Good News From The Doc!

Rather than re-writing an email I sent earlier today...here's what was sent to the SSD and some friends on the patrol.

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First, I’d like to thank all of you for writing and calling and thinking of me, I sincerely appreciate your kind thoughts and words.

OK, I’ve got some very good news to report. According to the doctor, my knee is in a lot better shape than he originally thought it might be.

According to the MRI that I got yesterday, there is no ligament damage, or meniscus damage, the X-rays show no structural problems and the doc says that my knee is “tight”…which he said is good. There is some slight cartilage damage but not a tear and there are some “loose materials” in there but nothing that will prevent me from resuming a normal level of activity. He said it was difficult to tell because there’s a good bit of swelling and there is some point tenderness so he couldn’t totally palpate as much as he would like to but all-in-all, he indicated that I dodged a pretty big bullet given the description of the mechanism of injury and the swelling and pain on Sunday night.

So, next steps are to continue to ice, slowly increase activity, work on my range of motion and to stop wearing the compression brace; which is extremely good news! I’ve got an appointment on Friday, March 2 to visit with Dr. xxxx one more time. Based on how things are going, he’ll hopefully fully release me, with the appropriate paperwork. As for now, there’s no skiing but my plan is to get back on the slopes Saturday, March 3 for instructing and patrolling; unless anyone objects, please anticipate that my regular schedule will resume at that time.

As for what really happened, now that I’ve had a chance to think about it, the boarder that hit me was young…10 or 12, maybe 14 at the most. I’m not really sure if he was a student, newbie or someone just out of control. About 30 seconds before I got hit, I was talking with my class about clearing the path up-hill when you are entering a trail; always look for traffic. In doing that, I looked up trail and didn’t see anyone. That’s when I returned my attention to the students and then, I got hit. Rob, the patroller, was almost immediately on the scene and he instructed the boarder not to move. He might have had a better sense of who he was and gotten a better look at him than I did. To be honest, my attention wasn’t on that young man, instead, I was trying to figure out how badly I was hurt DCAP/BTLS/SAMPLE…good training never goes away. Even though Rob told him not to move, once the other patrollers and instructors started to come around, I think the boarder saw it as an opportunity to leave, and did. Since I got hit from behind and from my right, and I was looking to the left to make sure all of the students were acknowledging what I had just told them, it is literally like I got blindsided…I truly never saw him coming. In any case, I don’t think we can really blame the boarder; experienced or not, this was hopefully just an accident.

So, I’ll take the next 10 days to stretch, ice, work on my range of motion, get with whatever doc’s need to see me and get ready to get back on hill for the remainder of this season.

Thanks again to you all . . . your support is truly appreciated.