Casey Smith Biathlete: May 2015

Over the past few weeks I have done quite a bit of traveling and its not ending now. I started out traveling from home in Winthrop back east to Fort Kent where I packed all of my belongings into my car and headed south eventually bound for Vermont. On the way I stopped at Acadia National park in Bar Harbor, Maine and spent the afternoon running and hiking around the mountains in that area. It was pretty cool to see and much different then the northern part of Maine where I have been living. From Bar Harbor I drove to Bangor, Maine where I spent the next four days working for Maddie's dad, Joe, at the Northeastern Loggers Expo. The expo is a huge trade show that Joe organizes every year, there are exhibitors there from all aspects on the logging industry and over 4000 attendees. The first two days I was helping to set up the fair grounds, setting up signs, hanging banners, and doing whatever else needed to be done. For the two days that the expo was going I was a cashier collecting peoples $7 that they would pay to enter the expo. Seeing all of the logging equipment was really cool!

After working at the expo I headed to Craftsbury, Vermont where I will be based out of for at least the next year as I train with and race for the Craftsbury Green Racing Team. On the way to Craftsbury I stopped in New Hampshire and climbed to the top of Mt. Madison one the the peaks in the White Mountain range. I spent 3 days in Craftsbury getting moved and settled in before returning home to Winthrop.

Yesterday I went to Wenatchee for some doctors appointments, they all went exceptionally well. First I had another EMG test which again was not very fun. The EMG test measures the function of your nerves and in order to do this they stab you with a needle then shock your muscle with the needle and measure your nerves response. Luckily this time I only had about 6 stabs rather then the 30 stabs I had last time. The results of this test came back really good and the doctor was very surprised to see my progress from the last test. The EMG showed that my nerve is functionally fully and normally. The neurologist said the amount of regained function I gained usually takes 4-6 months, it has been 6 weeks since I had the first EMG test. Such a quick recovery of my nerve and shoulder function I think is largely due to the tremendous help I received from Pete Dickinson at Winthrop PT he was keeping my on track and helping me almost daily to recover and regain my mobility, it clearly paid off. Thank you Pete!

After the EMG test I saw doctor Clarke who is an internal medicine specialist, I have been working with him as my general doctor through my entire recovery. Dr. Clarke reviewed a recent CT scan of my lung and looked at my overall well being. The CT of my lung showed that the large bruise that I previously had is almost entirely healed. He was very happy to see this as well as a little surprised that it healed so quickly. Looking forward I need to work on regaining the strength back in my shoulder and rotator cuff and recreate a balance of my upper body.

Right now I am on my way to Boulder, Colorado where in conjunction to Colorado Biathlon Club I am hosting a spring shooting clinic. I will be coaching two days of intense biathlon shooting training at the Boulder Rifle Club's indoor range. I am pretty excited about this and think it will be a fun weekend. After the clinic I will return home to Winthrop to finish my recovery before heading to Craftsbury, Vermont to begin training.