Ketchup

One of the reasons I've been especially overwhelmed this summer is because I do things like this. No, you're right, I haven't been launching off cliffs in big powder since early springtime... but it turns out that if you spend a lifetime throwing stunts like this, maybe there's a chance that one of 'em eventually won't work out so well. Who knew?

Back in March 2006, I broke my leg in three places between ankle and knee and became one-sixteenth Wolverine, i.e., my leg was reinforced with a 14" titanium rod, a 4" plate, two bolts and five screws. Hooray.

The crazy part is that I never missed a ski season, although I had to take it pretty easy in 2007. The bummer is that the metal hurt all the time. The screwheads rubbed in the soft tissue. I definitely didn't want to be 65 with this junk still in me. It had to go. My surgeon said we could have removed the hardware last spring, but then he would have insisted that I didn't ski at all this year. Life is short. I would rather be in pain for another year and ski than not be in pain and not ski. Follow me?

This spring I was finally 110%. We pulled the hardware, I'm rehabbing, and I expect to hit the slopes hard again this coming season... maybe with my skis on the ground instead of in the sky.

The main lesson here? Breaking your leg badly is expensive and painful, but most of all it's a massive time-suck. Between pre-op visits, surgery, recovery, post-op visits and physical therapy, I figure I've dropped four full weeks of writing time, which is a serious bummer. So I'm behind. But the new book is ASS WHOMPINGLY COOL. That's actually the real terminology in the publishing industry. The acronym is AWC, as in "Oh, yeah, Jeff's new project is AWC." :)

More soon.

Labels: The Ex-Titanium Man