Art's 2004 Spiral Fracture Pix
Here's a little gallery from my broken leg adventure. I've put the
uglier pictures toward the bottom of the page, in case you feel like
bailing out before seeing the x-rays and bruises. However, if you want
to skip right to the x-rays, click here. If you
didn't get the original email, you can read the full story here. Enjoy, Art
Here's a couple pictures of Mt. Lemmon Ski Valley. The red arrows show
about where I fell, right near the beginner's rope
tow at the bottom of the hill. It took a few minutes for someone to
find me because the area is so flat and boring hardly anyone bothers to
ski there- it's below the main lift and as far down as you can go
before losing the slope to ski down to the beginners' lift.
We took this snowy picture the week before on a nice intermediate run
called Heidi's Meadow. The hut at the bottom of the hill shows the base
of the main lift.
This was taken last summer, after the Aspen Fire, showing the whole ski
area, and some burned areas. The main lift goes up the long straight
run farthest left, but can't be seen- I think it was down for repairs
and cable replacement after the top station burned. The run angling up
the ridge on the right is Heidi's Meadow, where we took the winter
picture.
Here are a few pages from Bein's "Mountain Skiing", the book I
had been reading the night before I went skiing and broke my leg. I was
looking for some tips on how to ski in the powder, though in
retrospect, perhaps this wasn't the best choice of material. . .
Yes, those legs actually start out crossed.
He makes it look so easy.
I swear I was not trying to do the Charleston.
While anatomy texts will say simply that "spiral fractures of the tibia
are caused by severe torsion in skiing", those averse to snowplay will
find the Bruce Lee method equally effective.
Health background side note: A few years ago I heard my knee pop as my
leg slowly folded under me in some steep deep snow, and it hurt for
about six weeks, but I never bothered seeing a doctor as the internet
made it clear that there was nothing to be done about a minor strain to
the medial collateral ligament. Now in the current x-rays we can see a
little chip of bone that separated off the upper inside of the knee.
This was the injury that prevented me from skiing at Mt. Lemmon Ski
Valley last time it was open.
Here are X-rays before surgery. Starting with a
side view, knee-left, ankle-right.
In this front view, the semi-oval shapes are the handle-holes along the
edge of the board I was strapped to for being moved. The fibula break
is visible at the right edge of those oval lines.
Here are x-rays after surgery, showing the long titanium "nail" along
the length of the tibia, with pins at either end. The little dashes are
the metal staples used to stitch up the incisions. There is a loose
piece of tibia that is supposed to find its way back into place, and
the fibula should also fix itself without any pins or anything.
Apparently it's not a weight-bearing bone anyway, and sometimes gets
cut out, leaving just the ends which are integral parts of the knee and
ankle joints.
Here you can really see the fibula.
This is after about one week, still a bit swollen.
After two weeks the swelling went down most of the way, but left this
lump, which is partly from the bone still not lining up, but mostly
from some muscle herniating through a tear in the fascia.
The bump is going down, but will apparently always be there a little.
See you on the slopes next year!