Story Of A Ski Injury At Snowbird Part 2: 1 Month Later

It has been a wild ride over the past several weeks, a rollercoaster of events and emotions. It has already been almost 5 weeks (tomorrow, January 2, 2022 will be 5 weeks) since the initial occurrence, time flies as usual at a seemingly exponentially increasing rate. With respect to this injury and all injuries for that matter, the desire is for the time to pass quickly in order to heal and get back to feeling like a normal human being but otherwise we are constantly in a struggle to slow things down to stop the passage of time.

A lot has happened in the past several weeks. The first few days after my injury were mentally difficult as I struggled with the realizations that I not only had ended my season before it started, but that I had injured my dominant arm. I knew that this was going to make all sorts of things that I love and that define me impossible in the short term and potentially difficult for the long term as well. Besides skiing this season, I would not be able to fly fish, row a boat, cook and on and on the list goes. I knew that I needed to not dwell on this, but initially that was easier said than done. The snow fell endlessly which was a constant reminder that the conditions on the mountain were amazing which pulled at my mind and desire to ski which made it even more difficult. After a couple of days struggling with this and driving my wife, brother and daughter down with negativity, I came to the realization in the middle of the night that this was a weak and dysfunctional way of dealing with the situation. If I sat around feeling sorry for myself, staying in a bad mood and focusing on the negatives then things would get substantially worse on multiple levels. I decided that it was paramount for me to try to focus on healing and what I can control and do my best to keep a positive attitude. For the most part, I have been able to maintain that positive outlook. There have been times of course, inevitably, where the shoulder aches and I long to be able to move and use my right arm as I normally can. I think of what I am missing and the difficulty of rehab ahead and get a bit down, but in the back of my mind I know this is counterproductive so pull myself out of it.

Doctors

The day after my injury, I knew that it was important to immediately see a Orthopedic Surgeon. Dr. Paisley at the Snowbird clinic made this clear and mentioned I needed to do that within 7 days. I’ve been through injuries before so am of the mindset that attending to them is critical to successful healing and coming back. I called Dr. Andrew Cooper since my dad had seen him for his shoulder and I had seen him for a knee injury several years previous so I trusted him. He is the team Dr. for Real SLC and works with the freeskier team and at the solitude clinic so is well versed in injuries like this. The soonest appt. I could get was the following Monday, which would be 7 days.

When I met with the Dr. on Monday, December 5th I was nervous but also anxious to get some perspective since I hadn’t seen a Dr since the day it happened. After looking at my X Rays and taking another set of X Rays that day, Dr. Cooper told me I was lucky and also told me he thought I may need surgery. That is what I had figured at this point based on research and the reality of my injury. However, he told me that we should schedule an MRI in the meantime meet again on Wednesday to go over that and re- assess whether surgery would proceed. He added me to his schedule for that Friday, I met with the surgery consultant and was told of things I need to do to prepare for surgery including discontinuing Ibuprofen which at that point was a very helpful medication with the swelling I was experiencing. I scheduled an additional appointment with the doctor for the Wednesday of that week, at that point two days from then.

Later that afternoon when I arrived home I scheduled the MRI. From a previous experience in getting an MRI, I knew that the pricing was different depending on whether or not I used insurance as a result of our broken, dysfunctional, messed up medical system. And speaking with the scheduling person, I was informed of that if I use insurance I have to go to the location very far away and it would be something like $1700 hello would ultimately have to pay Little under 500 after my insurance was billed. When I asked what will happen if I didn’t use insurance I was informed that all we can get your cash only discount of $500 and you can go to any locations including the one closer to you. What a messed up situation! Editing rate I decided the best course of action was to pay the 500 and visited location close to me since it would be almost the same amount and much more convenient. I got the MRI the following morning early and was kind of nervous going in since I’ve never had one. It was actually no big deal they gave me headphones and the MRI machine was fairly large and not long so my entire body was not inside.

The following afternoon was my follow-up appointment with Dr. Cooper to go over the MRI. I have Tammy come with me to the doctors appointment so she could get all of the details about surgery. After meeting with a dr. looking at the MRI he determined it was best not to have surgery which made me very happy. However, I was still kind of concerned since you mentioned that my phone was in something like 40 pieces. He told me if he did surgery he would have nothing to screw the bone peace into and it was a better consolidated than he thought, and if he did go in there he would end up putting a plate in that I would later have to get taken out by another surgery. Based on this letting the bone heal was the best course of action. After mentally preparing myself for the last couple of days for surgery I was it extremely please that I did not need to have it although I’m not so sure I will not end up having surgery at some point. When Tammy asked the doctor so did he break his bone? The doctor responded a better word would be smashed, which wasn’t great to hear although I knew the reality. As we left the doctor and drove away we were left with mixed feelings but overall pleased the surgery was not going to occur at this point.

Healing & Pain

At that point my job was to continue to keep the shoulder stabilized with the sling and a focus on healing. The doctor had me scheduling follow up appointment for two weeks later in order to take x-rays and evaluate progress. In the meantime we had various Christmas activities planned and I wanted to put in a big effort make sure to still enjoy the holiday as much as possible with my family. One big component of this injury has been an overwhelming feeling of guilt for both my wife and my daughter as a result of me getting injured spending time doing something purely for my own satisfaction. Because I was skiing too fast for the conditions, and was not being careful I injured myself and caused a situation that was going to be very difficult for several months to come for myself, my daughter and my wife and it’s hard to let go of that guilt. However, ultimately I know there is nothing I can do about it except for work hard to get back and be there as much as I can for them in the capacity I am able.

One fascinating aspect of an injury, is how your body learns to adapt and adjust in both physical and mental aspects. Your subconscious logs what positions are painful and will not allow you to move into them anticipating pain before it happens. This becomes something that can cause difficulties after the pain subsides as it becomes necessary for you to move again, you fight with your own mind over whether it is possible. Your mind and body work together figuring out what things you can do with the opposite side of your body, and what things you just simply cannot do without help. For me, I decided right away to learn how to eat with my left hand both out of initial necessity but also to push my mind. Now five weeks in, I have gotten reasonably good at it. Sure I can’t shovel food down my throat unconsciously at will, but I can get the job done and my belly filled effectively with just my left hand (probably another one of those unanticipated positives, slowing down while eating). Using the computer Mouse presented a similar challenge, and right after the injury occurred I started learning how to adapt to using my computer with mostly my left-hand. I also learned several accessibility features that my computer had which seems coincidental since there has been a lot of accessibility talk among clients and in website design lately. In fact I’m currently writing this with the dictation feature since typing with the sling makes my shoulder relatively sore.

Overall, the experience of this injury so far has been another life lesson and been something that has presented many challenges but also many postive reflective moments and experiences. Although, getting injured is very unpleasant, life presents you with many challenges and if you can figure out a way to leverage them to help you and build from them, you become a better person overall and appreciate and enjoy the time you are allotted on this planet.