud to say that I ran about 80% of it and hiked the rest.

There's Mt Diablo from the view looking East. Mt Diablo is just east of where I live, very close.

Also to the east was San Pablo Reservoir. People boat and fish out there but I don't think you're allowed to swim.

And here I am in front of San Pablo Reservoir. I hate having to take pictures of myself, but hey, that's what you do when you're alone. :P

And to the west, there was a view of the San Francisco Bay. I don't know if it is visible to you in this picture, but straight ahead is the Golden Gate bridge. It's kind of hidden in all the fog, but I could see it pretty clear when I was there along with the tall buildings of downtown San Francisco and the Bay Bridge.

On part of the trail, I passed through these groves of Eucalyptus trees. They've always reminded me of Santa Barbara. Berkeley seems to have a lot of Eucalyptus trees. I wish I could've captured the smell, I love it!

Carneros 10k

Last Saturday, I had a 10k race in Napa. I haven't really had a chance to write about it yet, but I wanted to share because it was really fun. It was a run supporting the Carneros volunteer fire department. For the last 8 weeks, I've been running with a 10k training group, and our training was leading to this race. I didn't feel like I was that ready for the race because most of the people in my group were beginning runners and didn't give me much of a push or anyone to compete with, so I started the race not planning on worrying about my time. However, once the race began and I was able to weave through the huge crowd of people at the start, the competetiveness in me kicked in.

"I can run faster than these guys' pace," I told myself. So I increased my speed and moved past the group I was in. Then my cross country coach's words filled my head. "You should never find yourself running by yourself. If you do, then catch up to the next group ahead of you." ... so I did. I continued this throughout the race and at the turnaround point, I felt I had gained my second wind. The course was beautiful, tracing a private road through the vineyards and there were many little hills. When I reached these hills, they didn't seem to bother me. Actually they helped and encouraged me because when people around me slowed down to struggle over them, I was able to keep my steady pace and cruise past them. Then as we approached the last 1/2 mile of the race I remembered the long steep driveway that we ran down at the beginning of the race. I knew I was going to have to run back up it, and I was dreading it. However, as I approached the hill, I was feeling a lot better than anticipated. "Ok, let's see how long this can last," I thought to myself. I continued going up at my steady pace, easily passed others along the way. Then I heard footsteps approaching from behind me. The man started passing me on my left and I let him, knowing that trying to race up this incline was not an option. Then something happened. Once he got ahead of me, he slowed down a little, apparently thinking he had completed his task of passing me. Little did he know that my legs were built for hills and I could keep up this pace for quite a ways. I steadied on and gained back on him... he did not like this. He sped up, trying to fend me off. I kept pushing hard without overexerting myself. Together, we were passing others up this neverending incline. He finally reached his limit and I didn't see him anymore. I, on the other hand felt exhilerated. I was almost there and I rememberer my friends would be there at the finish to see me come across, so I gave it my last bit of juice and sprinted even harder up the rest of the hill, catching one last runner 15 feet from the finish. I did it! Man, I love that feeling!

A Few Catch-Ups

Ok, so I haven't "blogged" in a little while so I just wanted to catch up whoever is interested on what I've been up to lately. I can't really complain about life right now. God has just put a happiness in me that I can't really explain. I have a great job, good friends, and a healthy, active life. Here's a few recent activities:

Fondue night with Sonia and Marisol

Last weekend, I went to a Mary Kay career conference in San Jose. It was really fun. I was surrounded by excited, uplifting, and successful women. I love those ladies! A few National Sales Directors spoke at the conference, and their stories were very inspirational. Did you know that many of these women started out having low-paying, unrewarding jobs and now they have made over $1,000,000 in commission as Mary Kay consultants? And they love what they do! There are so many rewards for doing well in this company. Mary Kay rewards with jewelry! trips! money! cars! and lots of recognition! I was so inspired by these women, that I wanted to get a picture with one of them, so at the end of the conference I nervously approached the stage and asked for my picture.

Here I am with National Executive Sales Director Caterina Harris. Yes, I look like a giant...this lady is 4'11".

This week I started biking to work. I figured I only live 3.6 miles from my office, so why not? So I went out and bought myself a nice bicycle and I started biking this week. It's a little inconvenient having to pack my work clothes and change at the office, but I think it's worth it to get the extra exercise, help the environment, and get some fresh air.

Speaking of exercise, I've been doing a lot of running lately. I'm in training mode right now. This Saturday, I have a 10k race in South Napa and in June I'm running the Lake Tahoe Relay with Sonia and a group of 5 other people. My leg of the race is 9.6 miles with a elevation gain of about 200 feet at already high altitude. Yes, I'm prepared to train hard for this one. I'm also thinking of running the "Bay to Breakers" race in May, though I'm a little weary on this one because I've heard it can get pretty wild. People like to dress in costumes, and some people on occasion have even ran completely nude! Eww... nude... and running? But Perry from work is running it with his sister (they run it almost every year) and he's thinks I should join them.

Ok, I think that's about all for now. Oh right, one more thing. A couple weeks ago I heard on the radio that No Doubt is coming to the bay area!! The Concord Pavillion, no doubt (hehe), which is like down the street from where I live! I love No Doubt, theirs is the first CD I ever owned. Jessica and I actually bought it together. Remember that Jess? So, I am determined to win tickets! All this week they are giving away chances to win on the CW during the airing of 'Family Guy'. That's why I'm still up right now. I'm going to enter every day to try and win. The concert is in July which is perfect cuz it'd be a great b-day present to myself!

Ok, now I'm really done. Gotta watch Family Guy now. Thanks for reading!