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ouch!!!

climbingnirvana

15-Aug-2009
7:53:56 PM

Well this is as funny as it was both painful and lucky!!
A few weeks ago some friends and i decided to hit the grampians and do sword in the stone. this is in
an area that we had not previously visited. as usual we were all of different views as to what way
would be the fastest to the base of the crag. Eventually one of us decided to scrub bash his way up
from the track after throughly cracking the shits.We followed. A fair way up there was a decent sized
boulder that looked too big to be unstable (about the size of two of those plastic water filled barricades
that you see around construction sites and at festivals).
I grabbed the top of it to pull over onto it and as if in slow motion the sucker started to roll on to me!
Turning away from it i bolting downhill over loose crap everywhere like a mountain goat on speed i
picked up quite a bit of momentum. The boulder chasing me for about 6-8m before it hit something and
split into two smaller chunks that went either side of me. I had realised this but was going so quick
over such bad terrain that i couldnt stop.
Then my right foot got stuck in between some small bolders and i was launched about 2-3m off the
ground vertically and flew across about 5-6m horizontally according to the guys.
Cant quite remember the next bit but i hit back first then hip then head in a cartwheel style wipeout.
From all later accounts it looked like a pretty bad fall.
This was about a month ago and although the bruises have healed but the back remains a very
painful daily companion (being a bricklayer dont help with the whole healing yer back part!!).
After numerous visits to all the relevant medical establishments they cant find anything wrong with the
spine!! Grrrrrrrr!! There's nothing wrong with the noggin that wasnt that way befor my little spill and the
hip is 100% better. Dont know how to up load photos yet so cant show the damage.
Its amazing how you can let your guard down for a second and end up twisted up amongst the
boulders with a concussion thanking god that you wernt crushed to death.
Take care out there, and if there is one stay on the beaten track.

Doc

16-Aug-2009
10:32:14 AM

Hope your recovery goes well.
I have a vision not dissimilar to an Indiana Jones movie!!

climbingnirvana

16-Aug-2009
11:22:33 AM

Thanks mending right along. Yeah it was pretty much an indy moment!!

patto

16-Aug-2009
10:09:14 PM

I'm carrying my whip next time i go scrub bashing in the gramps.

Crack that whip on a tree branch and swing up and away from danger. Preferably time you landing next to an attractive female in you party.

audtracol

17-Aug-2009
10:52:46 AM

A good argument for sticking to the tracks

widewetandslippery

17-Aug-2009
11:35:36 AM

I do that stuff all the time. I'm generally very safe on the vertical but often missfooted on the horizontal.

Your back. Have you had a MRI? After years of pain I got one and it answered all the questions.

ambyeok

17-Aug-2009
12:00:49 PM

On 17/08/2009 widewetandslippery wrote:
>I do that stuff all the time. I'm generally very safe on the vertical but
>often missfooted on the horizontal.

Me too! We should do a poll. I am constantly amazed that I dont break an ankle on every approach. I am particularly uncoordinated if I look up at the cliff while walking.

pisces

17-Aug-2009
9:29:23 PM

If you can cart bricks your back can't be too tragic. I'm in the medical business- do a couple of
surgical lumbar spinal fusions each week in fact, and agree with the MRI idea - although if it is not
already done it is probably because those who examined you thought it was not indicated. So probably
consider it somewhat down the line if it doesn't improve: they are very expensive.
Given the kind of temperament possessed of someone tough and brave enough to be a climber, and
able to tolerate the pain enough to lay bricks, I'd say you are likely to be the kind of person who can let
nature take it's course and allow the your back to gradually heal, whatever the injury and provided
there are no neurological symptoms (sciatica, leg muscle weakness, urinary frequency etc). Hospitals
are dangerous places and remedies have side effects. As one of my surgeon mates, cognisant of all
the complications of surgery, says: operations are for patients, not for doctors.
Also, massage will benefit any muscle spasm (often a large component of the cause of pain), and
yoga, or at least some stretching, is great for backs.

cogsy

17-Aug-2009
10:31:33 PM

So will my sciatica get better without surgery, pisces?
It gets better after a month or three of quite a lot of pain and limited mobility, but it's recurring every 6-12 months now.
I haven't got a droopy foot, but lots of tingling and pain and an almost zero straight leg raising test.
My climbing goes to absolute crap whenever the pain flares up.
Being a doctor myself, I have allways assumed that surgery isn't for me either!
I don't really trust the opinion of non-climbing medical colleagues either.... they allways seem to tell me to stop climbing, which of course is never going to happen.

pisces

18-Aug-2009
8:54:40 PM

Well, yeah, there is a place for surgery. Sometimes you go in to a patient suffering severe pain and
pull out an absolute plum of an extruded lumbar disc and you just know the patient is cured and the
surgeon makes the usual surgeon-type narcissistic comment- "What a lucky person this patient
is!"(implication- "to have me as a surgeon"). Ditto result for some compromised intervertebral canals in
arthritic spines. Not so sanguine about fusions, except in the rare case, but I don't think we do
anything like the harm we used to do in the 1990s, now that minimally invasive fusion techniques are
available.
As for your sciatica cogsy, beats me without knowing details of your case, and even if I did I wouldn't
hazard a definitive "mainstream western med" opinion as I am not practiced in neuro/ortho consulting;
merely an assistant surgeon am i. Still, if it was me, having tried intensive yoga for a long period and
finding it not the answer, I'd certainly get an opinion from a neurosurgeon with a good reputation (rather
than an orthopod as it sounds like nerves are involved with the tingling:... nerve conduction studies?). I
was very impressed by an article I read many years ago about a back-pain patient who had been
through the allopathic medical mill to no avail, and finally hauled himself off to a yoga ashram in India
for a year. A year of pain and daily discipline, after which his back was 100%, to which an incredible
accompanying photo of him in contorted pose attested. I could tell more stories about results I have
seen from Reiki etc, but by now you can sense my bias. What can I say? I'm a pisces, we're from
another planet.

mattjr

18-Aug-2009
9:07:50 PM

On 17/08/2009 widewetandslippery wrote:
>I do that stuff all the time. I'm generally very safe on the vertical but
>often missfooted on the horizontal.

Ha.. heard about one such incident this weekend just gone.. slippery walking track at the Araps.. foot slips out.. hand reaches out to steady on a f#$kin sharp tree branch.. branch stabs palm, just about popping out the other side of hand.. blood all over the show.. Horsham hospital!

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