Five hiking lessons learned from injury

Well, it's been a quiet week here at Lake Hernia-begone, and I've had some time to miss the mountains and think about getting back there. But in the meantime, here are five lessons about hiking I've had reinforced from having a hernia!
Hope you enjoy: Five Hiking Lessons
P.S. - Thanks to everyone who sent emails and notes and well wishes. I really appreciate that!
Dan

Boy those drugs must be good. I'll bet after this all over you'll go back n re read some of this n say... WTF?

Get well soon, the mtns are still there, they were asking for ya.

.

After I broke my hip, leg (distal femur), and wrist I had:
* 2 operations (hip+leg) the next day
* 2 more operations (leg + wrist) by the third week.
* 11 weeks til I was given the ok for full use of the wrist and leg. (It took several more weeks for the leg to get strong enough to walk without aids.)
* ~9 months of PT and one more operation (leg--to remove hardware)
* (another operation to remove the hip hardware around 1.5 years)

Following release from the hospital (after 6 days) I was able to live at home with help from friends.

During this period, I simply figured that my job was to work on recovery and rehabilitation. Anything that I couldn't do simply had to wait.

BTW, while the drugs helped to control the pain, they didn't seem to affect my mental state.

Doug

Excellent insights (and good drugs!). For folks who think about these things routinely, reading this is warming. For folks coming new to this, realizing these things can be piercing; some feel pain; others feel the icy freshness of new-found insight.

Nice work. And, get well!

Good thread

Thanks for this, Guys.

Doug (the other one)

Thanks Paul... Yup, good drugs, but heart felt sentiments none-the-less
Doug Paul - Wow, do you mind my asking how you came about that injury? Skiing? How long ago was this, do you feel any aftereffects?
TCD and Gremlin - Thanks!

Jeez Dan, if I'd known these lessons were for more than healing after injury I would have read this before I started my most recent paper in Principles of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment in the Inclusive Secondary Classroom!!!
I'd say they are somewhat universal, very well-said, and just exactly what I needed to hear right now .... So thank you! I'm going to chill out now .

Heal well!

Buffalo said:

Doug Paul - Wow, do you mind my asking how you came about that injury? Skiing? How long ago was this, do you feel any aftereffects?

Click to expand...

I caught a ski tip on a blowdown while BC skiing. It is covered in lots of detail in http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=15911 (my first post is #94) and http://www.vftt.org/forums/showpost.php?p=176735 from http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=15891

The accident occurred on 11 Feb 2007--5 years (minus 3 days) ago. The left leg lost 1.5cm of length and is twisted ~15 degrees inward. I can still feel the change in length when I walk on a level surface. (Us old dogs are slow at learning new tricks...) The twist affects my balance a bit (particularly when making a sharp turn) and prevents me from making kick turns on skis. The biggest problem has been weakness in the left leg and susceptibility to overtraining injuries in the left quads. After multiple overtraining reinjuries, I took a year and a half off and have been slowly rebuilding. I'm in reasonable shape at the moment, but still have to be careful.

Doug