I first injured my hip in the half pipe at the US Open when I fell directly on it from about 15 feet in the air in the middle of the pipe in the tranny directly down on to the left hip.  I had a quick fix therapy immediately after that first injury so that I could compete in the Aspen Open and the Squaw Valley Ski Tour.  It was fine as long as I didn’t fall on it.  Those two events went fine, didn’t do too much damage, until back at Park City training when I skidded out on it again.  Later that day when I unwrapped the tight ace bandage surrounding my leg, hip and butt the baby grew in to a man sized beach ball. 

It continued to blow up over the next couple of hours like a helium balloon until I couldn’t take it any longer.  I looked like I had a butt full of cottage cheese.  I guess I had damaged my lymphatic system that helps your body naturally drain when swelling occurs.  Because it wasn’t functioning the blood had no where to go and the hip area just kept getting bigger and bigger.  The pain was intense as the swelling and internal pressure put too much strain on the nerves connecting all the muscles and tissue.  After a nice ambulance visit, with morphine, to the U of Utah I had to take some seriously cold ice baths and finally get the monster drained in Vail on my way to Breck for the NAO.  They took out about 32 ounces of bloody goob with another 32 oz remaining, left to sag on my left butt check and drain on its own eventually and hopefully.  Picture big butt implant gone bad.  Two weeks of icing, stretching and keeping the muscles glued down with a very tight wrap I am finally on the road to recovery.