March 11 -- Forever known as "The Day I Tore My ACL"

I had a bad spill on the slopes. I was taking a jump in a terrain park on Bear Mountain. I landed unevenly, caught an edge, lost my balance, went off the ledge of the backside of the jump. Crashed hard on my feet. My skis didn’t release. I had to be taken down the mountain on a sled! Spent a few hours at the ER at Dartmouth. I have a torn ACL and a fracture on my tibia where that ligament attaches.

This photo shows bruising from the fracture.


Luckily our friends Wayne & Monique were able to take care of me last night as Brett had left VT on Saturday to take a flight out of NY to Beijing. I was suppposed to drive back to the city last night with them. Instead we spent the night at the hospital and pharmacy. I’ll either go back to the city with a friend from Dartmouth on Wednesday or wait for Brett to come get me on the weekend. Brett gets back to NY on Thursday.



In terms of pain, last night was bad. At first I didn’t think I’d be able to get out of the back seat of the car without passing out from the pain. Wayne had to carry me from the car to the door. I thought I could scoot up the stairs backwards, but was overwhelmed by nausea from the pain after moving up just one step. Wayne ultimately carried me the rest of the way up the stairs and into the bedroom on the first floor. (Thank GOD for Wayne and Monique! And thank God Wayne works out with weights and could carry me.)



I’m glad to report that today is much, much better. I’m propped up at the kitchen table typing emails, making phone calls, and doing fine. My leg is elevated and in a brace. Now I’m trying to decide if I should bother to follow up with an orthopedic person out here this week (Rutland, VT is supposed to have a good orthopedic group that treats professional skiers) or just wait to follow up in NY next week. According to the ER attending I’ll probably have to have surgery. So much for spring skiing this year.