Well.....end of the road, maybe?

[Alan H]

I'm afraid I may be looking at the end of my throwing career.

After the 19 hours in the car to drive to-from the Ventura Games, it took me a month to mostly recover. I've had pain in my legs, "odd sensations" in delicate parts that won't be named, and numbness and pain in the bottom of my right foot.

I didn't lift or throw for a month, and got back into the gym two weeks ago. The light weights-many reps lifting seemed to help and I actually felt almost normal as of last Saturday. I had slept in an awkward position on the previous Thursday night and woke to a huge area of numbness over the top and side of my left leg, but Friday and Saturday came and I felt good. I then drove down to visit Piper George on Sunday and do some coaching/light throwing with Games newbie, Robbin. I tossed LWFD probably a dozen-15 times, and did some work with a smallish caber.

The next morning I had pain and numbness in my quadriceps, especially down the left side. This got worse during the day. Sitting through a terminally awful concert on Sunday afternoon, in hard church pews aggravated the situation. I was not a happy camper, as Joan will tell you. By bedtime, after two tylenol and a long, hot shower I woke up to minor discomfort on Monday morning.

Upshot is, throwing hurts, and not in a good way. It s not a muscle-ache way, it's a "compressed nerves" and *Real* damage sort of way. I know that I have some stenosis (closing of the opening in the spine where the spinal nerves exit) in L4. If I don't throw, and keep up some light lifting and exercise, I seem to be pretty much fine for now. But throwing is NOT helping. I'm having to consider the possibility that I should stop throwing. It's that or back surgery, and I'm *EXTREMELY* loathe to take on back surgery unless I absolutely have no other options.

So what I think I'm going to do is just lift light in the gym through the winter and not pick up a Highland weight or a stone or a caber until the end of February. I'll try it a few times in February. If I still have pain and numbness, then I toss in the towel and keep the great memories I have of two seasons Heavy Athletics. If I HAVE to exit the stage, I know I did it on a high point, having turned the caber 3x...3, 12:00 turns at Ventura, winning the 50+ Masters Division at Ventura.... breaking 83 feet in the light hammer, and making myself into a consistently 40+ foot LWFD thrower.

I had hoped to throw for one more season. Then again, when I started all this, it was 'cause Tim C came up to me one night at a Nor Cal Beer and Kilts night and said "Want to try this out at the Woodland Games?". I said, "sure, why not"... I didn't start this assuming I'd be doing it for a decade. Well, one Games turned into a whole season, interrupted by some health issues at the end. One season turned into two seasons and a slough of Personal Records. So if I HAVE to bail out and not throw my third season, well..it kinda sucks, but worse things could happen. I had planned to stop after this season, anyway and get back to music.

I'm not happy about this, but if the choice is throwing or back surgery, well that's a no-brainer.

Time to start practicing with the band!