A little milestone happened yesterday! For the first time in my 17 month ACLR recovery, I was physically able-bodied enough to hike to my accident spot (*well close to it). The accident that happened in January 2017 while backcountry skiing. Full story here. *Somewhere up in this avalanche chute is where I fell, but I was not about to start bushwhacking! It looked really steep and gnarly. I had been quite obsessed with making it to this location - like I had to tick it off my list and I had to do it soon for some reason. Pretty much all of 2017, this hike would have been impossible due to the atrophy and pain (and poor medical advice!). The past few weeks, I had been choosing to mountain bike instead of hike. Biking hurts less, it's more fun, and I can go longer distances on my bike. The downhill is way more fun of course! Having not hiked many miles was a little concerning. I had not hiked over 3 miles prior to this and the hike I had planned was 5 miles round trip and 1400 feet of climbing. This route was in the wilderness, so you can't ride a bike here. Besides the trail is too technical even if it weren't wilderness. Was the timing right? I was at the end of a sore week, so just lying in bed I was pretty sore. I woke up pretty sore, which got me worrying and very undecided. If I didn't do it Sunday, which other days would be possible? If I don't go for it I'll regret not trying, the worst that can happen is I turn around. If I do go and deal with the pain, then maybe I will be hurting another week and have to skip rehab. Yes, this all goes through my mind in the morning. I decided to go for it. I tape up my knee, take 1500mg of Tylenol, some CBD oil, pre-iced the knee and then set out. Even driving to the trailhead, my knee was aching as I lifted it from the break pedal to gas pedal. I was pretty nervous. I also invited a friend along. It's so hard to coordinate the knee with other people, but she was game for any kind of hike that day. Thanks for being flexible, K! We started hiking and low and behold, it's decent feeling. I think "OK if it stays like this everything will be fine!" I mean it's obvious it's not normal, but I am not feeling pain with each step. Maybe the adrenaline kicked in too. My friend said I was hiking well and couldn't even tell which leg from the back. I use hiking poles. We made it in just over an hour (1:12). In past years when I went normal speed it took me 0:49 to this spot. Not too shabby! Going down is a different story as I used to run this trail back in the day. Of course I trip on rocks and it feels like my leg turned into a wet noodle. We pass familiar landmarks and I narrate to my friend what was going on that day. "I remember going through these little aspens and I decided to put my skins back on because I couldn't do a plow stop to save my life. Here is where my husband found me after that one text that made it through. Here is where we abandoned the ski-sled method and went back to the 3 headed monster method. Here is where we went downhill so fast and the guys didn't drop me once. Here's the creek we tried not to fall into." I wasn't sure what my reaction would be to seeing the spot. I wasn't emotional or sad. I think I was in disbelief that I actually got out of there on one leg. It's not easy terrain! If anything I was pretty impressed! I also felt overwhelmingly grateful for my husband and friends who helped me out - the strongest most level headed team I could have asked for. I think if I had been skiing with anyone else this (or truly solo), things would have been MUCH harder. Well, that's a lot of words for a 5 mile hike.
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AuthorA 45 year old active female who tore her ACL in January 2017 (at the age of 40). Reconstructive surgery in February 2017 with bone-patellar tendon-bone autograft. Archives
November 2022
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