The underbelly of the sport
I haven’t blogged in a while. I haven’t felt like I had a lot to add since I am out of skiing for a while. Over the last week or so, I have been talking with people who have told me that I need to anyway, that hearing about the underbelly of the sport, the rehab of injuries is just as valuable to hear.
So I have decided to update what I am up to and be more honest about this side of the sport, at least from my perspective.
Since my crash in Wengen in January, I have been a combination of busy and bored. Initially, I crutched through the airport in Munich, to catch my flight home, stayed at home for a day, then flew out to Vail to get my surgery. I flew out alone as my parents were still in Europe- they couldn’t change their ticket or hotel plans for anything approaching reasonable. My girlfriend couldn’t come either. In their defense, I encouraged them not to come- it just wasn’t going to be that exciting. I drove a rental car around, through a snowstorm in Vail. It is my left knee, so I could drive an automatic. Vail was finally getting some snow after a few weeks of clear skies.
Surgery went well, got a new ACL from a cadaver graft and had my meniscus repaired. Dr. Sterett did the honors. He is the head team doctor for the US women and has worked on me a few times, in addition to squeezing me into his day this time. That meniscus repair was the biggest part of the surgery and remains the dictator of my rehab plan moving forward. I then spent a four day block staying at Randy’s house, one of the doctors I know in Vail. Randy has traveled with us quite a bit, most recently in La Parva, Chile and is an amazing supporter of the team. He put me up and even brought me some dinner in the middle of the couple dozen surgeries he probably did that weekend.
Aside from the amazing support we tend to get at Steadman-Hawkins, surgery is never fun. I miscalculated my ability to wait until I returned for a second rehab appointment (the day after surgery) to pick up my prescriptions. The nerve block wore off while I was away from the hospital and I headed back to the clinic early to pick them up, but not before I was nearly reduced to tears driving to the clinic. I have had a few surgeries before (6 previous) and I have never felt like that before. Dr. Sterett told me that was to be expected with the extent the meniscus needed repair. That was was when I was at my scheduled follow up that afternoon, of course.
All in all it went well. Most painful rehab I have had so far, even worse than my hip surgery two years ago. Instead of easing off the drugs in under a week, I was still popping them to get a couple hours of sleep.
As I was driving back to the Airport in Denver and watching a small SUV that I had just passed fishtail across the highway and then careen off into the median, I realized that I was still pretty lucky. Things could be worse.
When Daniel Albrecht crashed on the exact same jump that I did in Kitzbuhel, almost exactly a year to the day later, I felt for him- in a way that no one else could I am sure- since I had been there. I had been there recently. As the weeks progressed after that accident and he remained in his coma I found myself thinking something I knew and had said but hadn’t really been proved to me so dramatically. I had been lucky. I knew it at the time, but in comparison, getting away from that crash with what I did started to look really good. I guess it is all in your perspective.
So things could be worse. (Say with a positive flair in voice)