And I was winning…….

S’car Smoking at the Canyon

Well I’m back……

refresher on the trip….

fly to Vegas, small plane to South rim of Canyon, stay over night at Bright Angel Lodge, then 10 mile hike down to River, raft 5 days 4 nights, helicopter out to Bar 10 ranch, small plane back to vegas.   all this at 10.5 weeks

So was I nervous, anxious you bet….First having the weakness post surgery, not really exercising and not knowing what lies ahead made me concerned.  Flying was not a problem at all.  The hike was my biggest adversary– 10 miles of switchbacks in new hiking boots along with 100 degree weather made for an interesting day.  So at 5 am we were off…and for 7 miles I did great and then the burning kicked in…almost like my muscles said time to stop…but my mind said if I stop I may not start again…so I pushed thru the burning and interesting enough the burning stopped.  Also the burning was not along the incision or the gastroc but localized to the outer part of the leg.  So after 5 1/2 hours of hiking, heat and moving away (couldn’t really run) from a rattlesnake we were at the river.   Hard hike, especially with a 30# backpack but after undressing down to my skivvies the cold Colorado river felt great not just for my ankle but also for the rest of me…I had made it…

The rest of the trip was uneventful if you consider majestic views, great rafting, nature hikes, good food, camping, stargazing, laughing and meeting people from around the world uneventful.  I was able to participate in all the climbs, jumps off waterfalls and swimming.  If you have not been to the Grand Canyon I highly recommend it…. We used www.riveradventures.com

My only real bump came after camping at a very sandy spot,  swelling set in at night to the point that I soaked in the lake, did my exercises while looking at the spectrum of colors within the canyon…Not a bad place for rehab.

Will post some pictures of the trail and scenes but here is the post hike one

Post hike  

So there you have it…at 10 1/2 weeks thanks to the surgeon, and all of you for the advice, good thoughts, I couldn’t have done it without you….

If  you have questions about the trip let me know…Now back to reality, catching up on all your posts and my first round of golf this Sunday…

We are one day closer to the end.

 Doc Ross

10 week post op visit

time goes slow the first couple of weeks but now……..

Follow up appointments are so surreal now…walking in, seeing others with crutches, boots, casts and thinking I was just there..

Scene 1:  surgeon feeling ankle, moving it arround, saying ahhh,,,ohhhhh, not looking patient in the eye.

Surgeon:  ” You are ahead of schedule, doing great”
Me:           ” I bet you say that to all your patients”
S:              “No, I’m serious”
Me:           ” So now what”
S:              ” Start easing back to normal life”
Me:          ” hike 10 miles??racquetball??, running??, golf ??, mountain biking??”
S:              ”  Oh……that’s not a normal life!!”
Me:           ” for me it is……so then what can I start to do??”
S:           ” definitely golf, jog light, and increase calf strength”
Me:       ” Some swelling at times , should I be concerned??”
S:          “No it will take 6 months to a year for new blood vessels, lymph chains to be repaired so you will experience periods of swelling depending on your activity level”
Me:      “so do I need to see you again”
S:          ” yes but only on the golf course, you owe me a round or two for the great work I did”

So there you have it, time to get back to an easy, light normal life.  Will start to jog and increase weight load on leg.  Curious as to how long it takes to actually do a one legged calf raise??
that’s my next goal.  In the beginning it was goals like surgery, cast off, boot off, NWB to PWB to FWB, then two shoes and now a one legged calf raise.  Set dates of June 1 for walking 18 holes, July 1 for a mountain bike ride, Sept 1st for an 8 minute mile and January 1, 2009 to step on the racquetball court and play.

Excited about my trip, this Saturday to the Canyon so I’ll have pictures of an ATR on the Colorado river, soaking in the sun and loving life.  thanks for everyones support, encouraging words, and insight on this chapter of my life.  Will report back in 2 weeks so keep up the fight…and
never, never, never……give up………Winston Churchill

Doc Ross

So 2 weeks and counting until my trip..

I will be hiking the Bright Angel trail so if anyone has done this I would appreciate intel.  By then I will be 10.5 weeks post surgery.  Rehab has been going well, swimming, biking, treadmill along with PT.  Actually seeing some definition in my calf, no swelling, occasional heel soreness.  Only problem is stamina, get very tired after a day at the office.  Would appreciate any info from the veterans/front runners as to how they felt endurance wise at the end of 10-11 weeks.

Below I found Bright Angel trail facts.  Luckily all down hill with an average 14% grade.  Wonder if they’ll let me bring my mountain bike.  Not sure how long they want to take to get to the river, cause I know I’ll be slow.  Hopefully I can hitch a ride on a donkey if not my buddys are carrying my 6 ft 200# butt.

http://grandcanyonhiker.com/cgi-bin/trail/trails.cgi

Thanks for everyones support.

We are……………one day closer to the end

 Doc Ross