How many times have you ever heard of somebody getting frostbite in Florida... in August? Not all at once, let's just see a show of hands. Let's see... carry the 1... that leads to a total of roughly "zero".
Well, now you have.
For the last several weeks, I've been icing my leg with the shin splints and trying to take care of it. I've been using either ice in an ice bag or this nifty little ice pack that I got in my race packet once upon a time. Some of you can already see where this is going.
Well, yesterday, I decided to ice my leg again while I was at work. The ice pack had been in the work freezer all weekend, and was chilled and ready for me. So, I put it on my leg. Directly. Without a towel (this is mistake #1 -- I'll be keeping track). Since I was sitting at my desk at the time, and couldn't work really well with my leg propped up, I wrapped it to my leg with an ace bandage (mistake #2 -- they're really piling up now). After about ten minutes, it suddenly dawned on me that I couldn't feel my leg anymore. That should be a clue to take the ice pack off, right? Well... I did! Ha! I bet you thought mistake #3 was coming up -- but not yet.
I took the ice pack off, and it was weird. Really. The skin was obviously cold. But it was actually hard. It felt like there was a layer of ice on top of my skin. This is not going to be good. So, I started trying to warm it up. I pulled my jeans over top of it and started rubbing (mistake #3 -- it turns out that you are not supposed to rub such an injury). But it did warm up, and I started thinking that maybe everything would be OK.
A couple hours later, it was starting to hurt. I looked at it, and it was red and puffy. And painful. OK... at this point, I'm starting to get worried. I'm thinking of all those arctic mountain movies that show people's toes breaking off, and it's not making me feel good. So I called my wife and lovingly asked her to please take me to the emergency room. She, being the wonderful wife that she is, agreed, almost immediately.
She picked me up and took me to the hospital -- the same one that recently hosted me for my surgery. There was actually another hospital closer, but we figured that I'm already a frequent flier at the other hospital, so we just went up there. After all, if I get the card punched eight more times, I get a free appendectomy. But then I had to check in, which was fine, except for the box asking what the problem was.
"Froze leg"
Yep, that's what I put. And that was my explanation for the rest of the day. When I went into the triage, the nurse asked me what happened.
"I froze my leg!"
When I got put in the exam room and the nurse came in to look at it:
"I froze my leg!"
And when the doctor came it, it became almost comical. The conversation was something along these lines:
Doc: "What did you do?"
Me: "I froze my leg!"
Doc: "You burned it."
Me: "So, it's OK?"
Doc: "Yeah, you burned it"
Me: "Whew. I was just wondering, you know, because it hurts and all..."
Doc: "Because you burned it"
Me: "So you're saying I burned it?"
Yeah, she wasn't the most bedside mannered doc in the world, but she assuaged my fears. And she sent a nurse in to give me a tetanus shot (since I don't even remember the last one I had... it was a long time ago). The nurse came in and told us, "I'm just so happy I got to go see the guy who got frostbite!"
I might just be a source of discussion around there for a while.
So, two and a half hours after getting to the hospital, I was on my way back to work. With a burned, frozen leg.
So, please... if you are going to use ice packs, make absolutely sure that you follow the directions, and always use a towel or something between the ice pack and your leg. And I do want to point out that while I at least attempted to write this in a humorous way, I do realize that this is a very serious condition, and I heavily urge everyone to take this seriously. Any more mistakes on my part, I could have caused permanent damage. I have definitely learned from this experience.
But trust me, so long as you keep reading this blog, you will continue to see strange, stupid stories like this. They just happen to me. I don't know why. Remind me sometime to tell you the story of getting tackled off of a rope swing.
But hey, maybe it'll increase my readership.
9 comments:
Wow....frost bite in Florida in August? I'm glad there was no permanent damage. I will learn from your lessons.
Figures that I'd screw up the first comment I leave here. ;)
Anyways, Dad told me I HAD to check this out. Glad you're doing okay; that sounds very much like a brain trusty thing to do.
you are very lucky, people do lose limbs to gangrene because of this same kind of misuse of icepacks. hope you found a better shin splint remedy. if you ever run in Texas, maybe I'll see ya'. be safe out there!
My brother (bcIII) pointed me toward this post... I think b/c I have shin splints right now. I hope everything turned out okay for you.
bcIII -- You're right. I was very lucky. Trust me that I learned my lesson from that and haven't done that particular dumbness ever since.
littlea -- Thank you for your comment -- if you read the more recent posts, you'll notice that I am doing much better now and am back to running after several other issues. However, let me say that the first thing to look at with the splints is your shoes. That, as well as any issues in your running -- have your gait analyzed by your local running store and see if you overpronate or supinate. And make sure to get the right shoes. Finally, make sure to take the time off that you need, with rest and ice. Nothing is worse than coming back too soon and hurting yourself again when you don't have to.
Hope to see you guys around the comments a bit more in the future! Thanks!
well too late. i started icing my ankle/achilles tendon last week. things were going so well that I decided, well you know.. the colder the better right?
Wrong. I got so wrapped up watching election coverage tonight that I didn't notice that I couldn't feel my foot anymore. When I reached down, I pinched a fold of the same, rock hard skin I read about in your post.
I thought it was funny until the pain kicked in. Now the whole side of my foot and my heel are purple, blistered and mostly numb.
I'll let you know how my night's sleep goes.
What a bozo.
You are not the only one...I pulled my hamstring last fall playing flag football...so I came home and fell asleep while icing it...NOT GOOD. I now have a slight brown discoloration where the frostbite is....do you have the same discoloration?
smg-lance: Ouch! Blisters means at least a second-degree frostbite (mine was only first). Hope it all worked out well! Although, you're right -- it is kinda cool, until the pain starts.
Glogger: I don't have any discoloration, but I only had it on for about 10 minutes. I hate to think about falling asleep with the ice pack on! I hope it ends up OK!
This is interesting -- I had no idea when I pulled this boneheaded move that there would be others out there, too! Thanks, guys! :)
I just did this myself. Tried an ice pack--without a cloth covering--on a tennis injury. My thigh turned hard, white and waxy. I got frostbite during the biggest heatwave (100 degrees F) we've had in Vancouver in a decade. My thigh now has a 4-inch diameter purple patch, which the doctor says should heal within several weeks.
Post a Comment