My Experience with RHABDO

First let me say that this is 100% Matt Baker's fault and I take zero credit for my ailment. JK Matt....kindof...

I won't go into what Rhabdomyolosis is, you can find that out with an internet search. If you haven't already read any of the Crossfit Journal articles on it you really do need to. Ask laura, at one point she had some copies at the gym If not I will get you a copy.

Last Sunday me, Matt, Dana, Amy and Dustin Baker decided to get a WOD in at Matt's house. I (let me repeat that I) decided we should do "Angie" which is a grueling:
100 pullups
100 pushups
100 situps
100 squats
in order
We all crushed it, I think my time was something around 22 minutes, the first time I did it it took me over 45 minutes to complete. I was feeling good, tired but good. Previous to this we hadn't really had a day off since Thursday. Well on to the Gym on Monday morning, I walked in and saw a workout on the Board with another 100 pullups and a ton of Knees to Elbows. At this point I was starting to get sore from "Angie" but usually soreness is a lot worse the 2nd day. My arms felt tight more than sore. I seriously thought about not doing this workout that was staring me down and taunting me up on that board. I asked Laura's advice and she said don't do the pull-ups, do Jumping pull-ups if anything. Of course I didn't listen to anything she said and stupidly started the workout.

It didn't hurt during the workout, actually my arms got warmed back up, stopped hurting all together but I did notice that those pullups were harder than any I had ever done. By the end of the pullups it was taking everything I had to get my chin over the bar and I was doing 3-5 at a time. I'm usually good for at least a set of 10 pullups no matter how tired I am. Then the knee's to elbows which sucked equally as bad. It was becoming hard for me to keep my grip on the bar.

After the workout I felt whooped but don't we always. I went on to work that day with a level of fatigue I don't normally have. Monday was OK, I was just tired. When I woke up on Tuesday I noticed it was hard for me to straighten my arms. I was getting sore...really sore. My forearms were tight as rubber bands and my lats weren't much better. We all met at the track for our Tuesday morning run and after a few laps around the track I was loosening up a little. I finished the run and went home to get ready to take my daughter to a Dr.Appt. Now my arms starting hurting again, really tight and hard to straighten out fully. The whole time my daughter was in her apointment I was rolling a little rubber ball up a down my arms trying to get in there and loosen up the muscles causing the pain and tightness...it hurt pretty bad. Bad enough I had to take deep breaths as I was rolling to keep from moaning like a weirdo in the doctors office, I felt stupid enough already with people looking at me like "What's up with the dude and the racketball?".

I was a little familiar with RHABDO from reading my Crossfit Certification guide and the articles I had gotten from Doug and Laura. As Tuesday went on the pain was ever increasing. I could hardly drive my truck, couldn't lift my arms over my head, definitely couldn't scratch my back and in NO way could straighten out my left arm. Around 3 pm that afternoon I was pretty sure something was wrong other than regular muscle soreness. I jumped in my truck and headed to the Guilford clinic. When I got there I asked if they were capable of doing a blood test for Rhabdo. They said they could do blood work but it wouldn't be back to me for 2-3 days, that wasn't good enough. I knew if I had Rhabdo I needed something done NOW. Well a nurse heard this conversation and came out to the waiting room and said they could send blood work off to the hospital and get it back in a few hours so I agreed to be seen by one of their doctors.

When I told them I suspected I may have Rhabdo (hopefully not but maybe) they didn't really discount my suspicion but found it hard to believe. They wanted to take a urine test 1st to see if they found anything before they started doing blood work. I obliged and within 15 minutes they had found blood in my urine and I was dehyrated. In came the IV of fluid and the blood work. They said they wanted me to take 1 bag of fluid and if I felt better I could leave. Then the blood work came back. I showed some signs of a little Liver Damage and my creatine levels which are supposed to be in a range from 40-300 ppm were at 19,000ppm. I had RHABDO and I was hurting bad. I could hardly move my upper limbs because of pain. I could tell they were not very familiar with this when the doctor came in and showed me his IPhone where he was researching what to do! Anyway 4 bags of fluid later it was closing time at the Guildofrd Clinic, he really wanted to send me to the hospital but I convinced him I would be a good boy and go home and drown myself in as much water as I could stomach and I did.

Wednesday was the worst day. I didn't sleep very much Tuesday night because it hurt my back just laying in bed. I actually thought at one point I would have to cut my shirt off because no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get it off any other way. My arms were on fire and my lats weren't much better. I stayed home from work and basically stood over a toilet all day taking water in and letting it out. My left arm had swollen considerably at this point from the muscle damage I had caused it. I was hurting BAD.

Thursday I woke feeling a lot better. Swelling had gone down a little and my right arm was feeling a ton more loose and flexible. Everything was still really sore but I could function and move around well enough to go to work and do whatever I could. I could finally lift my arms over my head enough to get dressed by myself. It was getting better and I kept the fluids coming.

Friday (Today) I woke feeling even better than Thursday. I can straighten my right arm with little pain, most of the swelling in my left is gone but it is still jacked up pretty bad. Can't straighten it yet, not even close. I now probably feel like you do after a really heavy WOD still really sore but I can manage. I'm not yet sure as to the amount of muscle damage I caused, I won't know that until I decide to come back and do a WOD but I believe I will be considerable weaker in a few areas. It is expected but hopefully I will recover my strength quickly enough to be of help at the Tough Mudder next weekend.

The Moral of my little story is NO ONE is immune to Rhabdo. Be smarter than me in your workouts and don't do things like 100 pullups on back to back days, even if you didn't cause Rhabdo it's not doing you any good. Maybe I have learned my lesson in that you DON'T build muscle in the gym...you actually destroy it in the gym. You build muscle at home resting/sleeping. I think a lot of this was caused by my lack of hydration. I never used to drink enough water to support my activity level and that will get you one way or the other. Listen to your body and remember that trying to be Superman all of the time will eventually land your ass in the bed for a week or two watching every one else WOD up!