Archive for March, 2008

Theres a funny little story that happened just over three years ago in France when Gabe and I were doing our Euro-Bouldering Tour of 2004.  Our last stop on the tour was the holy grail of all bouldering, Fontainebleau.  I’ll leave descriptions of how insanely great the bouldering is there to another post, but if you boulder, and you haven’t been out there yet, then you’re missing out!

We met up with another group of climbers who knew Gabe, and we all rented a cottage for the week, situated in some little off-the-road farm about five kilometers north of Fontainebleau.  On one of our rest days, most of us wanted to make the hour-long drive up to Paris to sight-see.

So we left early in the morning in my rental car, and a hour later we found ourselves in Paris looking for a parking spot.  Think there’s a reason that those petite Smart cars are popular there?  We searched for a good half hour before giving up, coughing up the euros and parking in a garage.

After a good full day in Paris, we were ready to head back to the cottage.  We picked up our rental car and with me behind the wheel again, we drove on out of the city and for about ten kilometers, things were looking good.   The route was pretty simple.  Just take A6 southwards out of Paris, drive 100km, turn off at the Fontainebleau exit and make our way home.   No problem.

Until we saw the first sign ahead indicating that A6 was closed.

And that was it.  Just a sign saying A6 was closed, and to exit immediately.  I found myself at an dark T-intersection in some small town, steering wheel in hand and no idea where to go.  And there were NO detour signs.

I dont know if its how the French operate, or if it was some emergency closure, but where were the detour signs? I had no idea where to go, to get back on A6, further ahead.  I turned to look at my passengers, who all shrugged.  Who knows?  Annnd, the road map that the rental company so kindly gave me only covered Paris itself.  We traced cities that we’d passed on A6 downwards till we ran out of map.  The map was useless.

I looked both ways and made a left.

We drove on for a couple kilometers, before hitting some town.  I made a right on their main street, figuring we’d be going parallel with A6.    We left the town behind and kept on driving…  ten, twenty minutes in complete darkness.  At that time I had no idea if we were anywhere close to A6 or if we were heading for the Atlantic ocean for all we knew.

We approached another town, and after a few more kilometers of driving, one of the passengers told me he’d get out and try to get directions.  I nodded and turned my attention back to the road and right at that very second, a large road sign with the letters A6 and a helpful arrow emerged from the darkness.  The car erupted with cheering from everyone inside and I quickly scooted the car back on A6 and we were back on our way to Fontainebleau.

I’ve been drawing on analogies a lot while working my way through this broken foot ordeal.  I look back at times when things seemed lost, or hopeless, and how sometimes things just happen when you don’t expect it.

I left Minneapolis on January 10th of this year.  I went on this amazing 3,500 mile road trip where I saw many amazing sights, friends and family.  I rolled into Bishop one cold morning after ten days of driving, to make a home for a while, to climb, to do photography.  The next two months in Bishop were nothing short of awesome.  I met so many people climbing, I took so many photographs and have had so much to reflect on.

The next part of this journey, some time next year – was to eventually head to San Francisco where I’d start a new life and make new friends in a new city.

But to use the analogy, A6 has been closed.  I need to take a unexpected detour.  Today, I gave my landlord notice that I’d be moving out at the end of April. I don’t know where I’m going to go.  I can go back to Minnesota and recover, then head to SF later this year.  Or I can head to SF right now.   Still figuring out my options.

But one thing’s for certain.. the route changed.  We will see where it takes me.

To say that I was stressed out the night before the doctor’s appointment is an understatement.  I was sitting on the recliner sunday night and I stared at my booted foot and said, “I’ll do my best to prevent them from cutting you up, if you get busy and heal up fast, okay? Deal?”

I’d like to say that my foot twitched in agreement.  Or it might have just been a twitch.

I crutched on out of my house that night.  It was one of those typical Bishop nights.  Clear, starry skies, a fat moon hanging low over the mountains and cool dry air.

I took a few pictures, then started crutching back home.  I was tired and wanted to sleep.  I wanted to have a tangible resolution.  Surgery, or no surgery?  How many weeks before I could walk again?

I woke up early in the morning, did some work, then giving myself adequate time, I pulled together my keys, phone and sunglasses and started crutching the three blocks to the hospital.  I guess you could say I’m really fortunate to live so close by, so I don’t need to try to find someone to give me a ride.

I suppose I could… but I didn’t want to sit on my ass for six weeks.  I need to get some excercise.  And boy, I’ll tell you, crutching three blocks is a good workout.

Arriving at the orthopedic’s office, a nurse saw me first, explained that they’d be cutting off my bandages and taking another look at my foot.  Some of you may remember the rather nasty picture of my foot I posted last week. Now I was curious how much better (or worse) it’d look, three days later.

Another new development with my foot was that my entire leg below the knee had turned yellow, and there was a huge purple bruise spreading all the way from my ankle to my knee.  I pointed that out to the nurse and she said that was probably normal and not to be concerned about.

So, off the bandages came. And here’s what my foot looked like (a bit less gross).  The fracture blisters were all gone, slightly less bruising and less swollen.  Definitely an improvement after three days!

The orthopedic doctor came in and put up the film from the CT scan.  I initially saw the white outlines and thought, “Shit, my heel bone is really fucked up.”

But after the doctor explained a bit more, I realized that this was a horizional cross scan of my foot (as if you were looking at it from the top), and those white outlines are actually the bone structure going vertically up and down, and disappearing off the field of view.   So it should not be considered the actual outline of my heel bone.

The REAL fracture (two actually) is that dark gap running through the bottom right part.   The doctor drew arrows to indicate where the bone normally should be.

So rather than my heel bone  being a good half inch out of whack, the piece is actually about 1-2 mm out of place.

The doctor then said the words I’d been waiting for a whole week.  “Surgery will not be necessary.”  I breathed a huge sigh of relief.  He added that surgery could be done to reduce the fracture and restore normal heel structure.  I asked him about possible long term problems if I didn’t go with surgery.  He said my heel would be slightly wider.. might have problems fitting some shoes (like climbing shoes, ha ha..) – but he didn’t foresee any major problems.

I told him I’d skip surgery.  He made no argument, so that further confirmed to me that in the doctor’s mind, he didn’t think it was necessary.

We then discussed the healing process.  I’ll need to come back in three weeks from now to have another set of x-rays made.  This will be to confirm that the pieces have not unexpectedly moved, or are not healing properly.   If the x-rays reveal nothing wrong, then it will be another three weeks of healing, before I can start walking again.

So, that puts me at May 5th when I hopefully will be able to start walking again!

Just got back from the doctor, and surgery wont be necessary!  Ill have to wear the boot-o-doom for 6 weeks then I’ll have to learn to walk all over again, but at least its a step (ha ha) forward!

I have pictures and more to write up about the visit, but will do that later tonight.

It too, will pass.