 Poster: A snowHead
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After 42+ years of skiing I got my very first ride in a blood bucket on Monday 
I still can't believe how this could happen to me on a completely flat, boring, uncrowded un-everything piste. But it did, and how. Skiing in Kleinwalsertal in a snowstorm in very bad visibilty I suddenly hit a mound of snow that hadn't been there the year before, went flying onto my face and unfortunately used my right elbow as a brake. The brake worked OK, but while slowing down I could feel my right shoulder dislocating from my right arm. I immediately knew that something bad had just happened. Sat up and assesed my situation. Tried moving the arm around. Stopped that in a hurry and waited for someone to take pity on me and call for the good guys to come to the rescue.
To cut a long story short, the man from the Bergwacht turned up with his bucket after about twenty minutes, took one look at my shoulder and said:
"OK you need a ride down to the valley. What's you'r name? Mike? Ok Mike this is going to be an uncomfortable ride. If it get's to be too much for you then just scream and I'll stop for a while".
"Uhuh".
"Ready?"
"Yeah"
...
Bump
"Aaaaaah f**k"
"OK Mike?"
"Yeah"
"Ok, if it gets too much..."
Bump, wham
"Aaaaaaah Jesus H. F. Christ"
"Ok Mike?"
"Yeah"
"Ok. We've still got some way to go yet..."
Bang
"%&$§$%$"
"Ok Mike?"
"Uhhrg"
"Ok Mike, the piste gets a bit bumpy here, so try to hold on to your right hand so the arm doesn't move around too much"
I can say that as methods for pumping yourself up on endorphins go, this is not a good way of doing it.
Followed a ride in an ambulance to the local doctor who pulled around on the arm, worked up a sweat, took off his shirt, pulled some more, gave me drugs, pulled some more and then decided he didn't have the strength for this and sent me down to the hospital in Oberstdorf. I'm not sure if this is standard medical practice or not. The boys in Oberstdorf didn't waste any time, put my lights out and when I woke up the arm was re-connected to the rest of my body in approximately the way it was before.
Anyway, I guess that's me out of action for a few weeks. And that in the best winter we've had for years
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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ouch
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Ouchhh.... Still the story was funny 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Mike Lawrie, Ow! I have always thought those sledges looked painful! Where can I pay extra for Guaranteed Ski doo or helicopter rescue? 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Mike Lawrie,
That sounds like bad luck.....
End of season..?
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Ouch... i was felt for you going down on the blood wagon.
At least it was a happy ending.
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Mike Lawrie,
ouuuchhhh
did they ask for your credit card before or after they got you off the mountain???
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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JT, hope not. The arm seems to be making a miraculous recovery right now. The doctor in Oberstdorf told me he thought it would take about six weeks, but that I should go to a specialist here in Munich and have an NMR scan done to see whether there is any damage to the cartilage. If so that might require some micro surgery to fix it otherwise the arm won't be fully mobile again.
So right now I'm expecting to catch some powder in March and some Firn in April and May 
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Mike Lawrie,
Best wishes for that.. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Mike Lawrie, I can sympathise with you. I did the very same thing plus broke 2 ribs in Les Arcs a few years ago. Only difference was that I managed to put my shoulder joint back in place ( it was not the first time it had dislocated ). I still remember the first time I dislocated it playing hockey at a festival on the Isle of Thanet. The journey to Margate General by St Johns Ambulance was awful, I can't imagine what it would be going down in a blood wagon trying to hold the arm still.
6 weeks should do it unless you have done any bad ligament/cartilage damage.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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CEM, not the credit card, but they did want to know where I lived and what kind of insurance I had. In Germany and Austria you have just have to say 'Private Insurance' and the distrust dissolves into a warm and welcoming smile. If you are in a position to pull out your private insurance card then things are even better!
To be honest I thought the the mountain rescue guy was really good. He didn't ask me anything like that at all until we got to the bottom of the mountain, and by that time I'm not sure whether I could add two and two let alone give him my correct address!
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CP, while sitting around waiting for rescue a 10 year old girl told me that on television they always put the arm back in and then carry on fighting baddies. I said she was welcome to try but she declined. She came up with a number of other suggestions as to what to do about my predicament, like I could get up on my feet and ski down to the doctor because after all only my arm had been hurt... It's always good to have a sympathetic ear when you are in a situation like that
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Mike Lawrie, Beautifully written, my joy only tempered by you discomfort and 6 week lay off. Speedy recovery (again ).
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Poster: A snowHead
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Mike Lawrie, shouldnt say this but excellent description. Get well soon and back on the snow !
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Mike Lawrie, when you're fully recovered you should go back and get a rematch from that mound of snow
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Mike Lawrie, Poor you, Get well soon. I had my 1st blood bucket ride last winter, not very comfortable are they 
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slikedges, if I was an American I'd find out who had put the damn thing there and sue him till he bleeds. But since I'm only an expatriate scot I think I'll do what you say and go and stamp on it.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Mike Lawrie, Very entertaining account of the events, thanks for sharing this with us all. Hope the recovery is only a few weeks, and that you can get out again to enjoy the conditions this season.
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Your account reminds me of my very same trip down the morreta blanche red into La Tania last year, only difference is I fell out of the damn thing half way down!!! Broken lots of things before, being a cyclist, but don't ever want to feel the pain of a dislocated/broken shoulder again!
Get well soon
ScottyDog
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Mike, best wishes for your recovery! You may find a blow torch a more suitable weapon...
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scottydog, OUCH. How the hell did that happen? They are supposed to tie you down when they put in the bucket. Didn't they do that?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Mike Lawrie, all the best for a speedy recovery.
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Mike Lawrie, that's a great story, but sorry you were the subject of it. Hope you make a quick recovery.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Ouchh...I'm cringing just reading it. I think you should get a bravery medal just for going in a blood waggon let alone the injury. I watch them going down 'reds' with the poor passenger travelling headfirst down the piste and it just makes my stomach turn over. Hope you are fighting fit very soon.
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You know it makes sense.
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Mike Lawrie, Hope you will recovery soon and be back on the slopes in no time.
Flat light is the one type of conditions I mostly dread after an accident two years ago in Bad Gastein which resulted in the loss of a tooth after a heavy fall. I am going back to that same resort in a month's time to ski that piste again ( Sportgastein ).
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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hibernia, yes I think I too have learned new respect for skiing in zero viz conditions. Maybe in future I will decide that there are better ways to pass the time, because I wasn't really having a bundle of fun on that day anyway!
Having said that, it has given me the chance to let snowheads cheer me up again. Which indeed it has done. I guess one of these days I will have to tear myself away from Munich and join in one of those Pre/Intra/EndOf/Post season bashes and get to know some of the faces behind all these smilies
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Poster: A snowHead
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Mike Lawrie, thesmilies are better looking than some of us.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Ray Zorro, I'm not after you for your looks
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Mike Lawrie, entertainingly written. From the orthopaedic point of view, since you had you first dislocation at a "good age" from what sounds like an accident with a decent amount of force, your risk of redislocation is fairly low. You haven't said - is it in a sling or have you been encouraged to mobilise it? (the modern view with someone in your position seems to be - mature, first dislocation, big force needed to dislocate, big force needed to relocate - is to mobilise early).
I only know all this because my wife did something v similar in Gressoney 3 yrs ago - also piling into an unexpected lump of soft snow.
I made the correct slopeside diagnosis but was unable to put it back (it's a bit difficult to inflict pain on a loved one) and her relocation required two strong men and sedation after she had been blood-wagonned off the mountain.
In Gressoney the blood wagon and ambulance down to the next village were manned by volunteers and cost us nothing, the fee for X-rays and manipulation was about £50 and the taxi back to the hotel about £10 - and we were back in the hotel less than 2hrs from the fall.
The very next day that she skied (i.e. one year later) she got taken out by an out-of-control boarder and became a little hot under the collar! 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Nick L, to be honest by the time I got picked up at the hospital by my wife I was so zonked that I can't remember what the doctors told me to do! They gave me a special sling, which I wore for one day. The thing got on my nerves so much that I took it off and have been moving the arm around again since. Seems to work OK, and from what you say is not a disastrously bad thing to have done. I will try to see an orthopdaedic doctor on monday ( the one that puts the Bayern Muenchen players back together again ) and figure out where to go from here. At the moment the arm seems surprisingly OK, all things considered.
These mounds of snow are a menace! I can fully understand your reluctance to put your wife's arm back in place. I dread to think what my wife would think of me attempting to do that to her! Even if I had a hundred years of orthopaedic medical experience I don't think I would want to risk that 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Good to get a proper opinion from an orthopod (and the scan that you mentioned earlier) but I think you have done the right thing to mobilise it and be constrained only by your own discomfort.
All the best.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Mike Lawrie wrote: |
| scottydog, OUCH. How the hell did that happen? They are supposed to tie you down when they put in the bucket. Didn't they do that? |
Because I had broken and dislocated it, they didnt want me laying flat, so had me on my side, holding with my other arm (Just like you!) but they didnt do a good job with the straps. They used a rucksack of theirs as a pillow, and that slipped as soon as we moved off. they mistook my cries for help as cries of pain (Bit of both I think)
Then I felt the strap move, then go, and then felt snow as I (luckily) fell off to the right, dragging alongside the bucket!
My friends said they were finding it quite difficult not to laugh as they followed behind! 2 of them were on the bubble above, and took a photo as they thought I had just bruised myself and was looking for sympathy. You can actually see me hanging out to one side just before I fall out I can laugh about it now, but at the time...
Anyways, get well soon, listen to the physio and it will all come good!
ScottyDog
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| Nick L wrote: |
| out-of-control boarder |
its an oxymoron, we just appear that way 
Same happened to my wife in laplagne in 2000, fortunately the out of control boarder was her, and no-one else was involved, meat wagons are not nice!
Mike LawrieHope you recover quickly, and with as little pain as possible!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Ouch! Nice writing Mike - get well soon
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Well here I am nearly six months down the line and finally the shoulder is beginning to cooperate and get back to it's old self! Can't believe that it's taken so long. Having made the decision to mobilise the thing again after a day or two I went to the local orthodont in Munich who made it very clear to me that he didn't think much of my approach to medicine. Told me that I could make my own choice: Swing your arm around now and get operated on by me in six weeks or get that sling back on. Right now. Ok, I thought, this is a reputable and well known guy and he ain't cheap, so maybe I should do what he says. Anyway three frustrating weeks of tears and self reproach later I took off the sling only to discover that my arm was no longer an arm but a useless stick of bone with a thin covering of flesh and skin. The doc then ordered me to the physio who looked at me askance and said "how long have you had the arm in a sling?", "three weeks I wail". Stoic blank look which says all but nothing. The all part says: which idot told you to keep that arm still for three weeks?. The nothing part says: I'm not getting paid to nix the doctors who supply me my clients.
After building up a relationship with the physio he does come out with it and says that maybe the herr doktor should move along into the 21st century. But hastens to add that he is a lowly physio and hence not destined to judge, or indeed speak before a judge, on matters medical.
Any opinions from our medical staff out there? ( I hasten to add that nothing you say will be used in evidence against me... )
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FAQ
Get well soon! 