I was skiing at Keystone 3 fridays ago-
-dust on crust
-extreme flat light
-little icy
I was hauling ass and I was cut off by two tourists one some run between north peak and outback. I was forced to go hard left into what looked like it could be soft snow. It was huge bumps. After maybe 100 feet I double ejected and went airborn. I was in the air for a very long time. I came down directly onto the top of my left shoulder (feet above head) which snapped my left clavical and then I tumbled over and over for a few hundred more feet, breaking it several more times. I came to a stop and was up walking around for a minute, i was going to try to ski or walk down but then I collapsed to my knees and started to feel the pain and the bones grinding. Luckily I was with a girl I've been dating and she was there for me for the 15 minute wait for ski patrol and the 45 minute tobogan/snowmobile ride and then in the hosbital. She also took care of me at her place for a few days. The ER doctors at Keystone told me I would need surgery to fix my shattered bone.
So I went to several orthos who all told me I didn't need surgery- Lay low for a week and then I could even go to Jamaica in two weeks to help with hurricane relief over spring break. My shoulder would somehow heal (slowly, mind you) and I would have a big egg shaped bump for the rest of my life- fine.
The pain got worse over the next week. Everytime I moved I felt the bones grinding and tearing apart my muscles. I called my doctor on thursday and told him what was happening and that it felt like the bone was comming through the muscle. He pretty much told me that yeah it was painfull but that it wasn't likely to be pushing through. The pain increased and my shoulder blade started to hurt real bad. I saw him the next Tuesday and right away he said I need surgery. I took 10 days to decide to operate.
That thursday (two thursdays after the injury, after missing two weeks of school) I had surgery. It turns out that the force of the first impact crushed the left side of my body. My shoulder blade was about 3 inches down and 3 inches in from where it should have been. During the surgery the doctors (there were at least 2 surgeons working on me) had to pull my arms apart over and over trying to get everything in place. The also put my collar bone back together with a titanium plate and 6 screws. The doctors confirmed that the floating piece of bone had torn apart the muscle and eventually pushed all the way through the muscle, just like I had said.
I had some complications and was in the hospital for a few days. I woke up in post op with alarms and shit going off because my oxygen level was too low and then i wasn't reacting to dangerous levels of pain killers- thats an experience I don't want to have again. I was in the hospital for a few days. At one point I woke up and realized it was the exact time my flight was landing in Jamaica.
This past week I’ve been recovering. I found out on Tuesday that I’m going to need surgery again in a year to take the plate out- it is too bent and if I break my collarbone with all the hardware in it would really complicate things. After the next surgery it will take 6 months before I will be allowed to do anything so I’m looking at an 18 month recovery. I was back in the hospital this thursday with another IV and blood-work because of intense pain and the possibility of infection. Because of complications with surgery and loss of appetite from the pain killers, I’ve lost 15 pounds of muscle in 3 weeks. I’m probably going to take a few incompletes this semester so I can focus on 2 or 3 classes to catch up in. I think I’ll be allowed to ski next season, but it will be with a warning not to ski hard. I can’t limit myself. Living in fear is no way to live. Skiing in fear is no way to ski. I’ll ski hard. If I fall and hurt my shoulder again it happens, but I won’t ski timid and hurt another part of my body by weighting my skis wrong or being afraid to fall. My current goal is to ski again this season, maybe in May or June at A Basin.
I'll post an x-ray with all the screws and the plate sometime in the next few days.
