the end

[flyingfox21]

Its pretty much official now. yesterday i had a doctors appt. that made the end of my career almost certain . 3 years ago, i had surgery on my right wrist for a broken scaphoid (navicular) . in the past few months it has been bothering me, so i decided to get it checked out again. the x-ray showed that the bone didnt heal right, and it is still broken where it was origionally, tho now it is being held together by a screw. yesterday i went to see a hand and wrist specialist in my area (san luis obispo) and he told me that there are 3 main options for my wrist:
1)do nothing and have constant pain until i develop arthritis in the next few (3-4) years.
2)have surgery that will all but fuse my wrist in place (i will have around 30-40% of normal range of motion)
3)have a surgery that is still considered experimental, that only a few doctors in the whole nation are doing, and that is also probably very expensive.

seeing that, i belive that i will go with option 2, but not till the summer, so i most likely will never be able to pole vault again . just thought id put it out there. i still love the sport and everyone that does it, and hope to one day become a coach.

[souleman]

FFox, be sure you look at all of your options very carefully. It would be a real shame if you had to give up this sport. Bones heal! that's what they do. There just has to be a way to continue to vault after a recovery period (years if need be). Take a look at Bubba Sparks. He laid off for either 2 or 4 years after his achilles operation. But he's back! Hopefully you will come back too. Good luck and later...........Mike

[flyingfox21]

the problem is that i already had one surgery on the same bone and it didnt heal after 3 years. the chance of it healing is i go through the same sugery as before is about .01%. the only option that would let me continue to vault is the experimental surgery, but i most likely wont get that one be able to get it, and its not even close to 100% effective. but ill try!! thanks