Last Week I Got Rhabdo

prophetray

New member
This isn't a, oh look I got Rhabdo boast post, just a warning to others that if you think it can never happen to you, that it can.

Been Crossfitting for 7 years, working out in a gym for 16, Rugby for 23, so im not a newb and considered myself pretty fit (compared to the average Jo on the street). At the moment I work out 4/5 times a week, used to be 6/7 until I had kids. Recently, I took 3 weeks of vacation, where I sat on a beach and drank beer (not ridiculous amounts but 3-4 almost every day). I did the odd workout, to keep things ticking, but no where near the intensity prior to christmas.

I got back to my routine two weeks ago and the first WoD wasnt great, and felt pretty bad during and after. A bit of soreness the next day but I plowed on the next couple of day and started to feel like my old self. Thursday I normally take off now, getting old, need the rest. I decided last minute I would go in to open gym and do Nicole Girl WoD (which I had done 3/4 times before, without problems). Anyone who knows this workout, knows what happened next. I did something in the region of 140 pull ups in the 20 minutes (Nicole requires max effort Pull up sets with 400m runs inbetween). My arms started feeling pretty sore after half way but I carried on.

Immediately after I finished I had that usual arm pump feeling but the pain was slightly different when I tried to extend my arms. By evening I had lost about 25% of my extension, by friday I was at 45 degrees. It was incredibly painful and by Sunday the muscles in my traps and lats were in pain. I know the indications of Rhabdo and had been keeping an eye on my urine, which was clear, but by Sunday evening I couldnt bare the pain.

I ended up driving myself to urgent care where my cK readings were found to be 45000 (normal muscle protein in the blood (cK) should be between 0-380). Even though my urine was clear (functioning kidneys), id given myself Rhabdo. I stayed the night on a drip and was discharged the next day under instruction to keep hydrated and return if my pee starts to change colour.

Its been a week and Im only now able to slightly extend my arms.

Its pretty clear that taking time off and drinking alcohol meant I was not in a condition to return to my regular routine straight away and doing "stupid" workouts might not be the best idea. Lessons learned and definitely need to be more cautious in the future.
 
@dawn16 I have a friend that went to the games as a teen and completely messed up her abs on the ghd. She was in the hospital for over a week with rhabdo.
 
@prophetray Bunch of important takeaways here, but one that really stands out is the booze. My worst Crossfit workout in the last four years was definitely caused by boozing/dehydration and I’ve never had trouble recovering from a workout if my hydration/diet was in decent shape at the time.
 
@prophetray This is almost exactly what happened to me when we did Murph after not having done pull ups often in months and I had taken a bunch of time off.

I've done Murph 6 or so times before and knew I could "Push Through" but the T-rex life for the week after was not fun.
 
@mantius This is bad advice. Coca Cola looking urine is very bad and indicator of rhado and clear is good progress. -trauma nurse looking for rhado every shift.
 
@prophetray I'm in hospital for Rhabdomyolysis just now, currently on day 3 and I'm freaking out. I hate hospitals so much and just want to go home, hoping my levels have reduced enough to go home.
 
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