Never Have I Ever

Well yesterday strayed a little from the norm.  My go to "never have I ever" is no longer true because after 23 years, I have finally busted a bone.

First off, I'm completely fine and in very good spirits.   Here's what happened:

I went to the climbing gym a few hours before I was scheduled to work to get some climbs in.  Everything went as usual and my experienced partner and I were having a great time.  I got on a route I would normally be able to do without too much trouble but got tired ("pumped" in climbing jargon) and fell with maybe 10ish feet until the top. 

Falling happens all the time but normally when you take a fall on lead, you go roughly 10-15 feet and the rope catches you.  This time, due to a belaying error, I kept going.

Whenever I fall, I go into a sort of "zen" state because it is oddly relaxing.  I remember thinking at the point I would normally come to a stop that it was strange I was still going. 

Still relaxed and a bit further towards the ground, "Hmm this is turning into quite the whipper."

Half a second later, "Oh wow I'm on the ground."

My only brief moment of panic after hitting the ground was realizing my lower back was sore.  I wasn't dead so the next worst case scenario popped into my head.  Am I paralyzed?  I was easily able to move all my limbs which was a huge relief.  I was going to simply stand up since I felt fine but was told to lay down because the adrenaline was pumping.  Made sense.  Paramedics were called and arrived shortly after.  They did an initial check to make sure nothing was too dire.  Even though nothing looked horribly bad, they still put me in a neck brace and gurney since I fell 35-40 feet.

The EMTs and I then rode in the ambulance to the nearby hospital.  On the way, one of the paramedics gave me an IV which was the worst part of the whole day.  I hate needles and told him if I passed out, it would be because of the needle and not the fall.  I didn't pass out but feel like I came pretty close.

We got to the hospital and I was quickly given a CAT scan.  Everything seemed to go fast which means there probably weren't a whole lot of patients there.  All of the nurses and doctors were incredibly friendly and we joked around the whole time.  One of them said it was the craziest falling story they had heard which I seriously doubt.  They must see some gnarly things in the emergency room.

The scan came back and showed I had a compression fracture in my L1 vertebrae.  As long as I could walk without too much pain, I could leave that day.  Getting up from the bed was a bit of a struggle but I was able to walk fine.

They were a little vague on the healing time but it sounded like 6-8 weeks for a full repair.  In the meantime, as long as my back doesn't hurt too bad and I don't do anything too strenuous, I can do whatever.  No brace needed.

The aftermath.  Hospital shirt, socks, wristband, and the sad remains of my cut in half shirt.

So yes, this was a preventable climbing accident.  There is an incredibly annoying stigma many non-climbers have that climbing is one of the most dangerous things someone could do.  If things are done the correct way, it is very safe.  I've gone 9+ years without any injury which is way better than most people can say about the sport they do.  I mentioned this in a post last year but there was a study done that said people are much more likely to get injured playing traditional sports like soccer or football than they are rock climbing. 

That being said, when climbing accidents do happen, they can be catastrophic.  What happened to me was pretty much the best case scenario.  The fall happened in a gym which means I landed on thick padding, there were plenty of people around to help, and the hospital was about 10 minutes away.  It would have been a completely different story if this had happened a few days prior when I was climbing at Smith.

Thanks to all my friends/staff and the medical people for helping me out and getting things done very efficiently and those who checked in later to make sure I was doing alright.  Much appreciated!

But yeah so everything is good and I'll hopefully be fixed before long.  I finally have a good story to tell when someone asks for my craziest climbing experience.

That's all for now.  Bye.