Dear injuries,

skierman_jack

skierman_jack

Active member
The first real alarm was when my lady friend picked me up late that Monday night at DIA. She kept asking me if I had been drinking or smoking because I was completely out of it. I told her no I was fine I just was tired. I slung my ski bag over my shoulder and completely lost my balance and fell to the ground. Something wasn’t right. This wasn’t me.

The next day after suffering through my lab I decided I needed to see a doctor. I explained to the doctor how I’d been home skiing for the weekend and came back with headaches and balance issues. She asked if I had hit my head and I told her frankly I don’t remember much of the weekend at all. That was alarm number two. It was pretty clear I had gone lights out and after texting buddies I was skiing with it was confirmed that I had rung my bell and had a pretty nasty concussion.

Doctor said take the rest of the week off, no artificial lights, I’ll get you a doctors note for classes. Easy I said. Sure enough last Tuesday I’m in my lab and again I feel completely out of touch with reality. I was forgetting my phone number, to put my shirt on, and what had happened just the day before. Everything was foggy and trying to think or remember anything felt like solving the theory of everything. My vision was blurry and my balance was completely gone. After a week of spiraling I went back to the doctor who now told me she suspected I had some serious brain damage and perhaps the initial impact was more devastating than we had thought. A CT scan proved ugly as well

so here I am. I’ve been medically forced to withdraw from my classes this semester, I’m seeing a therapist to help reconnect neural pathways, and my ski season is over. This year really felt like my breakthrough year.

This is a dangerous sport. Take every good day as a gift. And for every bad day, remember you’re not alone. As much as this has been tragic and honestly depressing, it has been so beautiful to see all the support and help that both friends and strangers have given me. Never take your gifts for granted and always take a second to be grateful for this beautiful life we live. It’s so easy to get caught up in success and our social lives and school and work that we lose touch with ourselves how beautiful every little thing is. I’m looking out my window and thinking if somebody painted all this detail we would all say wow that’s the most beautiful painting ever. But so many people will walk right by and not stop to appreciate all of this beauty

Anyways… I will leave you with the wise words of our resident medical specialist [tag=273397]@WoFlowz[/tag]

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This.

One of my friends missed his entire last season from a concussion, the beginning recovery matters the most. Take it as easy as you can now, build a solid base of recovery, and whatever happens DO NOT re-injure it, my friend had symptoms for over 6 months.

Hang in there, things will get better.
 
topic:skierman_jack said:
I’m looking out my window and thinking if somebody painted all this detail we would all say wow that’s the most beautiful painting ever. But so many people will walk right by and not stop to appreciate all of this beauty
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this is profound. like kinda tear inducing.

wishing u all the best for recovery dude
 
I’m out for my second knee surgery this year. I felt the same about a breakthrough year but we have lots of skiing left to do! Hold your loved ones a little closer and focus on the thing you used skiing to get away from. Face that shit and next season will be one for the books. Good luck to you brother
 
Rest up I understand how it is I had a concussion wakeboarding last April and still have consistent symptoms now
 
Heal up brother, that is horrible you have to deal with that man but thanks for sharing. People need to hear this. This sport is dangerous. I’ve had a few concussions when I was younger and the thought of another, possible brain damage or worse happening from a wrong turn is one of my biggest fears. Any day where you don’t get injured on the hill is a good day. Even if you didn’t get that trick you wanted I still believe you got better in some way. You also were skiing, and are lucky to have the opportunity to indulge in such a fulfilling sport as this. So be grateful like you said, be smart and have fun. Heal up good brother.
 
Heal up bro, as I’ve told you, don’t try to force yourself to feel normal. It’ll come. Take it easy and look at day to day success.

im sure a lot of people on here know a great deal about this same issue. One I can name is [tag=107962]@JoshWong[/tag]
 
"No artificial lights, easy enough"

**continues to stare at the phone for 8 hours a day**

"WHY AM I NOT GETTING BETTER!!?!?!?"
 
that shit is scary bro, glad ur on a good path out. I went through a similar situation a couple years ago where I stopped going to most of my classes and should have medically withdrawn cuz even when I was feeling better I still didn't feel right enough to do classwork after getting a concussion from snagging a tree and tomahawking out in the side country. I felt normal until I had got back to my dorm and everything hit me like a ton of bricks when I was walking to the dining hall. I could barely remember how to walk and I felt like I had to do it manually. I had some extreme fucking nausea so I made my way back to my dorm so I knew damn well I wasn't gonna be able to eat cafeteria food. my roommate had moved out at this point and it fucking sucked being alone, I basically camped out in my dorm for a couple days and things only got worse, I had only really eaten cereal and fruit for those days cuz I could barely get out of bed and I couldnt stomach anything else. at that point I had my homie take me to the hospital cuz my sleep was fucked up and I really wasn't getting any. I went in to the ER and they did their scans and I had a pretty serious concussion. not enough to really cause any severe lasting damage but for a year after I felt a little fucked up and depressed still. after that school year ended I moved back to WI from Colorado and took time off to get my head right. I started doing mindfulness meditation and yoga which I feel have really fixed a lot of issues caused by what the concussion disrupted in my brain, and I feel even better than I did before. but still damn every now and then I will get like a small shift where I feel wack and postconcussive for like and hour but that is rare nowadays. But anytime any shit hits my head I get so fucking paranoid about getting concussed again.

But yea you rly gotta be careful, you right that this shit is dangerous and never take stuff for granted, and always reach out to your homies if you notice they are acting like they're feeling off, cuz you just as well may save them, I may not have gone to the hospital and got help

if it weren't for my partner and my homies who were concerned for me

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**This post was edited on Mar 8th 2022 at 10:12:43am
 
Heal up but don’t rush, you’ll be back at it soon enough. I’m the mean time find some chill hobbies to keep your mind off it. When I tore my ACL in December I started reading hella comic books, did a lil bit of writing too.
 
14410053:Young_patty said:
Heal up but don’t rush, you’ll be back at it soon enough. I’m the mean time find some chill hobbies to keep your mind off it. When I tore my ACL in December I started reading hella comic books, did a lil bit of writing too.
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For sure hobbies and busy work are huge. I’ve been refinishing and rebuilding some of my guitars and listening to Pink Floyd in my free time haha
 
14410121:skierman_jack said:
For sure hobbies and busy work are huge. I’ve been refinishing and rebuilding some of my guitars and listening to Pink Floyd in my free time haha
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Spend some time on guitar man, practice 40 hours a day and magic will happen
 
Really sorry to hear this man. Injuries in general suck, especially debilitating ones like TBIs. I had a really bad concussion when I was 14 and was out of most activities for a year. Those were pretty dark times and tbh there were times that got into some pretty low places. I used audiobooks a lot. It really helped to get entrenched into a story that was something that wasn't reality.

Recently this season I thought I tore my ACL. So far the doc has said it's all good, I'm still getting a lot of knee pain so I've got to try and get to the bottom of it but glad my ACL seems to be intact.

I was pretty upset about being injured one night and listened to this podcast. It really helped me and honestly has kind of shifted my perspective on myself and life and skiing. Was gonna write a whole long heartfelt thread on it and fuck it I might still.

Hope it helps (maybe just listen to it don't watch for your brain's sake).


 
Probably just repeating what everyone else is saying but I was at a point last year where I could barely read my head would hurt so bad, I think after 9 concussions. I’ve done lens radiation treatment which sounds similar to the therapy in reconnecting pathways of the brain. All I can say is don’t rush anything, I only just started skiing again since I’ve felt normal for the first time in quite a while.
 
Hello hello hello...is there any body in there, just nod if you can hear me...

14410121:skierman_jack said:
For sure hobbies and busy work are huge. I’ve been refinishing and rebuilding some of my guitars and listening to Pink Floyd in my free time haha
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Yikes, one day I over shot a little table top by 10 feet, after falling 15 feet I couldn't straighten my left knee for 2 weeks.
 
Feeling this after my first day back at work from breaking my humerus in half and realizing that even after surgery the break caused a radial nerve palsy where I can’t move or feel my left arm below the elbow and can barely move my fingers.

I got through the workday fine, just much slower than I usually am, my coworkers and supervisors were glad to have me back and worried while I was out, same for my students.

But when I got to my car after work I got this wave of depression which I hadn’t felt in several years. I’m disabled now, it’s temporary, but it’s a long temporary of a few months or even a couple years and it puts so much I had planned on hold.

When I got out of the ER I bought a calendar at CVS while I was waiting for my prescriptions and circled June 4th. 100 days out from my injury and wishful thinking from googling “humerus fracture healing time” I asked some friends I hike with that if there was any snow left in the mountains they’d mind me bringing my skis and getting a few turns. Right now I can’t even tie my own shoes.

Being able to write all that out and share it with people who can understand what skiing means to me made me feel better though. I feel lucky for slams that could have been far worse than a broken arm and a palsy if I had fallen a couple inches further to the right. I realize how quickly most of my day went, how easily I got back to my work and that I’m foolishly pushing myself to be at 100% when nobody else expects that.
 
I've got a gnarly scar from my left palm to elbow, and when the therapy started, it was one finger joint at a time, weeks before I could touch pinky to my thumb.

Damaged. Never to... again.

But then I realized I had an arm, the doctor didn't remove it, and there was hope. Did it return perfect... of course not, but I've got my arm

Be as positive as you can allow yourself

14411026:Goretex_Vidal said:
Feeling this after my first day back at work from breaking my humerus in half and realizing that even after surgery the break caused a radial nerve palsy where I can’t move or feel my left arm below the elbow and can barely move my fingers.

I got through the workday fine, just much slower than I usually am, my coworkers and supervisors were glad to have me back and worried while I was out, same for my students.

But when I got to my car after work I got this wave of depression which I hadn’t felt in several years. I’m disabled now, it’s temporary, but it’s a long temporary of a few months or even a couple years and it puts so much I had planned on hold.

When I got out of the ER I bought a calendar at CVS while I was waiting for my prescriptions and circled June 4th. 100 days out from my injury and wishful thinking from googling “humerus fracture healing time” I asked some friends I hike with that if there was any snow left in the mountains they’d mind me bringing my skis and getting a few turns. Right now I can’t even tie my own shoes.

Being able to write all that out and share it with people who can understand what skiing means to me made me feel better though. I feel lucky for slams that could have been far worse than a broken arm and a palsy if I had fallen a couple inches further to the right. I realize how quickly most of my day went, how easily I got back to my work and that I’m foolishly pushing myself to be at 100% when nobody else expects that.
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14409751:MaimHelp said:
Heal up bro, as I’ve told you, don’t try to force yourself to feel normal. It’ll come. Take it easy and look at day to day success.

im sure a lot of people on here know a great deal about this same issue. One I can name is [tag=107962]@JoshWong[/tag]
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Sadly I do
 
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