My ROM is -2 (w/in 1 degree of my other leg) and 133. I’m getting better at walking down the stairs but it’s still tricky. Going up stairs is no problem. My PT still consists of most of the things mentioned a couple of posts ago, with some additions. I am now also doing some leg raises lying on my side and rotating the leg in circles in that position too. I’m also doing another pilates exercise, lying down, band around legs just above knees, feet together, raising my knee up. I did it all the time in ski conditioning so I’m familiar with it. It really strengthens the hips. Other than that I’m riding my bike more and more with more and more resistance. I’m working up to 30 minute sessions now. My PT guy basically said I can ride as much as I want (on my trainer) with as much resistance as I want as long as it doesn’t hurt or irritate my knee, or cause swelling. My swelling is going down more and more. Now, it’s more noticeable which areas are larger due to scar tissue, not just swelling.
The ibuprofen is causing my stomach to go haywire after taking it for awhile. So, I’ve decided I’m going off of it. I read on the Internet that something like 30% of long term NSAID users end up with stomach ulcers. I really don’t want that. It would really really suck if I had to give up chocolate during a time like this So, I’ve looked into it and I’m going to try some herbal anti-inflammatories. My chiropractor gave me something called EnFlux which has a concoction of Boswellia and turmeric among other things, known to be natural anti-inflammatories. I’ll try that. And of course, still icing regularly.
Yuichiro Miura, from Japan, was a notable alpine racer of the time. This film highlights his 1970 attempt to ski Mt. Everest. The movie opens with a quote stating, “Throughout time, mas has aspired to great heights in search of peace of mind and a quiet heart. This is the story of such a man.”
Their expedition begins in the lowlands of Kathmandu in Nepal where they hired 800 porters to carry all of their gear up to the highlands. Over many days they travel 185 miles with 27 tons of equipment. The bare-footed porters carry their heavy packs with straps on their heads, typical of the region. The film shows several shots of the literal train of porters hiking through the forest to the mountains. Eventually the group reaches the land of the Sherpas. There, they send their lowland porters home and exchange them for 400 Sherpas. The group continues up the valley toward Everest. It takes them 40 days to travel the next three miles.
Along the way, Miura visits Sir Edmund Hillary, who had established a hospital in the area for the Sherpas. New Zealander Hillary along with his Sherpa partner Tenzing Norgay, were the first to climb Everest (and return), in 1953. Muira was often questioned as to why he wanted to ski Everest. But Hillary understands, saying, “When we stop looking for challenges, human beings will be in a very bad way.”
When the group reached the Khumbu icefall, they set up a camp where they remain for several days. The Khumbu icefall is known for being one of the most treacherous areas on Everest. It changes day by day and immense parts of the icefall can collapse at once. This is exactly what happened when a group of Sherpas was sent ahead to find a route through the icefall, claiming the lives of six men.
Nevertheless, the expedition continues. Everyday, more and more clouds appeared in the sky- reminding the group that the monsoon was coming. The men felt pressed for time.
In the meantime, Yuichiro Miura prepares his skis. The film shows Miura mounting the bindings on his brand new skis and sharpening them incessantly, as though it were a methodical obsession. Miura’s goal was never to ski from the summit of Everest. He wanted to ski it from the top of the Lhotse Face at 26,000 feet (7928 m) with the aid of a parachute. With the thinner air, he was uncertain what size parachute to use. So, he tested some of the chutes on the lower slopes of Everest. The film shows some of this test footage.
The film depicts Yuichiro Miura as a very introspective man, constantly contemplating the happenings around him. He questioned the death of the six Sherpas and wondered why a Japanese man wasn’t among them. And the film dialogues how he develops a connection with the high peaks that surround him. Miura is quoted saying things like, “The challenge of the peaks is the challenge of life itself- To always struggle higher.” Later he’s quoted again saying, “We have wandered from the paths of the wind and become children of fear.”
As the group ascends higher and higher on Everest, the group continues to get smaller. During their ascent the film focuses on the Bergshrund, a huge crevasse that divides the Lhotse Face from the Khumbu glacier. The scene leaves the viewer with a foreboding feeling.
Eventually, Miura and his supporters reach the top of the Lhotse face, where he plans to begin his ski. At first, it seemed as though the weather would not cooperate. But, Miura performs some ceremonial rituals that show he has come to understand the spirit of the mountains. Within moments, the wind calms. And his ski can begin.
Equipped with an oxygen mask, Miura bolts straight down the icy Lhotse face, barely making any turns at first. His chute releases without any problems. But Miura continues down the face with an unimaginable speed, despite having a chute to slow him down. Skiing on skinny skis and in leather boots, Miura holds his pose with his brute strength. But, eventually, the mountain gets him. He slips on some ice and begins sliding faster and faster at uncontrollable speeds down the icy face. He loses both skis and his parachute folds over, no longer slowing his speed. He tumbles over a small rockband, unharmed. And then moments later, he finds a patch of snow and the strength to come to an abrupt stop- 250 feet above the Burgshrund.
In the end, Miura skied 6,600 feet (2000 m) in 2 minutes and 20 seconds and then fell another 1320 feet down the Lhotse Face. Miura is left with nothing but questions. He wonders why he is alive, when others are not. And he questions whether the mission was actually a success when he ended up falling a large way down the mountain. Nevertheless, Miura is happy to be alive.
Whether Miura’s ski can actually be considered a success or not will be questioned for quite some time. Miura’s plan of not beginning his ski from the summit and skiing with the aid of a parachute leaves many of todays ski mountaineers scorning his actions. Nevertheless, the film has it’s place in mountaineering history. Shot in 35mm Panavision, this film was ahead of it’s time in cinematography, bringing the unseen Everest to the common audience of the era. It is no surprise that this film won the the Academy Award for best documentary in 1976.
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This YouTube video shows Miura’s ski down Everest continued by his slide-for-life. The excerpt comes up short, ending just moments before Miura actually comes to a stop.
It’s over two weeks post-op now. The first week I had amazing progress. That progress has slowed, but that’s to be expected. My knee still keeps getting better and better. I’m largely off the crutches. I really only need them when it’s snowing outside. The swelling continues to go down and nearly all of the bruising has gone away. On Monday the doctor removed the surgical tape covering the incision points. There were some of the dissolvable stitches poking through, but they said they should go away or they will cut them out in a few weeks. My ROM is over 125 now. I’m doing lots of physical therapy both with my PT guy and at home. I’m able to ride my bike on a trainer now with a higher resistance now so I can actually get a good workout. My PT consists of some stretching, massaging my scar tissue at the incision points, moving my knee cap around, straight leg raises, quad sets (tightening my inner quad muscle), step-ups, balancing on one leg on a pillow, leg presses, squats, calf raises, some exercises with a pilates band, and core strength exercises. I spend at least a couple of hours a day working on my PT exercises.
Other than that, I’ve been very busy working. My work load has increased since being injured in February. I suppose that’s good. I would have had to turn some of these jobs down if I was still skiing. Might as well work a ton if I can’t ski!
The hardest part has been not being able to ski. April is my favorite month, when ski mountaineering usually peaks. Knowing that it’s right around the corner is hard for me to cope with. I will be going out of town for a week in April to visit my family in Ohio- trying to escape the April mountaineering scene. But, I can’t take more time than that off as I just have too much work to do. Hopefully the work will keep my mind off of these things!
I am doing great! Five days after surgery, I’m back doing my tutoring for the local HS kids here. My PT guy is weaning me off my crutches (started at my PT session this morning). My knee feels stable- quad firing just fine. And I haven’t been using a brace at all. My knee is still quite a bit swollen, but I have ice on it a lot- every hour or two. It helps that I have about 7 ice packs- some borrowed, some old, some purchased a couple of weeks ago. I’m also taking ibuprofen, but no other pain killers. My ROM is at 0 and 110. The pain is minimal and has been the whole time. In a couple of days I should be on the bike.
So, let me give a quick synopsis of the happenings over the last few days.
Wednesday- Day before surgery.
I tried to call the docs office like 5 times to pay over the phone with the credit card the amount I’m supposed to pay before surgery. I had been fighting this whole thing with the people at the doc’s office and they agreed to allow me to pay the day before surgery to see if more claims had been met against my deductible. I couldn’t reach the person I needed over and over. Finally, at like 4:30 I pretty much freaked out- because I was told I needed to pay the amount before the surgery, or I won’t be having the surgery. So, a nurse calls me back, finally. She says that they’ve had an emergency there- a pipe burst in the surgery room. So, they were relocating my surgery from the surgery center to the hospital- same time, same doc, different nurses and anesthesiologist. When I asked about payments, she says not to worry about it . I didn’t actually need to pay it. I was now told that since I will have a different anesthesiologist I could no longer drink water or eat past midnight, whereas the anesthesiologist I’d spoken to said I could eat before 6:30 am.
Thursday- Day of surgery.
I woke up, cleaned the house, and get things ready to be in a gimp state for a while. My surgery wasn’t scheduled until 2:30 and they told me to arrive at the hospital in Gunnison at 1 pm. Frank and I were going to do some grocery shopping in Gunnison before my surgery so we headed down early. On the way, the hospital called and asked if I could come in right away. So, I got there at 11:30 am instead of 1 pm. The nurse sucked at putting the IV in and my veins apparently suck for IV’s, not making a good combo. That was the most painful part of the whole experience- more painful than anything post surgery. I kept wondering when I was going to see the anesthesiologist so I could make sure that the plan I made with my other anesthesiologist was still on track- a spinal with a femoral block. He came in thinking I was going to do general anesthesia with a femoral block. I said, “No, I want a spinal.” But, apparently he didn’t do spinals with femoral blocks. So, spinal it was, only- well, on top of the sedative which made me really goofy. They wheeled me into the surgery room and Dr. Griggs (Beim’s assistant) showed my the allograft that was going into my knee. It was stringy and kind of looked like a really long piece of string cheese. I remember talking to the doctor and nurses off and on throughout the course of the surgery. I distinctly remember Dr Beim saying, “She has a bit of cartilage damage here.” And I freaked out and said, “Cartilage damage??” She had warned me prior to surgery that some cartilage damage could require microfracture treatment which meant 6 weeks non-weight-bearing post-op and I wasn’t really up for that. She replied back to me, “Oh, it’s nothing really. We’ll just scrape it out. It might be old. I’m not even sure you damaged it when you did your ACL. ” Next thing I know, I’m sitting in recovery, hair-net off, glasses on, talking to a nurse that’s friends with GB. I don’t really remember a whole lot in between, but I do know I was awake. I just don’t remember it! Dr. Griggs comes by and gives me these pictures from the scope.
Dr. Beim has a habit of bragging about how little time surgeries take her. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. But, she boasted a surgery time of 35 minutes. Recovery took much longer than anybody expected. The spinal didn’t want to wear off. So, I waited for about 3 hours. Finally, I was able to stand and crutch around enough to go sit in a car for 45 minutes and then make my way up 2 big flights of stairs to my apartment on the third floor. Never in my life have I have wished that there was an elevator more than right then.
I was hungry. I ate. I took some percoset. I felt fine. Then around 10 pm things went downhill. I started getting nauseous. I took and anti-nausea pill and that helped some, but not completely. On top of that I was having the worst muscle spasms I’d ever had in my life- in the calf and hamstring of my newly-built knee. The pain of the surgery wasn’t bothering me, but the muscles hurt like hell. So we called the doc. Dr. Griggs was on-call and said to take more percoset. So, I did. Which ended up in a major vomiting session around midnight. Two hours later I got up to go to the bathroom and nearly passed out because I was so dizzy from dehydration and lack of food. That night sucked. But, by morning I was feeling better.
Friday- Day after surgery.
I stopped taking pain killers, including ibuprofen. Decided I’d rather be in pain than puking, but the pain wasn’t terrible anyway. Went to my first PT in the early afternoon. He had me stretching my calf and hamstring, which ended my spasming muscles. He had me working on firing my inner quad muscle, which fired right away with no problems. After that, I pretty much slept most of the rest of the day, and night. I didn’t wake up until 10 am on Saturday.
Saturday and Sunday.
Began taking ibuprofen again. Things kept getting better and better. My knee was getting stronger, more stable, but still swollen. Took gauze off and took a bath. Baths are always so much appreciated after you can’t have one for a while! I still have sutures , covered with white tape. The white tape should fall off on it’s own, or they’ll take it off in a couple of weeks. I began tutoring students again and began getting around on my own. Driving was not a problem since I have an automatic and it is my left knee that is injured.
Monday
I had my second day of PT. He had me working on my normal strengthening of the quad, but he also began weaning me off of the crutches. I was balancing on one leg (injured leg) to get myself to trust it. Since I went so little time without putting much weight on that leg, I didn’t lose much muscle memory. Going off of the crutches will take me a little while though, especially on the stairs. My muscles in my knee really hurt when trying to pick up my leg more than a couple of inches.
All in all, I’m doing pretty well. I’m so happy the surgery is over. Now the real healing is beginning!
I am happy so far that I went with an allograft instead of a hamstring autograft. So far, this surgery is a lot easier and less painful than my patellar tendon graft ACL repair on my opposite knee done 12 years ago!
The Banff Film Festival is always a delight to see as it makes it’s world tour to over 450 locations. Unfortunately, when living on the Front Range, the festival was difficult to see because ticket prices were helaciously expensive, and venues often sold out quickly.
The Banff Film Festival has come to Crested Butte for the last 18 years. We consider it an honor that this huge event travels through our small town. Needless to say, the event was sold out both nights. We attended the show on Saturday, March 7th.
For those of you not familiar with the Banff Film Festival, it is film contest that originates in Banff, Canada. There people enter their films which all have outdoors themes of some sort relating to sport, culture, and the environment. Some of the best films are selected to tour around the world. Typically, the festival stays at a venue for two different nights, showing different films each night. Most films shown on tour are less than an hour in length. Some are excerpts from longer films. And some films are short, about five or six minutes in length.
The first film shown for the evening was Shikashika. This film portrays a Peruvian family that hikes into the Andes to “harvest” ice from the glaciers. This process has been a family tradition for a long time. They sell the ice in the Peruvian town as a slush-ice treat that the locals call shikashika. This film is not only enlightening into a small part of Peruvian culture, but it also makes one think about what people will endure just to earn a little bit of money. After all, that’s what started this tradition in the first place, right? Another thought that came to mind after having traveled to Peru myself is how this tradition fit in to the local’s reverence of their mountains. Peruvians still hold some native beliefs that literally worship the mountains. I would have liked to see how this shikashika tradition fit into these beliefs.
The second film that was shown was Red Helmet. This story begins with a young boy who is afraid to jump into the water with his friends. He runs away into the forest where he finds a red helmet. He puts on the helmet. Then the movie switches scenes showing a daring kayaker, climber, mountain biker, paraglider, and more, each wearing a red helmet. The red helmet is a symbol for what the boy could potentially do, and also symbolizes “protection” from his own fears. Wearing it, he jumps into the water. I thought this movie had some clever ideas in it and showed some excellent outdoor footage.
See the entire film here:
The next film was a 53 minute documentary called The Last Nomads. In this documentary, linguist and anthropologist Ian Mackenzie tells the story of the Penan people in Borneo. He’s been following their story for over 15 years, documenting their language and in turn also documenting their lives. The Penan’s nomadic lifestyle is being threatened by the encroaching logging which destroys the old growth rainforest and muddies the rivers that sustain their lives. Over the last 10 years or so the Penan have been having to give up their nomadic lifestyle in order to survive, being forced to settle and grow rice. Mackenzie has always known that as he documented the Penan, he would eventually see the last of the nomads. This film documents his search for the last nomadic tribe of the Penan. When he finds them, they too have settled. Mackenzie is heartbroken, yet doesn’t blame these people for having to settle to survive. The Penan cannot read or write, and therefore cannot put up a fight against the Malaysian government. Although Mackenzie has tried to help the Penan all he can, he knows one person is not enough to put up a fight against an entire government. All he can do is try to document their life, their culture, and their language before that too dies. This movie cannot help but be moving to viewers. It’s hard to believe that nomads could still exist in today’s world and it is sad to see a whole culture begin to perish.
The Last Nomads was followed by another documentary called Seasons. Seasons tells the story of four downhill mountain bikers throughout the four seasons of a year. Through the excellent cinematography, the viewer comes face to face with the danger and challenges that downhill mountain bikers experience on a day to day basis. However, I found that the film was not clear on the names of the riders and who was racing/riding at certain times. I found myself confused. But, nevertheless, this film leaves viewers with added respect for the downhill racers of today.
View the trailer here:
A seven minute animation called The Cable Car was next in line. Here, an old man with a big nose starts going up a cable car up a mountain. The location is inexact, but it is presumably somewhere in Europe. On the way, he decides to have a bit of snuff, which causes him to sneeze. With each sneeze, the cable car begins to fall apart. The man keeps pulling out a roll of yellow tape, trying to tape the cable car back together. But, alas, the cable car falls away, and he is hanging on to the cable with his yellow tape. I struggled to find meaning in this movie. I wasn’t sure what its purpose was in the Banff Film Festival. Frankly, it left me with a very sad and empty feeling in the end.
The last two films of the evening were my favorites. The first was a 14 minute film called The Unbearable Lightless of Skiing. This film was created by ski mountaineer Greg Hill. He tells the story familiar to most ski mountaineers: When he would go home, his family would ask, “What have you been up to?” He would explain that he’s been skiing lots of high peaks, cross-country skiing to the top, and how good the turns feel. But, half way through the story, he would see the person’s eyes glaze over. So, he decided to grab a video camera and start filming some of his outings. This film is a collection of his highlights for one season. Any backcountry skier can relate to the feelings expressed by Greg Hill in his film. And non-skiers can hopefully begin to understand why we do the things that we do!
Below are two videos that Greg Hill used for some of the footage in his movie:
The last film of the evening was called The Sharp End: Eastern Europe. This film documents a group of seasoned climbers from the US that travel to this area full of magnificent spires in the Czech Republic, near Germany. The climbers find that the area holds true to it’s tradition of climbing. Chalk and cams are not allowed. Putting metal bolts into the walls is also not allowed. So, how do these people climb? They take pieces of cord, tie a knot, and jam them into the cracks in the walls. This somewhat seemingly sketchy technique proves to hold through several of the climber’s falls. The climbers challenge themselves here, even making a first ascent on a route, and leave with an added respect for the culture of climbing in the area. Anyone who sees this film will undoubtedly think that these climbers are a bit crazy. But, the film does an excellent job portraying both the climbing culture there and the difficulty of the routes.
Below is a link to another Sharp End film created by the same people. The Eastern Europe film is currently not available.
Well, today is my three week anniversary of tearing my ACL. I am scheduled to have surgery on Thursday March 12th.
My knee is feeling pretty good these days. I am walking without a brace or without crutches, even on ice and snow. I am still walking slowly, but more naturally than a week ago or so. I can ride my bike for up to an hour now with little to no pain. My range of motion is nearly 100%. I don’t feel the instability in my knee anymore, really. But, I do feel this kind of grinding or something catching on the left part of the inside of my knee. I only feel this when I lock my knee straight, and then release it. I don’t know if this is some meniscus damage or what. The doc said it might just be from the swelling. But, if this wasn’t here, my knee would be feeling pretty much normal, despite being without an ACL. I had my last pre-op PT appointment early this week on Tuesday. My PT guy was happy with my progress and says I’m ready for surgery.
And believe me, I am ready for surgery. I was ready like two weeks ago. It’s so mentally challenging to be on the mend and feeling pretty good about your progress only to have it taken away by surgery again. I’m healing now, but not for real…. because I don’t have any ACL yet. It’s kind of like a big tease.
I had my pre-op appointment with my doctor on Friday. Really, this appointment was completely unnecessary. I think it’s just one more way for the doc to make money. She just had me sign some forms about payment and risks and gave me some prescriptions to fill so I have them after the surgery. Basically, all of this could have been done the last time I met with her. We didn’t even talk about anesthesia options. She just said the anesthesiologist would call me before the surgery to discuss my options.
Something about surgery scares me. It always has. I don’t know why. But both times I have had surgery before (to repair my right knee ACL and my left thumb UCL) they had to give me something to calm me down because my blood pressure was so high because I was so nervous. I don’t know why I get so scared. I guess it’s because the surgery is completely out of my control and I’m basically throwing my life into the hands of these medical professionals. I know that the risks of surgery are relatively low compared to so many other things I do. But, it still just scares me.
The other thing I’m worried about is that the doctor will find more damage in my knee than we expected. I don’t know– maybe it’s because she spent so much time talking about it that it’s on my mind. She said that even with MRI’s and x-rays, we can’t see everything. So, my knee could still possibly have some meniscus or cartilage damage we are not aware of. The bad thing about this is that the recovery can be a lot more painful if she finds these. If she has to repair cartilage, I will have to be non-weight-bearing for about 6 weeks and then sleep every night with a machine that moves my leg back and forth. I am not really excited about that. There’s a good chance that she won’t find this extensive damage, but I won’t know until I wake up after surgery. The not knowing part also kind of drives me crazy.
I have been really busy these last couple of weeks. I have been tutoring more than ever, going to PT and doctors appointments, riding my bike (on a trainer), lifting weights (core and upper body), cooking, and trying to be as social as possible. I am so busy, I don’t know how I ever fit the skiing part in before!
At first I was really bummed about not being able to ski. I am still pretty bummed about it. But, the weather has been so warm these last few weeks that feet of snow have been melting. We haven’t had a lot of new snow. And a lot of ice has melted that was on our streets and sidewalks. Because the weather hasn’t been the best for skiing, it’s helping me miss it less.
At any rate, I’m coping pretty well. ACL injuries are so common in the skiing world, it’s just part of the sport really. And I just keep coming back to the realization that so many worse things could happen…. because it’s true. I should be back for skiing next season and by then, all of this will seem like a blur
So, I’ve looked into it and I’m going to try some herbal anti-inflammatories. My chiropractor gave me something called EnFlux which has a concoction of Boswellia and turmeric among other things, known to be natural anti-inflammatories. I’ll try that. And of course, still icing regularly.
