My own broken femur recovery diary
Well since I have one I might as well document this. Who knows, maybe some of the info that comes up in here may even help someone else.
First off a big thank you to my friends Tina, Craig ,Bryan (anon-505), and Jason for being their in the intial moments and supporting me. Next a huge thank you to the Taos Patrol, Day, John, Harvy, and Keir. Your professionalism and care was top notch. Also to my girlfriend Staci who took care of me 24-7. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without you. No question. Thanks to the SFCFD for watching out for me. You guys rock.
A little background about me might be helpful. It might even explain why I am so unbelievably lucky and blessed. I live in Santa Fe and am a single dad who works for the ski patrol and fire department as a paramedic. It’s a little hard to write this because as I do I m listening and watching the live web cast of the Freeride championships from Taos. Pretty cool.
Feb 22, 2008
A storm that myself and Anon 505 have been watching for a few days delivered 16" overnight. Lucky us cause we had already decided to make the trip up to Taos and slay pow.
We arrived at Taos and met up with another friend Brian B. We were on the chair by 9:15. We made a few runs off chair 2 and it was so good. 18-20 of sweetness. Hero snow for sure. At 10 am we met up with Tina (nurse) and Craig (er doc). We made runs off the west basin and the ridge all day. Come about 2 pm and I’m started to get super tired. We made the hike up from chair 2 and decided to just drop in at the beginning of the west basin. I got to the edge and looked down Fabian. It looked a little icy and rocky but after the initial choke I knew it was gonna be the goods. I looked to my left and Anon 505 was dropping into Stauffenberg. To my right Tina was standing there with Craig and I offered for them to drop in first, and Tina obliged. She dropped off the small cornice and made a turn to the right to slow down. As she made that first turn I cringed as the sound of p-tex and metal scraped against the rocks and ice. Didn’t sound good! She made a couple more turns and it looked ok. I dropped in after her and came off the cornice and turned right. I tried to burn off my speed as I turned to the right but realized it was all rocks there. So I came back to the left and here’s where it happened.
I think my skis started to slip out from under me as I tried to turn and burn off speed. I think then, I caught an edge on a rock and then flew forward. I saw the shark fin shaped rock as I smashed my femur on it. I knew immediately it was broken. I landed on my back and was sliding downhill head first. I knew I needed to get myself turned around to arrest my fall. I also knew that I needed to get myself turned around and be in an anatomical position before my leg cramped up. Splinting a femur fracture is alot more painful if it’s not straight. As I spun around, my leg flopped over and I wasn’t controlling it. Another conformation it was definitely broken. I got myself stopped and my leg was as close to straight as I could get it. The pain was so intense. This was the point where I started to freak.
Tina was just downhill of me, maybe ten feet. I looked at her and told her straight up, “ I just broke my leg. Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck I just broke my leg.” So she began to climb up to me. A woman was standing on the ridge and yelled down to me. She asked if I was ok and I told her that I broke my leg and to please call the patrol. She called them on her cell phone. Tina was climbing up and I was freaking out. So much pain. I was crying and telling her how sorry I was. She asked “why are you sorry?”. I didn’t know why. I just kept saying it. I was sitting there thinking about how my life had just changed so dramatically. It happened in the blink of an eye. At some point a friend of mine, Jason, who I had seen earlier in the day skied up. He was totally freaked to find me like this. Thankfully he hung with me and tried to calm me down. He even found both my skis. I began to hyperventilate and my hands and feet got numb. I knew I had to control my breathing or I might pass out.
After ten or so minutes the Taos patrol showed up and I was so relieved. As Day began to assess me I introduced Tina and myself. I told him of our medical background. I then gave him my story of how and what happened. He said “wow man, you’ve already assessed yourself! “ I agreed and laughed. He proceeded with his assessment and other patrollers arrived. Their names I can’t remember at this point. We got my pants unzipped and checked for bleeding or an open fracture. Neither was the case, thank God. At some point I was given some intranasal Fentanyl. It had only a very slight effect on the pain level. I was given more Fentanyl before they put on the traction splint. Holy shit that splint hurt like fuck and I screamed for them to stop. They didn’t.
The patrol did a fantastic job getting me splinted and packaged for the ride down. At some point Anon and Craig showed up as they had to ski around. Wow, I was lucky to have Craig there overseeing the care that was being given to me. Taos patrol does a great job. It’s just nice to have someone who’s medically trained to be there and help you make decisions. Especially when you’re being given narcotics. Anyway patrol gave me 5 mg of morphine IM before we began transport down Fabian.
The ride in an akia sled was nice and the patrol did a fantastic job getting me down. I was given 5 more mg IM before reaching the clinic at the base.
At the Mogul Medical clinic an IV was started, more pain meds were given and x-rays were taken. It was determined that the fracture was more proximal than first thought. Actual site was just below the trocanter. Here is the best pre op xray I have. I saw a better one I just gotta find it.
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...remyrenda2.jpg
At the clinic I started to become pretty sedated although any movement of my leg caused it to spasm and was very painful. Meanwhile Craig was coordinating with Taos EMS, St. Vincent’s hospital (SVH) Santa Fe, Holy Cross hospital (Taos), Santa Fe County Fire (SFCFD), and Careflight air ambulance. Taos EMS wanted to fly me to Santa Fe and Craig basically told them no. He knew that my insurance wouldn’t deem it necessary and therefore wouldn’t pay a $15,000 helicopter bill. Thank you Craig! Id be screwed right now if I had $15,000 bill. Next Taos EMS wanted to take me to Holy Cross instead because they didn’t want to drive me to SF. That plan fell through when Holy Cross got slammed with pt’s from a serious MVA. Taos EMS decided to just drive me too SF. Meanwhile SFCFD was ready to send an ambulance to Taos to pick me up. They already had a crew assembled and were ready to leave but Taos EMS stated they couldn’t take me to anyplace other than a hospital. Seemed weird but whatever. Taos EMS ended up driving me two hours to SF.
In the rig the paramedic on board gave me repeated doses of narcotics to control my pain. She was a very nice girl but I could tell she was laughing at me cause I was so out of it. She told me that she was a little intimidated by the fact that I was a paramedic. She still did a great job.
Meanwhile at SVH my girlfriend Staci was the secretary in the ER and she had arranged a room for me and reserved a top notch surgeon, Dr. Oldham.
I arrived at the Er and was very well taken care of. SFCFD had rallied personnel to come and hang with me. So awesome to have so much support! Friends and family alike even though my parents live out of state.
I guess I was really out of it in the ER. I was told it was hilarious though. I guess I was nodding out in mid sentence, nodding out while people were talking to me, and waking up saying ridiculous things.
At some point I guess Dr. Oldham decided to postpone the surgery till the next day so he could get better quality parts. Only the best eh? Nice.
Needless to say that night at SVH was very rough. My friends from the FD stayed with me all night.
2/23/2008
Next morning I went in for surgery. I woke up out of the worst haze and it freaking hurt so bad. They loaded me with narcs and I rested some more.
Here's some post op pics.
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...remyrenda4.jpg
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...emyrenda-2.jpg
Later that day I saw Dr. Oldham. He stated that the surgery took four and a half hours but that it went well. He said he placed (more like hammered or drilled) a titanium rod through my femur and placed three pins to hold it in place. Two on top and one near the knee. Originally he thought it would only take one and a half hours. He noted that he had to repair more damaged bone than anticipated. He said that he got it as close to the other leg as possible so as too hopefully negate any loss of range of motion. He thought that I would fully recover with no disability. FKNA!!! I’m so lucky. Had the fracture been any higher I definitely could have suffered irreparable damage.
My leg was so swollen and sore. I was hooked up to a Morphine drip and was using it as much as possible. I also was using an ice pack for 20 min at a time. I couldn’t get up or really move but I could adjust to try and make it more comfortable. I slept but woke up in cold sweats feeling like crap.
My friends were constantly coming by. I was tired but felt very blessed at the same time.
2/24/2008
Leg is still very sore and swollen. Started physical therapy today. Basically just getting out of bed and using a walker to get to the front door and back. Takes a lot of energy and I get winded.
2/26/2008
Side effect of so many narcotics is I haven’t had a bowel movement in 4 days.
your x ray could pass for mine
that i one painful break ben there don that i had to have two surgeries the first rod broke it went halfway down my thigh the second is all the way to my knee like yours good luck with it hope it dosent give you any weather problems
