First post:
Apr 17, 2019 Latest post:
Sep 24, 2019
Hello, friends and family. I decided to set up this website because the task of informing and updating my "universe" is tiring, and this becomes an easy way to give you an update. I am a lucky person to have so many friends, colleagues and family members who are reaching out as I get used to my my new, hopefully temporary, disabled status. I am incredibly lucky in that I am not seriously ill, but I do have a difficult body injury with an uncertain prognosis.
For more than 30 years I have had the privilege of coming to Colorado to ski, most recently thanks to Ray's move to Leadville, 30 minutes from our favorite area, Copper Mountain. On Monday April 8, Larry and I were taking one last run, enthralled with the great spring conditions and winding up our day, when I took a terrible fall (not a collision). I broke my leg in two places, but the serious break was a splintering of my tibial plateau, which is the broad, flatter area of the upper shin bone upon which one's knee rests and interacts. Orthopaedists define six levels of injury to the plateau, with six being the worst, the hardest to fix and the one with the worst prognosis for recovery. I'm a level six. It's an injury seen mainly among motorcycle riders and skiers. My skiing days are over. I will need one or maybe several surgeries. My goal is to walk pain free in the future. Yikes!
But back to the lucky part: I am receiving medical care in orthopaedic heaven. The St. Anthony/Summit County Medical Center is a 27-bed hospital that receives all the ski injuries from Breckenridge, A-Basin, Keystone and Copper. They do 1000 broken legs a year! And my surgeon, Dr. Bowles, is the tibial plateau master. I had surgery Monday night to stabilize the leg, and face the big surgical repair in two weeks ("Open Reduction and Internal Fixation of Tibial Plateau Fractures."). I'm getting lots of metal, and some sort of polymer that becomes "bone" over the year ahead to recreate the plateau. Amazing! The entire staff at the medical center was terrific - young, peppy, fit - with a "can-do" attitude. The hospital was only half full (ski season is almost over) and I got lots of personalized attention. They weren't in a rush to get me out of my room to make way for the next patient. What a difference from New York!!
I will stay in Leadville at Ray's for at least the two week following the big surgery, so I'm here for another month. Hence this website- most of my life is on the East Coast and far away! I hope to be back in Brooklyn by mid-May. Larry left here yesterday. It is very hard for him to not be here with me. I'll try to update this site every few days. You can always email me at my personal address, or leave a comment on this site if you register (they won't hound you but will occasionally ask for donations to run this free service). I'm shockingly busy - each life maintenance task takes way too long - so I may not be able to reply. . Ray's address is 406 West 3rd Street, Leadville, CO 80461. (He is moving to New Hampshire in early June, so I'll have to be home by then!)
More on the lucky front: Ray is organizing my life as I hold forth from his living room sofa, and Dave flies out from Oakland for a week when Ray goes on expedition with his students next week. How could someone ever do this on their own? Larry is handling our complicated home life (construction beginning soon on our new apartment!)
