My Story...

About me and my injury: I'm a 26 year old female outdoor education teacher. Basically that means that my classroom is forests and mountains and I teach using hiking, rock climbing, and character building.

I was working at a summer camp in upstate NY in the Adirondack Mountains teaching a rock climbing class when the person belaying me (holding the rope) dropped me and I fell the 25 feet to the ground. When I hit the ground, I hit full force on my left foot, shattering the heel and causing a compression fracture in one of my vertebrae. I was in the hospital near my camp for 5 days before being discharged home. Thankfully, my back fracture required nothing more than a brace for about a month and a half. My heel on the other hand (or foot, I guess....bad humor, I apologize)...

My first appointment after I got home was an interesting one. My doctor (who in turn was my surgeon) looked at the X-rays and basically went "holy crap!" in so many words. He said for a person my age he had never seen such a severe injury. He gave me 3 options: a) no surgery and let it heal on its own, b) surgery just on the heel and not on my sub tarsal with the potential of having to go under the knife again to graft the subtarsal and fuse it years down the line or c) do everything at once. I opted for c.

10 days later I went under the knife. Surgery took about an hour longer than planned because of how many pieces it was in. The pain I felt after the nerve block wore off was probably the worst pain I had ever felt, next to the initial trauma of the break. Crying in the hospital, begging for them to kill me was not a pretty sight. They let me go 2 days after my surgery.

Up until the surgery and for the 2 weeks following it, I was only allowed out of bed for 10 mins a day to pee. Otherwise my foot had to be elevated above my heart. I wasn't allowed to be upright without the back brace, so bathing was interesting to say the least.

At 8 weeks I was allowed out of the back brace, but still in a cast on my leg. In the middle of October, I was out of the cast and put into a walking boot, but was still Non weight bearing. I was working up to partial weight bearing as tolerated and took my first steps the first weekend in November. I started physical therapy around Thankgiving time, and at that point I was told to ditch the boot, the scooter, etc. So I gritted my teeth and did it, and have been walking with a cane ever since.

Physical therapy has been going well. I have definitely seen improvements, but I have a long way to go.

I have good days and bad days. gotta keep pushing forward though.

Liz

Thanks Liz! I can't imagine pain being so bad that I wanted to be killed. That had to be horrific. Glad you're on the mend!!!
~Kimberly

The wanting to be killed was just after my block wore off. The nursing staff at the hospital wasn't great at getting me my pain meds on time. I loved having the block, I can't imagine waking up without it, but it lasted longer than I think they had planned on (almost 36 hours instead of 24) so they weren't prepared for the breakthrough pain. It was also hard because I had to stop painkillers the week before my surgery.

I was lucky I got surgery though, it was touch and go but there was the conflict between how extremely severe the break (last approximate count was 16 pieces that my calcaneus was in) was and how much swelling there was. In the end it took almost a month to get surgery, which was right before the cut off of the bones starting to fuse themselves in the wrong spots. Surgery ended up taking over an hour longer than planned due to the severity of the break. But I ended up actually keeping some ROM in my subtalar joint (which he wasn't expecting) and he was able to keep an arch in my foot (something he wasn't expecting to get much of), so for not having time to be choosy about a doctor, I ended up with a great one who I like a lot.

Years ago I thought about rock climbing. It is one of lesser common ways to break your heel. Car accidents and falling off roofs seem to be the top two. If it something you really love, you might do it again. But maybe not as high or as often.

Everytime I hear your story Liz I cringe and am so thankful of my situation. I am so fortunate to have met you on the healthboards. You have helped me get through the stress of my situation. Thanks for being there to listen to my whining! I can imagine you're thinking suck it up buttercup! hahaha
~Kimberly

I'm definitely in rare company, but my grad school mentor also had a rock climbing fall and had a similar accident. He rock climbs again. I don't know if I'll rock climb again, more to mental stress than physical, but I want to do it again. I plan on hiking mountains again and doing long distance hikes, there is no maybe about it. It's just a matter of how long.

And Kimberly--Right back at you! No situation is worse or better than the other, it's just the hands we were dealt! Haha whine away

Oh my gosh... I had not idea of what you suffered. I am so sorry but so glad you are here to tell the tale. Your story (and Zerk's) definitely puts mine into perspective... Did your students see you fall?? Yikes... I hope you one day climb again and have a belaying partner you can trust. That would be hard...

Snowrunner--to answer your question: Only one of my students/campers saw me fall...the girl who was belaying me...she was only 13. The aftermath of my fall was almost worse than the fall itself. Between the camper screaming bloody murder, my co-leader (who had been with students on a different floor of the gym) trying to move me and going into a stress reaction herself--not knowing the phone number of camp...the gym..the address...what to tell the EMTs...oy!--and then the other students standing around not knowing what to do....it was chaos.

The first EMT on scene works at the camp and is a really good friend of mine. So of course the second he walks through the door he goes "what did you do to yourself?" haha.