Tour with The Baby Leg

Progress. It comes in baby steps. Especially when you have what I call "my baby leg." I'm lucky. 12 days after surgery I was walking. 15 days after I was able to negotiate an airport and rock a show. The pain is still real, but it's more fatigue than pain, but the discomfort is real. I'm lucky, already over the crutches hump, walking, and working/living. Life is good. I'm starting to think cyclocross season isn't out of the question.

Baby Leg:



-- Post From My iPhone

Knee

Most of you know I hit a tree snowboarding in late February.  In fact that's all well documented in this blog.  What hasn't been documented is my surgery to repair my ACL.  I arrived in Durango the day after the Dusters last Ski Tour Show, did a pre-op appt, got some tips from my Physical Therapist and went under the knife.  I drastically underestimated how invasive the procedure would be.  It really fucked me up.  Massive swelling, dead leg (they did a nerve block on the whole thing) and incredible pain (I'm not man enough to pretend like it didn't hurt).  After the relative ease of my initial injury (I figured if I could walk on a broken leg, a little knee surgery would be nothing), the magnitude of the situation post-op overwhelmed me and I freaked out.  First four days were terrible, but then I saw my Physical Therapist, Tiffany, an old friend and wife of Hap, Durango banjo and mountain bike staple.  Tiffany got my head straightened out and started using machines, ice contraptions and her skills (oh, science...) and I immediately started improving.  I'd intended to return to Nashville last Wednesday, but all interested parties decided that wasn't the best idea, so I decided to stick around an extra week and join the band in Houston for the start of our CD Release Tour (Things That Fly hits 4/20/10).

This week has made all the difference.  Pain has almost disappeared, swelling has come down ( I wish I would have taken pictures...) and today I took my first shaky but unassisted steps.  I've not set any goals, though it'll be nice when I can roam the stage again.  Cyclocross season will probably come and go without me getting bloody and muddy; I may just be the drunk guy this year.  I anticipate getting back on skis (maybe snowboard, since it's soooo much easier, thank you very much!!!) by Ski Tour, though I doubt I'll be dropping into the Big Coulior.  Everyone's been really supportive and I think I'll be stronger than ever.  They managed to pull a massive chunk of my patellar tendon to use as a template for my ACL, the knee may ultimately be stronger than before.  Time will tell, but I'm just happy to be up and not in pain. 

It's going to be a great summer.  Festival season is almost upon us and Sarah and I are subletting a place in Lyons, CO for the months of July and August.  Life is good and ibuprofen is my new best friend.  Also, I would like to personally thank Ska Brewing for starting the Canned Beer Revolution.  I love you, Ska.  Can't say how much talking about myself I'll be doing, guess you'll just have to check in periodically.

Comprehensive

Where to begin?  It was an epic Ski Tour.  Straight Up.  Serious Business.  The band rocked it, I did some choice snow riding before my dreams were crushed, and we saw some beautiful country.  Let's see what we have here:

This is Ed, Panda and Myself on top of Lone Peak just before dropping in on the Big Couloir.  It was the only 4 hour window the clouds cleared the entire weekend and we took advantage by skiing the Big.  I'm not a great skier, not yet, at least, so I was in over my head but I managed to survive.

 

 

I understand this is basically the same shot I used in a previous post, but this is actually what it looked like when my partner and I skiid up to the edge. 1500 vertical feet is a lot of feet. When my wife saw this picture, she freaked out. When I broke my leg a week later, she was kinda pissed! 

This is a shot of Lone Peak and the Big Couloir taken from across the valley by a friend a little later that same morning.  Pretty sweet.

Six days later I ended up at Utah's Powder Mountain with my man Casey.  We rode low angle aspen trees all day.  It mostly looked like this.

The very next day we ended up at Brighton and I hit one of those things hard on the first run of the day.  Snow was a little lighter than I thought I guess.  Broke some stuff.  So the Ski Tour ground to a halt, which is a real shame because I had a day at Park City, two days at Wolf Creek, two days at Loveland and at least one other day lined up before the end of the season.  In rehab mode now, waiting for the break and the mcl to heal.  The leg is actually hurting more now since I'm using it and the bone is just about fused.  Can't get surgery on the ACL until all that other stuff heals so Sarah and I are still doing our Duo Tour in Colorado.  It'll be heartbreaking to be out there with all the great snow and no way to ride it but at least I won't be in a bed in TN.  Expecting a full recovery, though, this has brought into question the lengths at which I'll go to have a good time.  I'm glad I hit the Big when I did because I kinda doubt I'll ever do it again. Don't think I would ever do it differently, though.

Fibula, ACL, MCL

The epic Ski Tour ground to a halt at the base of an aspen tree at Brighton Ski Area Monday. Broken fibula and torn ACL and MCL. I'm insured but my deductable is high. Here's the X-Ray.


So I won't be using the leg much for awhile. I'll continue to keep anyone interested posted on developments. Any good vibes are appreciated and I'm considering setting up a Paypal acct. for those interested in donating to help cover medical bills. Stay tuned.

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Mcl, acl, fibula

Everythings broken:


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Big Couloir

Yesterday, Ed insisted we ski the Big Couloir at Big Sky.  It's the classic line on the mountain.  I was too busy trying to ski to take pictures so I snagged a few from the intertubes.  It's the obvious line to the lookers right of the summit as shown above.  Below is a closer look from the tram.

This is what it looks like from the top right before you drop in.

In all my years skiing/riding, this was by far the most...

Can't Sleep, Must Ride

I got into bed last night around 3am after my second full day of skiing and two late night party sets of music at the Big Sky, Big Grass Festival.  At the time, it wasn't snowing.  I set the alarm for 10am as a safety net.  Woke up at 7am, looked outside and it was dumping.  Again.  Now I can't sleep.  Drinking coffee and water; the pre-game ritual, trying to decide if I get on the snowboard today or stick with the skis (Snowboard seems to be winning, it just looks so forlorn over there in the corner while it's absolutely dumping outside).

It's been waiting patiently in the corner, looking all legendary. 
Full pot of coffee and I'll be out the door.