Fighting the system

Here I am, sitting at work. Things tend to be a bit quiet around here, as I suspect they will remain for a few more weeks while the season picks up pace. The computers here block just about every web site you can imagine but it's amazing how many you can try when you are this bored; so here I found one that I can get access to. Now I will just have to come up with something to write about; because I know you all hang off my every word. The requests for more frequent entries are constantly flooding in to the point where even in my extremely bored, invalid, house-arrested state I can hardly keep up. As much as I struggle to avoid going on about my medical condition it features largely in my day to day life. At the moment I face a struggle to get my surgery brought forward as quickly as possible. It is incredibly frustrating to know that with every day that passes is another day shaved off my post-recovery riding time. If he wasn't the only orthopedic surgeon around I would have been a little less calm about his indifference to my situation... Still smiling... Still smiling.

In other news, in just 8 short days I will be yet another year older. 24. How the time flies, every year I have said I don't feel a day over 17 but I suppose that is no longer true. We have all been through a lot these past few years. David is getting married, eternally single people are settling down into long term relationships, James has what could loosly be termed a plan for the future and is actually accepting some responsibility. Funnily enough none of this is all that scary any longer and has been accepted as normal. I think?

Majesty

I have been having great difficulty coming up with things to write here that don't pertain to my medical condition; understandably the whole thing is ever present in my thoughts. A minor event comes past mildly noteworthy. I was asked to cover someone's shift in the Alpine Ski School hut yesterday; a day when the maximum was somewhere around minus 26 not accounting for wind chill. Oh what fun! 30minutes on the Gondola up the mountain was pretty painful... And here I was thinking I was overdressed! But with the weather lately has come an incredible amount of snow. Expecting something along those lines I took my camera to work with me. This is a pretty amazing place I am in eh?
The view from my lounge room; can you imagine waking up to this every morning?








The majesty of the sun setting over the mountains in Canada is awe-inspiring.








This is the view from the back window of the Ski School Hut, the amount of snowfall we have had here in the past few weeks has broken all kinds of records...


And as for my knee... Well, surgery it is. And the recovery time? Well I still don't have a definite answer on that. I could be snowboarding in 3-4 weeks or I could be home in 3-4 weeks. There isn't really an area in between: it is one or the other. I am looking at premature arthritis and an effective allergy to high impact activity. Can someone remind me how a split second can result in a lifetime of regret? Don't worry about me though, I'm still smiling... just.

My professional medical opinion

OK. I have had the MRI and everything went OK. Now I just need to sit and wait for the report to come through, see the doctor, get an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon etc etc. From what I understand I have a small fragment of bone/cartilage that is loose in my knee and causing the surrounding areas aggravation. This is purely my speculation but I think I found the fragment on my MRI images (they gave me the scans on CD to take home) I could be completely wrong but it's amazing how much you can imagine when you're stuck at home doing nothing.
And if you think that's a kick in the teeth? You should see the weather today. It has been absolutely dumping down with snow; all of my housemates are up there on the mountain as we speak. This is what I can see from my balcony. Please excuse the stint of complaints I'm going through at the moment but this is pretty damn rough.

Quantum Mechanics and Parallel Universes

You know; if this was some kind of bizarre reality where I could ignore the fact that I was unable to walk; things pretty much couldn't be going better for me. I love my job (from what I have seen so far, admittedly I am still in training) I meet all kinds of people, I am fascinated by the products that I sell (not to mention getting free access to lessons whenever I like) and I am kicking ass.

Unfortunately however this is reality and I have done some sort of severe damage to my knee the extent of which I will find out shortly after my super-fun adventure trip down to Vancouver to get an MRI on Monday. MRI, for those of you who were otherwise unaware, stands for Magnetic Resonance Imagery. It is technology similar to that used in CT scans but is more effective in detecting soft, living tissue. My condition is one of two (or both) issues. 1) There is a rogue fragment of bone floating in my knee cartilage that has chipped off from one area or another and is aggravating the surrounding area. This is a fact, I saw for myself on the X-Rays, it is highly likely that this has been there for some time and isn't causing any problems. 2) I have bruised/torn the meniscus plate; a small cartilage disc that acts as a cushion between the femur and the tibia. The latter is by far the preferred situation as it may mean I will have a full recovery in as little as 3 weeks, whereas the former... Will mean intense surgery, loss of employment and most likely an early and defeated return to Australia. As much as I love Perth, this is not exactly what I had in mind for my return...

The Bubble Bursts

Well. I had a good run. I have ridden this wave for a long time. I have had quite an adventure and a lot of good luck. It has been fantastic. However, all good things must come to an end and bad luck finally caught up with me. In the most retardedly everyday of activities I have completely screwed my knee. I just got home from the doctor's office and the news was a little... well: bad. Best case scenario I am off my feet for 6-8 weeks. Worst case scenario? Well lets just say that the words surgery and going home were brought up. I am going into physio for the next couple of weeks until I know more accurately my situation. Pray for me kids.

News is getting a little slow

As the title says. News is getting a little slow. Yesterday my hangover was spent watching Rocky 1-5. Followed by a little American Dad and a bit of Family Guy. What a fun filled day that was. Oh yeah. But if you thought THAT was exciting news: I got a call from my supervisor this morning telling me that my start date has been brought forward to the 13th. This is because the mountain has been scheduled to open early! I will train for five days MOnday-Friday and then get the weekend off. The weekend that the mountain opens! Seriously; things just fall into place for me lately. As you can see conditions up here so far aren't the best. So fingers crossed for the next couple of weeks.

All our dreams are washed away

Yesterday was incredible. It started snowing around 10 in the morning and didn't stop all day. We're talking 6 inches of snowfall. Bare ground was suddenly completely covered. If it is like that down here in the village we can only dream of what it is like up on the peaks. (Seriously, we can only dream as the cloud/fog cover is pretty intense) Everyone was so excited, this kind of thing suggests the possibility of an early season. The lifts could open in mere days! I jumped online and quickly ordered my boots. Last thing you want is the lifts open and no gear to ride with! (Did I mention I scored myself a free board?) All that is left to get is bindings. Sweetness. I went to sleep with dreams of riding in my head. I awake this morning to the worst thing possible; Rain and plenty of it. It has been going on for hours. I can hear the screams of all the little snowflakes: "Noooo!!!! I'm melting... Oh what a world..."