Finally, I climbed today for the first time since the fall. Let's see, . . . from Thursday, June 30th 2016 until Sunday, March 31, 2019, . . . that's two years and nine months off the wall. Oy Vey!
Well, it would have been "only" two years had it not been for two bike wrecks. The second and more consequential happened mid December 2018 (previous posting), and I'm just now recovering after being on crutches through the end of January. The first happened in June 2018, when I landed on a shoulder and blew a rotator cuff; those things take forever to heal. Knocked a tendon loose and so now I have what the doctors call a "Popeye muscle" with my right bicep unnaturally balled up, which looks pretty goofy but still works. I was just about ready to re-start climbing in December when the femur fracture occurred. So I'm thinking maybe spend a little less time on my bike?!
Gotta' say, climbing the outside wall at The Mountaineers Program Center in Magnuson Park (and then rapping down) was more than a little freaky. I climbed to the top of one of the towers as a volunteer instructor at a Basic Climbing Course rock field trip and I was there for several hours ensuring that once students arrived at the tower top, they safely transitioned from climbing to rappelling. It was a simple pitch so I climbed fast and tried not to think about it, . . . someone else was belaying me afterall, . . . what could possibly go wrong?!
Chilling at the top of the tower throughout the afternoon was welcome, however, seeing students rap off the top of the tower was harrowing, and I quadruple checked their set ups as soon as they arrived until they were "on rappel!" and off and away. At the end of the day when it was time to come down, I simply sent that little voice in my head way down deep, set up for rappel and went for it.
Live to climb another day!
Monday, April 1, 2019
Friday, February 1, 2019
Deja Vu
You won't believe this but it seems I just can't get enough of trauma centers!
One fine morning in mid-December, I was commuting to work via bike (as is my wont), moving across non-descript terrain that I've traversed countless times---just another random stretch of asphalt, this one transitioning from a parking lot back onto the Burke Gilman Trail---when lightning struck.
Well, not literally lightening, but that's what it felt like. In one moment, I'm biking along, minding my own business, just enjoying the morning endorphins, and in the next moment I'm on the ground, bellowing in pain and not enjoying one bit the adrenaline rush resulting from this instantaneous transition. There's no comparison between the pain level resulting from this fall versus the far more catastrophic fall over two-and-a-half years ago (hmmm, . . . still seems like yesterday).
Once again, I found myself on the ground huffing and puffing, but this time my nervous system did not shut down. The first and only thing that struck the ground was my left hip---I didn't have time to reach out with a hand or roll into the fall----and man did that hurt!! After several minutes, I had stabilized enough to become curious whether it was just a really bad bruising event, so I dragged myself over to a car, pulled myself up on my right leg, and then put just an "nth" of weight on the left leg. Waabaaam!! There was that eye-watering pain again. Not good. What now.
A good Samaritan walking the BG came over to see if I was OK, and they helped me carefully return to the ground. Sigh, . . . there was no way I was going anywhere, . . . not a chance that I could move the hip without becoming totally unwound, . . . so my guardian angel called 911 and in no time the paramedics were on-hand and then the ambulance arrived. These very kind and skilled first responders went through the paces to make certain there wasn't anything life threatening, bound me to a backboard, bundled me into the ambulance, and then (so very cool of them) brought my bike the rest of the way to The Mountaineers (as it was on the way to their dispatch base).
Thankfully this fall occurred within a few minutes of UW Medical Center, and before I knew it I was back in emergency receiving. An MD came in to check on me, and I'm not imagining this, but he took hold of my left ankle and pulled my leg and asked how it felt. The rapid change in my coloration told him well enough how it felt and so it was time for x-rays. By this point in my trauma center experience I am positively glowing with x-rays! The film showed the hip was OK, but there was a crack in the femur about an inch from the point where it bends toward the hip.
Fast forwarding now, . . . I was admitted on a Friday morning, surged upon on Saturday morning, released on a Tuesday afternoon, and back at work on Thursday. The surgeons decided that a total hip replacement wasn't called for (removing the end of the femur and replacing it with a new & improved prosthetic) because I am young and healthy enough to recover from the more involved procedure they went with, which involved fastening a plate to the side of the femur with lateral screws and then running a goodly sized longitudinal screw through the plate, bisecting the crack and pulling things together. It does look really cool on film and is a prized addition to my already impressive collection of internal hardware!
This is tongue in cheek, but I was a little disappointed not to have the hip replacement because during surgery the doctors could have adjusted the length of the left leg by 5/8" or so to match the shortened right leg, . . . so I'll continue to need significant orthotic adjustment to smooth my gate. Drat.
Post-operative convalescence involved six weeks of non-load bearing on the left leg which meant: crutching everywhere including up and down stairs in and around work and my living situation; dealing with significant discomfort associated with swelling / internal bleeding from the surgery (quad muscles don't appreciate being pried aside to get at the femur); and figuring out how to be at work with my leg raised to manage the inflammation and pain.
Just so happens that I still own a fancy power wheel chair from last go round, and with quick calls to the provider and their very wonderful responsiveness, the chair was tuned up and ready to go with a fresh set of batteries and a loaner control joy-stick replacement unit (the old one was cracked and no longer weather proof).
For the next several weeks I used the power chair at work as I had done before, reclining and keeping the legs up. Otherwise I carefully crutched around work and home, and as before everything just takes longer. Thank goodness there is a sit-down shower stall in my living situation; I can't imagine how showers could have safely worked otherwise. I re-invested in a long grabber device to help pick up dropped things and to get pants legs over my feet, and I also acquired another sock-donning device to assist in getting my feet started into compression socks I still use to control morbid swelling associated with the prior fall. Bending down to put on socks just wasn't happening for the first couple of weeks!
All good things with time. After three weeks the discomfort and limited range-of-motion subsided and once again I could bend down to pick things up, put on socks and get trousers started. I had pretty well mastered crutches in all situations, far more confident, capable and fast up and down stairs. Friday a week ago the doctors gave me the green light to load-bear again, so I exchanged the crutches for trekking poles, and by the beginning of this week I was down to one pole and forgetting where I left it at work half the time! This coming week, . . . no more trekking poles.
Since returning to load-bearing I've been walking further each day and spending more time with full range of motion calisthenics which feels great, . . . so reminiscent of last time. It's amazing how much muscle atrophy occurs in just six weeks! Quite a bit of rebuilding to do. I had to cancel an orthotics adjustment appointment for the first week of January after this most recent fall, but now I'm ready to reschedule. Want to try another 1/8" shimming on the right leg, because my gate isn't quite yet where it needs to be. We'll see how that goes.
Tomorrow I'll head to the boat! I have crutched along the dock a couple of times to check on the mooring lines (I figure the marina would call with anything more dire). No way could I have safely transitioned onto and around the boat with crutches; that would have been shear madness. The weather is looking fine for a sail and I'll be cautious and conservative. It's been a couple of months since I've been out, so should be nice. Onward!
Oh, . . . what caused the fall? My bike and I encountered an invisible patch of leaf slime! A maintenance crew had just blown leaves off of the section of parking lot I traversed (they were working another section along the way) and uncovered the still damp and unexpectedly slimy and slippery asphalt surface below. Once on the ground and with my wits collected I ran my hand over the surface and it felt as smooth and slick as black ice, but it wasn't near cold enough for that. My bike is a simple commuter with slightly wider than normal tires, I was biking slow and steady, and I was making a very gentle left turn when the both wheels slipped to the right and I came down HARD on the left. Bikers be warned, . . . and ever vigilant for leaf slime!
One fine morning in mid-December, I was commuting to work via bike (as is my wont), moving across non-descript terrain that I've traversed countless times---just another random stretch of asphalt, this one transitioning from a parking lot back onto the Burke Gilman Trail---when lightning struck.
Well, not literally lightening, but that's what it felt like. In one moment, I'm biking along, minding my own business, just enjoying the morning endorphins, and in the next moment I'm on the ground, bellowing in pain and not enjoying one bit the adrenaline rush resulting from this instantaneous transition. There's no comparison between the pain level resulting from this fall versus the far more catastrophic fall over two-and-a-half years ago (hmmm, . . . still seems like yesterday).
Once again, I found myself on the ground huffing and puffing, but this time my nervous system did not shut down. The first and only thing that struck the ground was my left hip---I didn't have time to reach out with a hand or roll into the fall----and man did that hurt!! After several minutes, I had stabilized enough to become curious whether it was just a really bad bruising event, so I dragged myself over to a car, pulled myself up on my right leg, and then put just an "nth" of weight on the left leg. Waabaaam!! There was that eye-watering pain again. Not good. What now.
A good Samaritan walking the BG came over to see if I was OK, and they helped me carefully return to the ground. Sigh, . . . there was no way I was going anywhere, . . . not a chance that I could move the hip without becoming totally unwound, . . . so my guardian angel called 911 and in no time the paramedics were on-hand and then the ambulance arrived. These very kind and skilled first responders went through the paces to make certain there wasn't anything life threatening, bound me to a backboard, bundled me into the ambulance, and then (so very cool of them) brought my bike the rest of the way to The Mountaineers (as it was on the way to their dispatch base).
Thankfully this fall occurred within a few minutes of UW Medical Center, and before I knew it I was back in emergency receiving. An MD came in to check on me, and I'm not imagining this, but he took hold of my left ankle and pulled my leg and asked how it felt. The rapid change in my coloration told him well enough how it felt and so it was time for x-rays. By this point in my trauma center experience I am positively glowing with x-rays! The film showed the hip was OK, but there was a crack in the femur about an inch from the point where it bends toward the hip.
Fast forwarding now, . . . I was admitted on a Friday morning, surged upon on Saturday morning, released on a Tuesday afternoon, and back at work on Thursday. The surgeons decided that a total hip replacement wasn't called for (removing the end of the femur and replacing it with a new & improved prosthetic) because I am young and healthy enough to recover from the more involved procedure they went with, which involved fastening a plate to the side of the femur with lateral screws and then running a goodly sized longitudinal screw through the plate, bisecting the crack and pulling things together. It does look really cool on film and is a prized addition to my already impressive collection of internal hardware!
This is tongue in cheek, but I was a little disappointed not to have the hip replacement because during surgery the doctors could have adjusted the length of the left leg by 5/8" or so to match the shortened right leg, . . . so I'll continue to need significant orthotic adjustment to smooth my gate. Drat.
Post-operative convalescence involved six weeks of non-load bearing on the left leg which meant: crutching everywhere including up and down stairs in and around work and my living situation; dealing with significant discomfort associated with swelling / internal bleeding from the surgery (quad muscles don't appreciate being pried aside to get at the femur); and figuring out how to be at work with my leg raised to manage the inflammation and pain.
Just so happens that I still own a fancy power wheel chair from last go round, and with quick calls to the provider and their very wonderful responsiveness, the chair was tuned up and ready to go with a fresh set of batteries and a loaner control joy-stick replacement unit (the old one was cracked and no longer weather proof).
For the next several weeks I used the power chair at work as I had done before, reclining and keeping the legs up. Otherwise I carefully crutched around work and home, and as before everything just takes longer. Thank goodness there is a sit-down shower stall in my living situation; I can't imagine how showers could have safely worked otherwise. I re-invested in a long grabber device to help pick up dropped things and to get pants legs over my feet, and I also acquired another sock-donning device to assist in getting my feet started into compression socks I still use to control morbid swelling associated with the prior fall. Bending down to put on socks just wasn't happening for the first couple of weeks!
All good things with time. After three weeks the discomfort and limited range-of-motion subsided and once again I could bend down to pick things up, put on socks and get trousers started. I had pretty well mastered crutches in all situations, far more confident, capable and fast up and down stairs. Friday a week ago the doctors gave me the green light to load-bear again, so I exchanged the crutches for trekking poles, and by the beginning of this week I was down to one pole and forgetting where I left it at work half the time! This coming week, . . . no more trekking poles.
Since returning to load-bearing I've been walking further each day and spending more time with full range of motion calisthenics which feels great, . . . so reminiscent of last time. It's amazing how much muscle atrophy occurs in just six weeks! Quite a bit of rebuilding to do. I had to cancel an orthotics adjustment appointment for the first week of January after this most recent fall, but now I'm ready to reschedule. Want to try another 1/8" shimming on the right leg, because my gate isn't quite yet where it needs to be. We'll see how that goes.
Tomorrow I'll head to the boat! I have crutched along the dock a couple of times to check on the mooring lines (I figure the marina would call with anything more dire). No way could I have safely transitioned onto and around the boat with crutches; that would have been shear madness. The weather is looking fine for a sail and I'll be cautious and conservative. It's been a couple of months since I've been out, so should be nice. Onward!
Oh, . . . what caused the fall? My bike and I encountered an invisible patch of leaf slime! A maintenance crew had just blown leaves off of the section of parking lot I traversed (they were working another section along the way) and uncovered the still damp and unexpectedly slimy and slippery asphalt surface below. Once on the ground and with my wits collected I ran my hand over the surface and it felt as smooth and slick as black ice, but it wasn't near cold enough for that. My bike is a simple commuter with slightly wider than normal tires, I was biking slow and steady, and I was making a very gentle left turn when the both wheels slipped to the right and I came down HARD on the left. Bikers be warned, . . . and ever vigilant for leaf slime!
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