Conversation I've had repeatedly in the last 4 months:
"I'm surprised your doctor let you ski so soon."
"Well, he's a skier, too."
"Ah!"
Ha! Well here's my story. [I was afraid to tell it last year, but I'm good now - the potential embarrassment is past. You'll see...]
Dec 14 2015 - totally crazy day. Only a few runs into the day. Snow was pretty punchy. Like 45" of new, fairly wet early season snow over the last 3-4 days. I was mostly ripping the tops off of the bumps. Black terrain, but nothing special. Make a turn, and went down. Not sure why.
Felt/heard the pop/thump when I went down. Right ski didn't release and was kind of underneath me. Pretty painful. Got it out. Now I'm on my back, with the ski overhead. Try to reach up and pop the heel release. "Ohhhhh! It's not supposed to do that..." when it and my boot kind of swing in lazy arcs - like it was on the end of a hotdog.
Short answer was: Pretty spectacular rotational fracture of the tib+fib.
Craziness ensues with the insurance people - but I get a tib nail the next day and go home to recover.
I had a season pass. Skiing is something I'd pick to do over nearly ANYTHING else.
Ortho says my season is over.
[I'm thinking. "Well, 12 weeks would leave me some room. Well, we'll just wait and see what happens." Non-unions do occur - even to healthy, active people.]
To shorten it more: at 11 weeks, the xrays look really very good. Walking fine. Pain is nearly zero.
Otho says "You can go back to normal activities."
Now the ortho is, IMO, a defensive medicine guy. He's never going to tell you that you CAN do something - because he doesn't want to be liable if you do it and crash and burn... So, I instead want to get answers if I *shouldn't* do anything...
Me: [thinking - woo-hoo!] "So, I'm probably not going to go out and get huge air doing single-track mountain biking, but is there anything I shouldn't do."
He: "Just don't kill yourself. If it hurts, you're pushing too hard."
I thought that left it pretty open.
So, a couple days later, I go run groomers. Easy day. Patellar tendon pain, but no bone pain till late in the day.[DIN set to Type-I, minus one.]
Ski again a few days later, with the friends who were with me when I broke it..Catch some wet heavy snow at the edge of the groomed run we're running - "Boom" I'm down and laying on my back faster than I can imagine. I'm thinking - "I bet this feels really bad when I get up." But it doesn't. Get on my feet and go stomp back in. No pain! Wow!
For the first four weeks, I turn up the volume a bit each day. At the end of most days I'd get modest bone pain, but it was getting better and better. I'd slow down or stop if it started hurting.
Then I get a great pow day - unusual for the PNW, especially in the spring. Decide that today is the day to try some blacks. Rip up a line down a short black as a "test.". No pain.
Repeat that on a harder, longer run - driving it really hard and aggresively. Again - totally rock solid!
Spend the rest of the day lapping double-blacks with a new-found lift-mate friend. At the end of the day, I'm hurting a bit - but I've just spent a day killing it.
At 19 weeks post nail, I get a ~40K vertical day - absolutely driving it all day long - nothing groomer - all 6-15" deep cream-cheezy pow. A few top-notch crashes - it's easy to strip a ski laterally in thick heavy-ish pow when your DIN is one lower than a Type I skier.
The last Sunday of the season I'm back at it.
But the Friday before, I'd picked up a desk at an office to move it. As I did, I realized it was _really_ heavy. But "Oh well. As long as we're here, lets get it done." And the leg just felt odd. Kind of like a bow and ripple went up and down it. But no pain - it seemed fine. I wondered if I simply imagined it.
Went out on Sunday. I'd been getting small air for the last month, so didn't think anything about a first run through the park - hitting the edges of the kickers. Just a couple of feet of air. Well, the fourth or fifth one was the bogs. When I landed it hurt _really_ badly.
After 15-20 minutes of laying around took the edge off, I skied down to the lodge - essentially on one ski.
I already had a pre-scheduled appt three weeks later. Since pain dropped off pretty quickly after the first week, and I could hobble around - I simply went to my regular follow-up as "normal." I didn't call in, or try to get in to see anyone sooner. By the time of my appointment three weeks later, I could almost walk normally.
That final follow-up to the Ortho for the nail showed that I'd re-cracked the upper portion of the butterfly break. No damage to the main displaced break, or anything else.
Another 6-8 weeks of limited duty - but IMO it was worth it. I'd salvaged two glorious months of the season!
A final follow-up [at my request] in Oct 2016 showed all was well.
I've had a bomber season this year. Lots of air, a bunch of incredible pow days. I get the usual; some pain over the break site, patellar tendon/knee discomfort. The screws haven't bothered me at all - I didn't even need to mod my boots.
This year, I've slammed wind-lips I didn't see, fallen off small rock-bands, had quite a number of pretty awesome crash-and-burns - and I need to exercise and strengthen my rotator cuffs - but nothing to keep me down for more than a day or three at a time.
IMO, I'm not doing half bad for a 48 Y/O guy who shattered his Tibia last year.
