Training Log Archive: Gswede

Showing Steve the trails around my house. Really nice to run with someone else

Showing my friend Steve around town. He had the ebike and I forgot to log the ride back up

So I was looking back at my log and realized I never really went into much detail with the whole snakebite ordeal. I only slept three or four hours over the three nights I was in the hospital. So I just didn't have the energy or motivation to go in detail. But since most of the people on here are good friends who I don't see in person too often, I thought a quick recap would be nice.

So the bite itself caused very little pain, just felt like something scratching my leg. I've had worse scratches from thorns in orienteering. But my friend Tyler told me there was a massive copperhead where I had just stepped and then I saw the fang marks on my calf. Within a minute I could feel it swelling, but no pain at the point.

We were at the emergency room within 10 minutes and after 20 minutes is when the pain really hit. And that was pretty bad. I like to think I'm pretty good at managing pain, but this was overwhelming: my whole body felt like it was burning, my hands started tingling, and my leg kept swelling more and more, which hurt a ton on its own. I was writhing enough in pain that I scared a lot of the people in the ER.

So they brought me in, took a few blood tests as a baseline to see if I had been envenomated, gave me some pain meds, and monitored me.

After a few hours it did seem like I had been envenomated and they ordered some antivenom, which took a few hours to get prepared. The hospital didn't stick to what is apparently the protocol for snake envenomations, but that's an entirely different story I won't go into now.

My dad came the next morning and spent the days at the hospital with me. I was so glad he was there apart from simply being my dad and fun to talk with, but it's also nice to have someone who has a better understanding of how hospitals work.

The second night it looked like my blood levels indicated that the envenomation was continuing to worsen, and my leg continued to swell. So they took me to the ICU for more antivenom.

I'm not sure how much truth there was to it, but in the ICU they mentioned the possibility of me losing function in my leg. And from what I've read many people struggle with recovery from copperhead bites for years. So I am very grateful for my recovery so far.

After the night in the ICU I didn't need any more antivenom but they wanted to observe me for a while to make sure the blood tests showed improvement. So I spent a third night there.

After the third night, I got up to walk around for the first time since the bite and could barely bend my leg because of the swelling. So I limped a few times around the hospital floor to show how I could manage to be at home.

Once at home I was able to do everything to take care of myself, but for about a week or a week and half after, the only comfortable position was laying down on my living room floor with my legs up on the couch. Standing up for more than 30 seconds would send all the fluid rushing back to my leg, which was extremely painful.

I had to cook and brush my teeth with my leg up on a chair.

And then I was able to use compression socks to stand and walk for longer periods. And also light, low-impact exercise seemed to help a ton to get the fluids in my leg moving.

All told, I am shocked and extremely grateful that I'm able to run like I am now. Although I'm trying to keep in mind that not so long ago all this happened. I don't notice anything from the bite now except a lump where it bit me and a lot of tightness if I bend my ankle a certain way.

So yes, very grateful for medicine and for how our bodies can heal.

I am building back. One step at a time.

It is good to see that I still get some work in on the e-bike. If I was only coasting, I might as well ride a Vespa.

Really beautiful evening trail run

Not pushing, just letting the legs go along.

I haven't been doing much orienteering lately, but that's mainly because I'm trying to work past my new snake jumpiness bit by bit. Also I've recently gotten very tired of driving to maps to train. So thankfully I'll get to ride the ebike there without getting too exhausted.

6-10 minutes faster than my normal ride and much easier. Still a bit sweaty though and the gears aren't great for the steepest inclines in Scranton. But overall it's much easier and faster to get around the city now.

I still like using my touring bike though : )

3x(3m, 2, 1) on 1:1 recovery

Feeling stronger. Running fast is fun.

Still feeling tired. Need more rest and good food.