2015 Fall

I’m not really looking for help just reporting to my friends what has happened to me. But if you have experience with concussion or traumatic brain injury and want to post here, that’s welcome.

Those who know me may know I consider myself a better downhill skier than triathlete. I’ve certainly done it longer, although never competitively. My family has had a home in Snowmass, just outside of Aspen, since 1968. So I’m intimately familiar with the terrain and conditions there. Yesterday, my first day of a three week visit (after two weeks in Mid Dec), I started out with a simple warm up run on easier slopes, going down perfectly groomed snow non stop from top (11,808′ to bottom (8450′). At the very end there is a little hill, about ten feet high, and I thought I would do a little left hand turn off it to finish with a flourish. But out of sight, at the end of the turn was a sudden six foot drop off, and I somehow missed reconnecting with the snow. I ended up crashing my head and face (I was wearing a helmet), knocking myself unconscious for about 6-8 minutes before a ski instructor and the the ski patrol came to my aid.

I was wearing a helmet cam, so I have the entire incident on tape, and thus I know that I have no memory of the five seconds or so preceding the crash, and that I was out for at least about 6-8 minutes (I’ll post a link on Facebook to the whole video for the curious).

I ended up being transported to the local hospital, where a CT scan was done. I had no injuries to my arms, legs or torso. I did have a small (9mm) spot of bleeding in the left frontal lobe of my brain. So I was air lifted via ‘copter to Denver, where I was seen by a neurosurgeon. Follow up CT scan, MRI, and neurologic testing have all been reassuring, and I will be discharged tomorrow. I have good friends of 45 years standing in Denver, so no worries about accommodations for the next day or two.

The neurologist and I talked about recovery and how I could re-enter into triathlon training. He suggested I might be able to start up skiing “blue and green” runs (beginner and intermediate) for a couple of weeks, but I said “That’s not going to happen,” meaning I would not be able to restrain myself from skiing full bore if I were out there. So the next 2-3 weeks, planned for skiing, will be devoted to rest and recuperation, and “aerobic” swimming and trainer cycling, and maybe some “jogging” after a week. My wife, sister, and son will all be around during this time, and I did have the next two-three weeks pencilled into my season plan as simply “skiing”, anticipating no S/B/R to speak of, so I think mentally I’ll be able to handle the adjustment.

The good news – there is no orthopedic injury which might impact my triathlon season. But the bad news is, the enforced rest and recovery style training, albeit in the gorgeous setting of Aspen, will be a bit hard to take. And the fact that I have 2 or 3 small spots of “bruising” or bleeding into my cerebrum is a bit scary. The potential for longer-term issues with traumatic brain injury are real, and I need to be on the lookout for that.

No doubt as this goes on, there will be a series of entries in my blog.