The Last Run of the Day

Until 2005 I had never broken a bone. Well, except when I played football in middle school high school - I think I have broken every single one of my fingers. But that doesn't really count. Its not like they put casts on your fingers. The coach just tapes it to the next finger and says "Now get back in there!"

It was Veteran's Day, Nov 11. So pretty much the whole base was off work. Me and my two friends from work, Jason and Sean decided to go snowboarding for the day. Now where we live, there are at least a dozen places to snowboard within a 1 hour radius. But this time we decided we wanted to try someplace new. After some research on the internet, we found a place in Austria about 3 hours away called Moltaller Glacier.

The drive into Austria is always beautiful. The Apls are an amazing sight anytime of the year. And since this was only November there wasn't much snow except for on the peaks. We left the Aviano area around 6:30 am and it takes about an hour and a half to get to the Austrian border.

There should be a saying among the Austrians and Germans that goes something like; "Where's the sun? Its in Italy!" Sometimes its so true. It was a beautiful day as we drove from Aviano to the the northeastern border. As we made our way through the mountains, the temperature dropped a little but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Right before you get to the Austrian border you have to go through this tunnel, its kind of long, but not as long as some others. We might have been in the tunnel for about 30 seconds. When we enetered the tunnel it was a bright sunny day. When we came out the other side it was cloudy, rainy, and windy and the temperature must have dropped about 20 degrees. Yep, we were getting close to Austria...

Even though it was colder, there still wasn't any snow. We still had an hour to drive, but the lack of snow was starting to make us worry. Their website said they had snow...

We approach the town and we still couldn't see any snow. There were a few peaks off in the distance that were snowcapped, but they weren't even in the direction we were supposed to be going. We decided to press on anyway.

We make our way up the windy road and reach the ticket office. Kind of a weird scene. A ticket office that sells ski lift tickets, dozens of people in ski gear and NO SNOW in sight. Well at least we weren't the only ones there. We bought our tickets and went to the lift. This ski lift was more like a tram or a train car. It took us inside the mountain and up for about 15 minutes. When we got out there would surely be snow, right?

Wrong.

Still no snow. No. To get to the glacier we had to get on another lift that took us up over a peak. And there it was... plenty of fresh beautiful snow. Gotta love Austria.

We spent the next 5-6 hours or so snowboarding. Even though its Austria - a winter sports paradise, there were still only 4 or 5 runs open. Jason and Sean are pretty good snowboarders but I'm from Texas. I've only been doing this a couple years, so I just do my best to keep up and not fall too much. By about 3pm, we'd had enough and decided it was time for the infamous last run'.

I had been down this run about 4 times earlier in the day. There was this one part that flattened out and every time I would lose my speed and get stuck. I'd have to get out of one of my bindings and push myself on with one foot. Not fun. Skiers whiz past you or push themselves forward with their poles. Snowboarders have no poles, so we just have to try to gain enough momentum to keep us going through the flat parts.

So this time I was gonna make it! I was gonna go fast enough to carry me over the flat part. I was screaming down the hill. I knew I was going faster than I should have, but if I just focused, I'd be okay.

Well, I don't really know what happened, but the next thing I knew I was tumbling. Tumbling fast. I was tasting snow. My hat and goggles went in different directions than I did. And when I came to a stop I felt a sharp pain in my left wrist. I knew it was bad, but I was still in tact enough to get my hat and goggles off the snow, put them back on, gather myself and finish the run.

Jason and Sean passed me, asked if I was ok and then went down to the end of the run to wait for me. My wrist hurt bad, and I was starting to get dizzy. We usually like to end a day of boarding with some schnitzel and a beer, but I didn't know how bad my wrist was. I tried to suck it up. We went into the restaurant, I couldn't even hold anything in my left hand. I sat down and took off my gloves. My wrist looked funny to me. Nothing extremely noticeable, but just not right. I sat down and tried to eat but I had no appetite. I tried to drink my beer, but my body was telling me not to drink it. I was getting dizzy and my vision was blurring. My heart was racing and I was breathing fast. I couldn't make myself relax. It was a really weird feeling. Something I'd never felt before.

Then the dizziness started to wear off and the pain started to subside. Finally my heart slowed and I started breathing normally again. I don't know what that was all about, endorphines? I'm no doctor, but something inside me made the pain subside enough for me to endure the 3 hour ride home.

Susan took me to the Italian hospital in the city of Pordenone. The X-Ray showed 3 broken bones in my wrist. They put me into a cast that went right below my elbow. No driving, lifting, running, or anything like that.

A couple weeks later, I went to the Air Force orthopedic surgeon. He looked at my original X-Rays and said that I was lucky. For one thing, he said my arm should have been casted over my elbow. Secondly he said that if I would have went to see him earlier he would have performed surgery and put all kinds of nasty pins, plates, and screws into my arm. He said my break was very complex and had a high possibility of re-breaking or not healing properly.

So he told me that he was going to take my nice little comfy Italian cast off and put on a huge long American one, and I was gonna like it. After he spent the last 10 minutes scaring the crap out of me with all the metallic objects he wanted to insert into my arm, I smiled and said, "Thank you, sir!"

So I spent the next 3 weeks in a cast that went over my elbow. I couldn't straighten my arm. Couldn't drive, run, jump, practically nothing. For someone who's usually pretty active, it really sucked.

The biggest impact it had was that it kept me from going to Middle East. Now all my friends, including Jason and Sean, are there and I'm still here in Italy. To you that might sound like a good thing, but I'm very disappointed. Anyone who's ever been in the military will know how I feel. I was looking forward to going with my friends and doing my duty... with them,... where it counts. But oh well, I'll get my chance.

I got the cast off on Dec 21. And I can't describe how good it felt. For the next 2-3 days, the best feeling in the world to me was to rub, scratch, or massage the skin on my arm that was covered in plaster for 6 weeks. So now, my wrist is still a little stiff and sore, but I'm back to doing things almost normally again. The doc said it might be months before I have all my strength back, but it'll get there eventually.

Just yesterday I saw my ortho surgeon, Major Bartle at the base gym. I was on a treadmill and he got on the one next to me. After he finished talking to another one of his former patients who was also working out, I nodded to him to say hello...

"Hey Doc", I said.

"Hey there! How's the wrist?"

"Good, almost back to normal".

"Well remember to take it easy, and don't do anything crazy", he said with smile.

"I'll bet you see all your old patients up here, huh?" I asked.

"Only the tough ones".