Disappointment

Well today was my second visit to see the consultant. Unfortunately he was worried about the triangular shaped fragment (which the pin came out of last time) moving if he was to dinamize the frame, that means another six weeks before seeing him again and then another two after (and that’s if he chooses to dinamize then which isn't guaranteed). That means that the earliest I can have my frame off is May the 24th and that seems a hell of a long time away. God knows how long after that it'll be before I can climb again, let alone climb to the level I was previously...Maybe I'll be walking by graduation?

I tried not to get my hopes up to much as I knew this might happen however i'm still fairly gutted...and damn bored.

He also re-tensioned one of my lower wires which was another procedure involving spanners and a fair amount of discomfort.

Gore...

I happend upon the picture taken in A+E, after the leg was straightened but before they put everything back inside. Nat tells me that its not as gorey as when it was at 90' and certainly not in Black and White! I was bit reluctant to look at first but its actually not that bad...

I've left the pics as links so you can make up your own mind whether or not to take a peek:

Photo 1

Closeup

C.W.I.M.B.

Yesterday I headed over to the works to watch the first ever C.W.I.M.B. (Climbing works international masters bouldering comp). I got there in time to watch the end of the men’s qualifiers.
After this bit finished I did some pull ups and footless traversing on the skips, carefully. Unfortunately that care was short lived and stepping down from the mat I put all my weight through my bad leg. Ouch once again! I got that instant feeling of being boiling hot once again and made it outside for some fresh air. After a few minutes sat on the tarmac I tried standing up, that was mistake no. 2, instantly started feeling very dizzy and very weak, back down to the tarmac (still conscious happily), after this Nat took me home and I stocked up on food. Needless to say I wasn't too happy at this point. I couldn’t load the frame anywhere near as much as the morning so I rung the hospital who assured me that its pretty damn difficult to re-break anything in these frames.
Later we returned to watch the women’s final (with two crutches and no weight passing through the leg whatsoever). Sabine Bachar took a well deserved win looking much stronger than the rest of the female finalists. The problems looked good too.
Next up was the men's final, Tyler came out last after qualifying first and to be honest looked a cut above the rest and inhumanly strong, with amazing technique as well (demonstrated on the slab that I believe only Ryan flashed as well?), unfortunately he ran out of steam (got very angry?) on problem 4 and Ryan sneaked in to win it.
I went home after this with plans to eat and then head out to the party however my leg was still sore and after a quick phone call to Jon (a.k.a UKB's very own fatdoc) I went to bed to rest it...
This morning it feels marginally better but not amazing. I just hope its returned to how it was before Thursday as I really don't want this avoidable mistake to influence what action is taken with the frame.

Free Friends Friday

The gym sent me an offer that allowed me to take a mate along this Friday, usually I ignore this stuff but this time I took advantage and got James down for a session.
It’s the first time ever a weights session has been as enjoyable as a climbing one, he pushed me to do so much more than usual and it turned into a monster session, with at least an hour being spent on the Smith machine alone.

On Saturday I woke up with an understandably sore chest. How come its always the chest that hurts and nothing else?

Bad News

Got a text on Saturday telling me Steve Dunning had fallen off a project up at Crookrise and broken his leg and ankle. I hadn't spoken to him since I left for Uni, prior to that I often talked to him at Kilnsey (mainly about either his Lancia Delta Intergrale, or the day that my my mini cut out majorly after a days climbing on the Bowderstone), I thought given my current situation it would be a good time to chat and offer any useful information I had.

(My previous vehicle: Mini Cooper Sport - I don't think i will ever see a better example of this model of car it was immaculate and very entertaining on the backroads around and about N.Yorkshire)

Spoke to Steve on Sunday: It sounded like quite an uncomfortable experience crawling up to the top (as his spotter couldn't carry him) until someone else they phoned arrived and they managed to construct a kind of 'seat' using a brush stick and some other junk. However it seems that in some respect he's been pretty lucky as he suffered no displacement and is looking at around 6 weeks in cast. Turns out he was planning a round the world trip and just quit his job and sold his car! It seems planning any kind of major trip should currently come with a health warning!

Progress Report

This weekend, Nat and I visited my parents, we managed to set of earlier than expected and caught my Dad just before he jetted off to go skiing for the second time this season. We had a relaxing weekend, visiting the gym and eating very well. On Tues we returned via Leeds where Nat had a job interview. She's been offered the job but seems unsure about the commute to Leeds, (she's also been offered the same job in York but the commute still seems long).
It seems as though since the last physio appointment I haven't really been pushing myself very hard at all therefore I vowed to only use one crutch whenever necessary and every gym visit now finishes with a dismaying 'learn to walk with no support' session. I've managed to re-create all of the exercises the physio had me doing which means I can stretch out my ankle a lot more (although this isn't too much fun as the wires cut tracks or 'Cheese-wire' as they put it in my info pack). I can walk very short distances unaided, but it’s not a graceful affair.
I need to maintain the intensity of loading the leg as much as possible if I’m to have progressed enough for them to loosen the frame in a little over two weeks time.

Whoops!

Realised a post I made a day or so ago wasn't the most sensitive after receiving a text from Shiv: It was certainly not meant to suggest that either of the female ascents of Ben's Roof were 'improper' or anyway invalid, and was definitely not meant to offend anyone. A bit of confusion led to me posting an apology with yet another mistake, but Andy has cleared that up and I hope now after an apology everything is sorted and it hasn't detracted too much from any of the achievements mentioned on that thread.
It made me realise that you have to be very careful when using forums; it’s very easy to accidentally offend people as has been seen many times before. It's even easier when it's that persons hardest problem/route etc. as a great deal of time and effort has been invested into the ascent.

2nd Physio

This morning was time for my 2nd physio appointment (two weeks since the last).
After a few full on calf stretches I was back on a wobble board, this time one that could tilt in any direction. Progress was obvious, as was the larger range of motion present in my ankle. I was soon told to try and balance on the wobble board with my eyes shut, this was tricky but I was doing fairly well after a little while.
After this I was required to try stepping up onto a block whilst fully load bearing on my injured leg, after a few wobbles this was again fine.
Next up was the trampoline, after a few gentle bounces I was instructed to balance on my good leg. They then threw balls at me to check my balance, this wasn't too much trouble until I completely missed one and it nearly wiped out the physiotherapy student who was helping out. The next challenge was to stand one legged on the bad leg; this was a bit more tricky. Initially I couldn't get myself to lift my uninjured foot off the ground but after a couple of minutes I managed it (8b?) and thankfully they opted not to throw any more balls at me today.
A set of cones was quickly laid out around the gym and I attempted to walk without my crutches, initially I was limping although I think it must have been psychological because soon I was walking fine (well fine ish...). I then walked backwards and sideward in both directions.
The physiotherapist was pretty confident that she didn't need to see me until after my next check-up (3 weeks time). She recently set up a group session which I’m pretty sure she wants me to attend just to be a success story, both her and the consultant seem to be impressed with progress and they are both confident they will dinamize (sp?) me in 3 weeks time (that means loosen the bolts a bit). The good news is she said I can traverse If I want to...haha

The Angel's Share

I was really impressed the other day to hear about A.L. ground-upping this route and even more so when I watched the crabstix video on youTube, however it got me thinking....


I've always had aspirations to climb up to, and beyond a certain level in bouldering, sport and trad. Over the last few years I suprised myself in the first two disciplines but got stuck below what I had hoped in terms of trad. I'm not sure why, maybe i'm just a bit of a sissy but the consequences (however small the risks might be) always seemed to outweigh any possible positive outcome, even more so now; I mean if it's possible to do this much damage to a leg over a nice big crash mat wtf could happen if you overshoot your mat or clip some of those nice scattered lumps of grit that sometimes surround a landing?
I'll echo what the big man himself said in hard grit, i'm amazed more people don't get hurt... maybe more people will with the new shift being towards a 'cleaner' ground up approach, I hope not.

Meat Head

At the end of last week I managed to rejoin Greens gym in town and I finally got back to doing some exercise on Friday and again today. Weights feel a little soulless compared to climbing but about half way into the first session I was getting a bit more psyched. I also managed to get on a recumbent bike for 30 mins, it was on the lowest setting so had no real aerobic benefit however it was mainly just to encourage a bit more movement out of my ankle.
The day after the session I had some serious muscle soreness (why is it always your chest?), which made it hard to put any load down through my crutch. Today the session seemed a lot harder but I’m sure my body will adjust soon.

The Day of the Olive!

I returned to the hospital for my first check-up with Mr.Dennison, the guy who sorted my leg out and attached the Ilizarov frame. I ran into Nic Sellars at the main desk and had a good chat about the accident, everyone seems to be a bit shocked that something this severe can occur in a relatively safe scenario (big mats, no rocks).

Firstly they X-rayed my leg and then I went in to see the consultant (using only one crutch I might add. The other physio suggested that this would make his day). According to him, at the three week period they expect to see no real change in the X-rays. My X-rays showed clear bone growth in the gaps which he was most impressed with, even to the extent he started calling in other people to take a look. Being stubborn at this point and constantly weighting the frame since day 1 has seemed to pay off in a big way!

We then discussed my frame and he told me that he wanted to remove the wire he previously mentioned and also to weaken my frame. This was done by removing one of the sets of threaded bar from the middle section, reducing this to 3 instead of 4. This leads to more load being carried by the bone and as the bone heals better under loading...etc. After this I went next door to have the wire removed. The wire in question did not pass fully through my bone; instead it had a spike that resided in the bone, a ball and then a wire, allowing for the frame to "push" one of the fragments in place. The nurse removed the tension on the wire by releasing the nut (it doesn't feel quite right when someone in the medical profession is brandishing two spanners in your direction...). One minute later and she produced a pair of red handeled pliers, she clamped them on the wire and without any warning (or anaesthetic) pulled. It didn't hurt for long but having something similar to a small ball bearing pulled through any kind of tissue hurts a reasonable amount. I'm not quite sure whether the nurse's prediction of "that hole will heal in a day" is all that realistic. She then removed the stitches that remained in my leg.

I'm back in four weeks to check progress, however if it continues in the way it is now the consultant has suggested that they will totally disconnect the frame, it's then left in-situ for 1-2 weeks to check nothing moves (it's much easier (read less painful) to do something about it then, rather than having to have 3 hours worth of surgery to refit the frame), before it will be removed for good. The initial time period given to me of 6 months I was told today was an upper limit and 3 months was more reasonable, however the record for having one of these frames on and off is 9 weeks, which I'm currently set to hit. Good news...