Wildlife day

I woke up this morning to -50. Thankfully, it warmed up enough to start the car for PT. On the drive back, we saw the neighborhood elk before turning into the driveway. There, in front of my car was a moose! My dad hopped out and snapped a quick pic! Europeans might have cows, goats and sheep, but we get moose. Just another wild day!

Really relaxing

... Or not!

The day after surgery, my big bro Ben brought eight of his friends up from Golden for a ski weekend. It was good to have lots of company, but I think I'm ready for a little R&R! My brother is second from left and I bet you can't see which one is me!With all the Engineering School of mines boys, "Happy Birthday" was almost threatening to drown out my mom's notorious voice! Happy birthday mom!

The coxyx pain machine

That's just a fancy way to say that this thing is the biggest pain in the butt!
For the first week, I have to spend 6-8 hrs in the CPM machine, an evil contraption that passively moves your knee to prevent scar tissue buildup. Usually, the procedure is to do 4-6hrs, but I suspect that Doctor Sterrett doesn't want me to do anything else.... Makes sense, since it just dumped and I was thinking about how hard it would be to one-ski powder :) Above, I put the machine in the car on the way back from Vail so I could knock off a few hours. It may prevent scar tissue in my knee, but by next week, my back might be one big glob of scar tissue.

the results!

Met with Sterrett to go over the surgery pictures. Image six is the problem, that bubble part in the middle is apparently the degeneration. Image eight shows the result, with the stitch and a teeny piece removed. He estimated that he removed five percent, which is much better than the 35% he would have had to remove if he didn't do a repair. It is feeling better already, so now the trick is to reduce swelling.

There's always a first

I may not be the first person to advocate for kids outdoors. Or the first to struggle with an injury in their career, but the nurse on duty in the post op recovery room told me that I am the first patient she has ever seen bring veggies to munch on while coming to! Knowing I was going to wake up famished, and not wanting to eat a thousand graham crackers, I made some extra broccoli the night before. Maybe the trend will take off.

Made to last

It is back!! Since I had a ton of stuff to come back, I shipped my Osprey bag back from Switzerland literally stuffed to the max. After almost a month of (I'm sure!) rough handling, it has finally arrived. Living up to the osprey standard, there wasn't even a scratch mark! With the wheels still in perfect condition, its ready for my next high octane adventure.

As soon as I get to unpacking, that is! :)

Cured

The retailer show is over and my surgery is next (tomorrow), but being at the show, surrounded by inspirational people who have traveled and done everything I could ever hope to do and more, let alone running successful businesses woke me back up from my unmotivated break from reality. Since realizing that surgery was the best option for my knee right now, my usually motivated self has been on the back burner. Not anymore. Along with being once again heavily involved in Outdoor Nation, I have big plans once I'm back on my feet. So look forward to some more exciting posts which might include some ranting about my new CPM machine, which is the first form of PT after surgery. By PT, I do mean pain and torture :-).