A perfect Saturday at Joshua Tree NP climbing some moderate routes with the CMC. The day near over I was leading up a 10b trad climb and my foot slipped a bit above my first piece. Just the right angle of foot and rock conspired against me. Hanging from the rope, just a foot or so above the ground, the strange angle of my ankle had me hoping it was just dislocated and could be popped back in. The guys from the CMC were great! They got my stuff back down, me to the ER and my car back to LA the next day.
After several hours at the ER w/o pain meds or as much as a bag of ice I finally got someone to give me some pain killers and then an x-ray. By the look on the tech's face it was clear that I wasn't going to walk this one off. Brian drove me back to LA that night with a brand new boot and a pair of crutches.
Back in LA, got an appt with the ortho on Monday where I was told the swelling would need to go down before anything could be done... the following Saturday I was in surgery. It appears the talus broke in half, dislocated, the heel bone dislocated (shoved forward) and several of the tendons dislocated. Five screws and a day later I was back home wishing to get some sleep at night, hating the TV, wondering how long it will be before I am able to get back out again.
Just in case you aren't sure which leg needs fixing...
