March
9
14 years ago on this day, I experienced the most significant injury to
my running career. I tore the ACL in my
right knee doing large ski jumps. On this
day, I wasn’t doing large jumps; rather I was cruising quickly down a groomed,
but icy double blue run in Big Sky. As I
neared the bottom of the run, carrying around 46 mph, I came upon other skiers
and began to scrub some speed. I am not
sure what went wrong, but I lost control and crashed hard. My right ski came off, but not the left
one. Immediately, I felt pretty intense
pain in my left knee. Oh no, have I torn
my left ACL? Painfully, I disconnect my
left ski and another skier asks if I want him to get ski patrol. Initially, I say, “give me a minute.” Then while I am still lying on the ground in
significant pain, he says, “I will go get ski patrol. At worst, you will be up by the time they get
here.” I respond okay and wait for the
pain to lessen. The pain doesn’t lessen,
and ski patrol is to me in less than two minutes. Erich hiked up to me and immediately began to
assess the situation. How old are
you? What hurts? Did you hit your head? What is your pain level? My answers:
57, left knee, no, 8-9 and by the way, I am an ultrarunner, so I
understand pain.
The last thing I want on a ski slope is to be carted off on a
sled. Erich calls in the sled, and they
immobilize my left leg as best as possible with a leg splint. They put two wedges behind the knee to keep
it slightly bent. Then they strap me
into the sled and down the hill I slide.
Off to the side of the ski lift, the sled is transferred from a human to
a snowmobile. The snowmobile drags the
sled and me to a waiting a Suburban. (It
was offered to call in an ambulance, but I declined.) I get loaded from the sled into the
Suburban. Every movement of the left leg
brings intense pain. The Suburban takes
me to the slope side medical clinic.
 |
Erich and another ski patrol person strapping me into the sled
Credit: Stefano Coraluppi |
Martha is waiting for me at the clinic.
They put me in a wheelchair, elevating the left leg. Martha notes that I am in more pain than I
was 14 years ago with my right ACL.
Perhaps I did more damage than my ACL?
The clinic staff takes off my right ski boot and attempts to remove the
left one. That is not happening as
flexing the foot and pulling on the leg creates the most pain I have felt in my
lower body. Okay, they decide they can
take the X-Ray with my boot and ski clothes on me.
 |
| In the Big Sky Medical Clinic |
In the X-Ray room, I ask for some drugs. Let’s start with 800mg of ibuprofen. They bring me the vitamin-I, and I am then
able to get on the X-Ray table. I am
still laying on the X-Ray table when Martha comes in and tells me I broke
something. She shows me the X-Ray, and
my first thought is that might be quicker to recover from than a torn ACL. Erich stops by and says he didn’t think my
pain symptoms were lining up with an ACL, and he feared it was a tibial plateau
fracture. He wishes me a speedy recovery,
and I sincerely thank him for his most expert first aid care. The clinical staff determines that I need to
go to the hospital in Bozeman as surgery is likely necessary. |
| This tibia fracture doesn't look as bad as Lindsey Vonn's |
So, Martha gets the car, they load me in the back seat, and off we go
for the hour drive down to Bozeman.
Before leaving the clinic they give me 1000mg of Tylenol. Martha pulls up to the Emergency Room entrance, and a nurse comes
out with a wheelchair that doesn’t have a leg extension capability. I tell her that isn’t going to work, and so
she goes and gets a gurney. With a
little assist, I hop on the gurney and they roll me inside. The doctor on call for trauma cases is Dr.
Jon Robinson. He will be in shortly, but
he wants everything off of my legs before he gets there for the first
surgery. Wait, did he say first
surgery? Yes, they will likely install
an external fixation, and then I can travel home for the next surgery to
install hardware inside the leg. So, a
couple of nurses and at least one nurse’s aide start to get the layers
off. Of course, most of my clothing is
swag from an ultrarace. First off is the
left ski boot. With one nurse holding my
leg and two more manipulating the boot, we manage to get it off without me
screaming. Next off are my ski pants
then a pair of thermals. The socks I am
wearing are Darn Tough socks that were swag.
The nurse asks about Darn Tough socks, and I explain that I prefer
DryMax over Darn Tough for running.
Finally, off comes the base layer—an old pair of running tights. They let me keep my underwear on! Then the top layers come off—Patagonia
Hellgate 100k finisher shirt and a thick synthetic running shirt. They let me keep my Twisted Branch 100k
t-shirt on in addition to my underwear. |
| Post Surgery with the External Fixation in Place |
Dr. Robinson comes in and briefs the surgery he is going to perform and
soon the anesthesiologist is putting the drugs in the IV. They whisk me off to the surgery, and it is
performed in 20 minutes. I spend almost
the next 24 hours in the hospital. The
nurses check on me every hour to ensure compartment syndrome is not setting
in. I make it through the night with
just some additional Tylenol. Before
getting discharged, a CT scan is performed, and we are given the DVD to take
with us back to Huntsville. I have an
appointment with Dr. Maples on Tuesday to determine when and how the next
surgery will be done. Until then, I am
hobbling around on crutches with the Ex-Fix and no weight on the left leg. |
| Back in Big Sky Resting Comfortably |
Never stop running (unless you have a broken leg or a knee
replacement),
Darin
