The day that would change the rest of my life. Weird, it didn't start out that way - but it ended up that way.
Sunday was a gorgeous bluebird day, so we all decided to go skiing in Whistler. This isn't an abnormal occurrence - we all ski and had been having a great season. Annika had just finished a successful Whistler Cup and would be skiing with her new coaches for K1. Ben was excited to see if he would be invited to ski for the E2 team next year. Henry was off for one of the last Master's race days of the year. So, Kal and I decided to 'just have fun' while the others were a little more focused.
Now, even though Kal is 'only' 11 he is a terrific skier and I was doing my best to try and keep up with him. Also skiing with us that morning was my friend Diana. Another great skier, and we were having fun skiing all over the place - no line ups and great spring snow. At lunch we decided to meet up with Henry and also ran into several other friends. After lunch, we headed out of the Roundhouse and down Whiski Jack. The intention was to head over to Harmony and check out the scenery over there - as it had been awesome in the morning. Ok, so this is where things are about to go very wrong.
The conditions were 'spring like', so we have soft snow patches. I was skiing a little too fast for the conditions, but 'I was having so much fun!' And then it happened, I hit a patch of very soft snow, my right ski popped off, I launched into the air and before I knew it I had landed on the right side of my neck and head. My friend Tracy skied up right away and asked if I was ok. I really didn't know. I felt ok, but I knew something wasn't right. In what seemed like seconds a Ski School instructor was there calling for Ski Patrol. Diana was calling Henry on my cell phone - he was skiing ahead of me. I was still lying there. Henry walked back up the slope to be with me. He used to ski patrol in Alberta so I knew I would be in excellent hands before the Whistler ski patrol arrived. All the tests, checked eyes, grip strength, general arm stuff. I was mostly coherent but I had this searing pain in the back of my neck and in between my shoulder blades. I sat up, but the pain got worse. Ski patrol arrived asked the standard questions and also did all the tests again. This time my arms were starting to ache and my hands hurt. My grip strength was getting weaker. They wanted me to go to the clinic on a back board.
UGH - I really didn't want to do this - I felt so stupid for falling in the first place. I didn't deserve to get a 'ride' off the mountain. Maybe I could just get my skis back on and head up to the Roundhouse and see how I felt. If things got worse I could take the gondola to the village and walk to the clinic. No way - ski patrol was getting pretty insistent about going to the clinic their way - and frankly I was in so much pain that I don't think I could have put my skis on anyway. So, into the toboggan I went. And all of my friends were there to help. Dixon and Brad held the toboggan steady on the mountain, Kal fended off skiers who came too close, Diana held my hand, Henry and Mike held my arms and head in a steady position while the ski patrolers bundled me up and put a hard neck brace on (that is really uncomfortable). Tracy looked after every else and skied down to the clinic with me. The thing I remember most about that after noon - one how stupid I felt to have fell on such an easy pitch, and two that I have the best friends in the world. Rick, the main ski patroler kept commenting about my 'posse'.
Henry went back up the mountain to collect Annika and Ben from their ski camp and I went to the clinic. The ride down the mountain was pretty wild. The snow was very soft, so Rick had to so very slow and do a lot of turns. He finally stopped and I was relieved - but we were only half way down the mountain. My neck was killing me by this point. I was on fire and cramping. It really is hard to describe the pain - but it hurt like hell! The other funny part was that because the snow was so soft it kept flying into the toboggan and down the opening of the blanket by my neck. I couldn't move because they had tied my arms together to prevent any movements that might make things worse. So, by the time we got to the bottom of the mountain and the paramedics took over, they had a little bit of snow to scoop out. Even with all the pain, I had to laugh.
So, into the ambulance I go and head over to the Medical clinic in Whistler. Everything after that seemed to move pretty quickly. The nurse came right away and took all of the standard vitals. She told me that the doctor would be there soon to see me. I asked Tracy if she would go and get the nurse to come back and give me something for the pain - since she didn't really ask about that when she was taking my vitals. The nurse said she would have to ask the doctor, but just in case she would start an IV and get everything ready. In what seemed like 2 minutes she was back with some morphine and in the iv it went. I didn't feel anything in my neck by my legs and arms felt pretty funny. I joked with Tracy that I hadn't been high like that in such a long time. The nurse - who I will say right now was AMAZING! - told me to tell her how bad the pain was on a scale of 1-10. I said 8. She laughed and said I was too stoic and that she would keep giving me stuff until I got to a 2. The doctor still hadn't seen me yet, before the nurse gave me another dose of something. The doctor finally came in, did some more neurological tests on my hands and arms and sent me for an xray. So off I went to have some pictures done. When I got back Tracy was still there - another amazing friend - and I was starting to feel a bit better but still just super aggravated. Henry brought the kids in and they each said hi. I still don't know what they thought about seeing me laying there and not being able to move - I was still on the back board at this time and still had the hard neck brace on (did I mention how much that hurt in itself!). The doc came back and said that my x-rays were available. He flicked on the monitor and I could hear this shuffling and someone saying 'oh my, that poor little girl'. Annika had fainted. She knew it was going to happen but didn't get down in time. This has been a regular occurrence over the past couple of years when Annika comes in contact with anything medical face to face. She ended up being fine, but had a nice goose egg on her head from hitting a wheel chair.
The doctor said that they couldn't see anything obvious on the x-rays and suggested that I be sent by ambulance to Lion's Gate Hospital in North Vancouver for a CT scan. Since I was in so much pain he couldn't determine what was happening, but hoped a CT would shed more light.
After that I don't remember much at all except for a few brief glimpses. I guess the pain meds, muscle relaxants, etc. all finally kicked in and I was out. Strange thing about all those pain meds, they provide an amnesiac effect, so when you do wake up you don't remember a thing.
I know they took me by ambulance to Lion's Gate Hospital but I don't remember the ride. I remember briefly waking up when the nurse said she was taking me for the CT, a brief look inside the CT and the doctor coming to tell me that he couldn't see anything and that I could go home. They finally took off the hard neck brace (after 8 hours) and replaced it with a soft brace. Henry came to pick me up and we 'walked' to the car. So over about 4 hours a bunch of stuff happened and I maybe recall about 5-10 minutes of 'stuff'. I don't remember the car ride home, but do remember kissing my kids goodnight.
The next day I felt like I had been hit by a truck, but managed to go to the dentist and my son's baseball game. I also called a good friend who husband is a radiologist at LGH. He happened to be working on Sunday and had read my CT. Kelly suggested that I follow up with my GP. Why? The ER doctor didn't say anything. Kelly was pretty insistent and then said, 'you know, you have pretty severe arthritis in your neck?" No, actually I didn't. While I was talking with Kelly, my phone rang and it was my GP asking me to come in to see her so we could 'talk' about my CT. Yikes, what was happening?
And so, the day of skiing on April 18, 2010 was about to change the rest of my life.
