Muscle Biopsy

Since it was somewhat of a mystery how I got Rhabdo after a bunch of squats, the doctor prescribed a biopsy on my upper thigh. I don't know what a biopsy was but the description was pretty scary. Cut a 1-2 inch incision on my upper thigh for them to take out a piece of my muscle. So, after feeling great of being able to walk with both of my legs that weekend of 2/22, I had a biopsy surgery on Monday.



Post biopsy, here's what I experienced:
1. Couldn't bend my left leg (leg they did biopsy on)
2. Tingling feeling on the area above my knee
3. Numb on the area above and next to my knee

Asked doctor about #2 and #3 and apparently, after a biopsy it is common to feel those. Why? Because apparently, when they extract the muscle, some of the nerves may be cut or irritated. That was unexpected, and a little annoying to tell you the truth. And it may take a long time to heal.

But as of now (2.5 weeks after the biopsy), my leg doesn't hurt so much anymore. It's still numb but at least, it doesn't tingle. And now I can squat and bend my legs.

Next week, I'm going to try coming back to kickboxing. I might even contact crossfit again and see what happens ... (will post more after that starts)

Rhabdomyolysis

So a month ago on Feb 11th - 16th, I was admitted to the hospital for an illlness called Rhabdomyolysis which really is caused by overworking of the muscles. You can read all about Rhabdo on the link above, but here's what happened, (which I've been telling people for way too many times now), I tried a new workout called crossfit, which is really a workout for the military, police force and mma fighters. And the trial workout that I did was squats. And I never do squats. So he told me to do as much as I can for 10 minutes. And sure enough I did more than what I can.


Next day, this is what happened:
1. can't bend my knees
2. can't walk (see #1)
3. can't sit (see #1)
4. and the most ultimate (probably gross), my urine was black!

So, we went to the ER that night since it didn't get better. And the doctor said I wasn't going home and needed to be admitted to the hospital. 3AM and I ended up on the hospital bed, with an IV!! If you ever had IV'd, you know much it hurts to put it in, and the annoying-ness of that needle on your arm stays with you.

So, 6 days at the hospital, stuck with an IV!! Apparently a normal CK (creatine kinase) is 600 ish and mine went up to 70,000. And it was up and down after that. Since I'm a geeky consultant, here's what my CK number looked like in a chart.



So as soon as the CK number went down below 10,000, they let me home because my kidneys could process it on its own. For that week, my leg still hurts and I still walked like a robot. But what was interesting was, just sitting on my desk and on my bed, made my leg feel better. I guess no pain, has gains too!

By 2/21 (my wife's bday party), I was doing fine!! Until ... (to be continued on next post)