Thread by @EDGcoach, So I’m 8 days into my pull-up challenge and i thought I’d [...]

So I’m 8 days into my pull-up challenge and i thought I’d share a story

This story explains why ANY pull-ups are a win for me

Why just ONE pull-up is an incredible accomplishment

THE ONE PULL-UP CHALLENGE

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So it was December 2012 and my wife and I were getting set to head to a New Year’s Eve get together

It was our first school year in a new town and my head coach invited us over for a party

We made banana pudding, put it into a fancy serving dish, and walked out the door

It was raining that night but not too hard. Just a light little drizzle

My wife, who was 6 months pregnant, walked out first. She made her way across the sloped deck onto the driveway

I followed, banana pudding in hand and locked the door behind me

I headed toward the driveway when something happened that would change our lives forever

I slipped!!

It was just like a cartoon

Feet went one way! Body went the other!

All heading straight to the ground

CRASH!!!!! Went the banana pudding dish!

And SLICE!!!!! Went my hand

The shattered glass severed two tendons and an artery in my left hand

So I’m sitting there in the rain, clutching my hand, blood everywhere

My ring finger and pinky lay wide open, as lifeless and limp as two hot dogs being held at the tips

My wife comes running to my aid, we call 9-1-1 and we get a $3000 cab ride to the hospital

At the ER they cauterize the artery and close the wound

The stitches run from just beneath my middle finger to around the back of my hand

That night was rough but that was the easy part

A week later I had surgery to reattach the tendons

Then started the therapy

3 days a week of heat and cold and poking and prodding

The entire time worried about whether or not I’d be able to hold my unborn son properly

Wondering if I’d ever be able to play catch with him

Well the good thing is I made some progress

After 6 months of therapy (and another surgery) I was starting to move my fingers

All was looking up and then one day I’m pulling on some play dough with my pinky and....

POP!!!

Tendon ruptures

And there it is again

That lifeless hot dog dangling from the end of my hand

My therapist and I make eye contact

And we both start to cry

We knew immediately that all the progress we’d made over those 6 months was lost

A week later I have one more surgery to clear out all the scar tissue

The doctors plan is to clear some space and stick in a silicone rod so he can come back in 6-8 more months and reattach the tendon again

My plan is different

My plan is to give up on surgery

To continue the rest of my life without the use of my left pinky

To figure out a way to relearn to do all the things I used to do when my hand worked properly

And that’s what I did

The first time I picked up a weight it fell right out of my hand

The first time I grabbed a pull-up bar, I fell off in less than a second

I could barely hold a spoon. Now I’m gonna try pull-ups?!?!

Who am I kidding?

Well as you can tell I worked on my grip strength and eventually got to the point where I could finally hold a dumbbell

My hand still doesn’t open or close all the way

In fact, I couldn’t keep skittles in my hand if my life depended on it

But through hard work & with the goal of playing catch with my son one day

I was able to finally get that pull-up

As far as I’m concerned, every extra one is just gravy

Thank you for sticking with me & if you liked my story, I’d appreciate a retweet to help get the story out

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