March 21, 2017

I woke up on Sunday, March 19 feeling better than ever. I had just finished my first ice climbing season, my finger injury was healing well, and I was more than ready for the summer. I planned on spending a lot of time outdoors trail running, biking and climbing.

I went to the climbing gym in the afternoon and was having a great session. Towards the end of the session I was doing a route I had previously done with my new Dry Ice Tools. The route was overhang but wasn’t particularly hard or high.

This is the route I fell on. My hand was on the third to last hold

I went for the third to last hold with my right hand and fell. In bouldering, you fall every time (unless you down climb but that is rare). Unfortunately, on this particular fall I landed very badly, heard a crack on my left leg, then laid there and upon looking at my leg I saw that something was seriously wrong.

A few guys that were watching immediately called management, who upon seeing my leg immediately called 911. Paramedics arrived quite fast, put me on a stretcher and took me to emergency.

Upon arrival, the doctor saw that my bone was about to pop through my skin. Very quickly, him and the nurses reset my bone and sent me to X-Rays.

Waiting for X-Rays

The orthopedic resident looked at my X-Rays and saw that the reset was done incorrectly. I was then put to sleep to do the reset correctly. After the proper reset I got a cast and was sent to X-Rays again.

Fracture Diagram

The X-Rays showed that I have a trimalleolar fracture which will require surgery. I’ve been bedridden since, reducing my mobility to close to 0. Luckily Cata is here with me to assist me. Tasks like getting water from the fridge are very cumbersome and difficult. Slowly I am starting to get used to living with crutches.