Interim – Experiments in Physics – Part 2

4-24 August – Salida, Colorado

Imagine you’ve been escorted into a wooden convertible and placed over the lip of a near vertical, polished concrete ramp that is 25 times taller than you. You are restrained with only a bungee cord across your lap. You are looking pretty much straight down and someone is about to release you. You’ve been assured that crash test dummies have already tested out your vehicle, but photos of this do not give you confidence.  

You and your ride are full of stored, unused potential energy that is about to become kinetic energy. Gravity is about to take over and make you accelerate. What is going to keep you in the car? What forces of physics will ensure your safety… or not?  You’ve got no rollercoaster style harness. You’ve got no rails to guide you or to keep you in a straight line. 

Would it feel a bit like going for a ride on this waterslide?

Or maybe not… that one was the steepest waterslide in world when built in 2014, but was demolished in 2018 after multiple people were injured and a child killed.  So maybe not that one, maybe a vertical drop rollercoaster….

But would you be game?

This is the decision facing Verne and Kermit.  

My dad has spent many months designing and building skate wheel racers – racey wooden cars built on a roller skate chassis. He got the idea last year after we took Verne and Kermit to the skatepark to test out a car my dad had made for Kermit. See here: 

So my dad has spent many, many hours working on these cars with the designs and builds coming straight out of his very creative head.

When my brother went out to visit in May, they tested out a couple of the vehicles. It was these test runs that my Dad assured Verne had verified the vehicles’ safety…. 

So here we are with my guys and a couple of Ernies and a teddy bear to give all of the cars my dad has built a run. Verne and Kermit ride together in the “Atlas Flyer” – named after my mtn bike and built to look like the little Radio Flyer wagon I screamed down the driveway in as a little kid. My dad has even done really cool graphics for it. 

I slide down into the bowl to be the car chaser. I video the runs, collect the cars and then run them back up to my dad. 

There are a bunch of hilarious runs. They’re a bit unpredictable in which way they run – the wheels aren’t necessarily straight. And the skate wheel chassis means they have a high centre of gravity and are a bit tippy. My dad’s engineering brain is already thinking about how he can modify them so that they will ride lower to the ground for our next visit. 

We’re having lots of fun. 

I find that I can run the cars back up to the highest point of the ramp, and then my dad doesn’t have to bend over or crouch down to get them from the lower concrete. He’s not as steady on his feet these days.

Then, as I’m running a couple cars back up to him for the umpteenth time…. I slip on that near vertical, polished concrete. Gravity takes over and I slam down HARD… directly on my right shoulder, directly on the end of the railing where it meets the concrete. Physics… yes, just a bit.

It’s a very loud thump and my dad cringes and says something I don’t register. I bounce back up quickly because I’m still nearly in a standing position. But, oh my god, the pain is absolutely excruciating. I’m stunned for a moment, in that way that you are, when you’ve taken a very hard hit. But I immediately know I’ve done something very, very bad. The pain is off the charts and my arm is pretty much immediately unusable. 

I stand back up and my dad asks if I’m okay. I say, ‘yeah, I hurt my shoulder’, but carry on. I don’t want to ruin the fun.  So we do some more funny runs, but I am in agony. The pain is beyond severe. I cannot lift the arm and bend my elbow to steady my phone to take video. I try, but it is excruciating, and my arm is shaking anyway. 

We do four or five more runs, then some real skateboarders show up, so we pack up to leave to let them have the space. I tell my Dad it would probably be best to go home and get some ice on my shoulder anyway, because it’s pretty painful. (It’s actually some of the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life… but no need to be alarmist!).  

As we are driving home, I poke and prod to try to figure out just what part is hurting – cause my entire shoulder and upper arm feel like someone’s taken a sledgehammer to them and I’m not sure of the pain source. I do find a spot just near the dent of the coracoid process that, when touched, is like someone sticking a sharp sword in there and twisting it – some of the sharpest and stabbiest pain I’ve ever felt. 

We get home. My dad goes to finish off his prep so he can grill some meat and veg for lunch. I retreat to the bedroom to lie on the bed. That way gravity (you bastard!) can help to hold the ice pack on my shoulder rather than sitting up and me having to hold it in place. 

The pain is pretty unbearable. I’m so angry. The gravity of the situation really hits. 

I’m not going to be able to do the 5-day backpack trip I trained so hard for over the past six months. Even worse, I may have fucked my shoulder up so much that I’ll need to cut my trip short and fly home for treatment (medical care is so dear in America, Oz travel insurance companies will often pay to change your flight and fly you home ASAP once you are stable, rather then pay for any surgery/hospital fees in the US).  

I won’t lie. I cry tears of anger and frustration. I’ve really fucked this trip up now with something incredibly innocuous and a movement I had done over and over. Just one slip… and here I am lying on the bed with lots of really horrible thoughts. This also takes out any chance of bike touring when I return to Oz – I can tell this recovery is going to be a long one. I don’t know what I’ve done to myself, but I know it’s bad. 

My mom comes home. She finds me some naproxen sodium. My parents eat their grilled lunch, and then afterward, I say it would be best if we go to the emergency department. 

Now, please realise, I have a very high tolerance for pain.  

Remember that I bike toured right up to 4 weeks prior to emergency gallbladder surgery when they found it was at imminent risk of rupture and so inflamed it was well and truly attached to my small intestine. This was when I was puking up most of what I ate and puked if I sneezed or breathed too deep. On those rides, I would just stop and lay down for a bit until the pain subsided, and then ride some more. 

Most people go to the emergency dept with their first gallbladder attack because the pain is so severe. But I endured 3 years of gallbladder attacks. I just thought the super severe back pain was part of the Bartonella bacteria I was fighting, since I had such severe leg and hip pain with that. I just figured the back pain (referred from the gallbladder) was related to the Bartonella and was something else to put up with.

And remember I rode through the entire ‘freezing’ stage of frozen shoulder where the pain is excruciating when you move it beyond its adhesive preferences. I still rode when I could not reach the handlebars (I just kept my hand down on the top tube) and could not sleep much in the tent, since you really need pillows surrounding you to keep you propped in a somewhat comfortable position to be able to sleep when you are in the ‘freezing’ stage of frozen shoulder.

So I’m not a pain weenie at all. 

But we need to go to the emergency room. These situations are why you pay for exorbitant travel insurance for trips to America. 

The only problem is that I need to call the travel insurance company to let them know I’m going and to see what else I need to do to satisfy their requirements. But, crap, my parent’s internet is out. I rely on wifi to make skpe phone calls in America, because I don’t make enough calls to justify buying a SIM card, and my international roaming rates are like $1 per minute. I have a prepaid plan – so I could run out of minutes in the middle of a call. And it would appear that reverse calls are a thing of the past. 

So, on the way to the emergency room, we have to stop at the library so I can ring the travel insurance company. Of course, there is a big sign saying you are not allowed to make phone calls in the library, and the wifi is too weak to make a call out the front. So we have to go in, plead our case and get a little conference room to make the call. The insurance person is speaking English in an accent that is very hard to understand, but I do get the go-ahead to get treatment. 

So off we go. It’s quiet in the ED and I get taken to a room pretty quickly. (We just beat the rush, apparently).

They take 3 x-rays, we wait awhile for the doctor, and then he comes in and says nothing’s broken. He moves my arm around in a whole bunch of very painful ways but doesn’t ask my pain levels when doing so. I grunt that out. He says I might have a minor tear in the shoulder.

(**Physio on return to Oz says two severe tears – in subscapularis and supraspinatus tendons – currently waiting on an ultrasound to ensure neither is a complete tear. Also significant bruising to upper bicep muscle bed.**)

He says I should see significant improvement in 7-10 days. If not, I should see my primary care physician for an MRI and start in on physiotherapy. He says they’ll give me a sling and I can use that as needed for a week or so. He doesn’t seem too concerned.

My mom says she saw my face when he was moving my arm and knows I’m in significant pain. Based on my pain, I’m skeptical, but hopeful, that things will be better in a week.

And then we wait another hour in the room for them to produce a CD of the x-ray images. (That cost me $20 USD and is useless because no one has the tech to view a CD image anymore!).  The total bill comes to $1740 USD ($2635 AUD).

We go home. My poor dad has been pacing the house for the two hours we’ve been away. He is relieved that I am okay. 

For the first few days, I cannot use my right arm at all. It drives me absolutely crazy not to be able to raise my arm to put my hair back in a pony tail. I get toothpaste down to about my elbow the first time or two I use my left hand to brush my teeth. But luckily I can lean over in an upside down u-shape and dangle my arms to get my bra and shirt on and off. 

I use the sling for two days. Then I ditch it. I’m paranoid about it being immobile too long and developing frozen shoulder. That is two years of hell I do not need!

I’m in pretty tremendous pain that first week.

BUT… I am never one to give up. I am never one to dwell on bad things. My friend Mike, when he first met me at age 16, planted the seeds of resilience. He said something like: ‘horrible things happen. You have to grieve, get angry, get sad and allow yourself some time to acknowledge that the crap has happened. Then you draw a box around it and move forward. You say, is there anything I can do to fix/change this situation? If yes, then do that. If no, figure out what’s next. Never ever be a victim. Move forward.’  

And that is how I have approached life. I am always moving forward and figuring out ways to salvage a shit situation. I am always making goals and readjusting as required. I never dwell on the shit. 

So about 10 days after the fall, I have NOT seen significant improvement and the pain is constant, but I can brush my teeth, wipe my ass and put my hair up in a pony tail using my right arm (with pain, but do-able).

So I decide that there must be some way to salvage part of my backpacking trip. Maybe I can do a long day hike out to the Wheeler Geologic Area that was going to be a focus of one of the five backpacking days. It would be a 15-mile hike, but it might be do-able, because my arm doesn’t hurt, other than the constant stabby pain, when I keep it close to my side.

So the folks and I go for a hike in the trail system above Salida as a test. They hike out a couple miles with me before turning back. I keep going and do the 10 miles into town. I have one pole with me (my right arm doesn’t extend far enough to hold a pole), lunch, 2 litres of water and my raincoat in my pack. I would feel confident that I could do a 15-mile hike if this hike turns out okay with this amount of weight and the rock-hopping required on these trails.

The hike goes very, very well.  Yes, the shoulder is stabby and hurts. But not too much worse. I find I can do the downhill steep bits by pulling my arm right into my side before I run down them (if I let it flail out for balance the pain is bad enough to see stars – so don’t do that!). I can do rock steps slowly, using the pole in my left hand for balance, and my right arm tucked in tight. 

It goes so well, the next day, I go for another 10-mile hike on the trail system. I’m very confident I can do a 15-mile hike. Ouchy. But do-able. Always move forward. 

Over the next couple weeks, the guys get in a lot of floats, and we enjoy Salida. It’s a very cool, outdoorsy playground for rich, white people these days. But the extensive mtn bike trail system, the immediate river access, and the town’s proximity to tall mountains and millions of miles of trails make it a fun place to be. It also sits on the Great Divide Trail, the Western Express route and is a resupply town for the Continental Divide and Colorado Trails. 

After the two successful back-to-back 10 mile hikes, I start to think: Well, maybe, I could do that 15 mile hike to Wheeler as an overnight hike.  I brought all of my camping gear over, it would be a shame not to use it again. And I so, so want some more mountain time. 

I hatch a plan. I do some research. I present the plan to my parents, and they are supportive (if not a bit concerned).  The plan: we go down to South Fork and stay there. We go do the rail bike thing my folks have always wanted to do one morning, then take a short hike in the afternoon. Then, the next day, they drive me up to the Wheeler trailhead, hike with me for a little bit, then I take off to do the overnight hike.  They can then head over to Creede or do whatever it is they want to do the rest of the day, and then come back and pick me up the next morning.

And so that is what we do. 

After the rail bike and afternoon hike, am I ready for an overnight hike the following day?

The arm and shoulder still hurt a lot. All the time. But it is tolerable. Just. I can grip stuff in my right hand now. I can get the pack on and off if I set it somewhere I can sit down and wriggle my arms into the straps.

However, I can’t really move my arm too much in most planes of motion, and I’m not quite sure how I’m going to set up the tent with only one good arm, or get my sleeping bag back in its compression bag with one hand OR throw a rope over a tree limb with my left hand to hang a bear bag. 

But I’ll figure something out. I never ever give up. Always move forward.

So let’s go for an overnight hike!