Gone In A Flash
What Happened To Me And WhyYou Should Treasure Your Health And Fitness.
As I get older, each ski season is more precious than the one before. I’m pushing 60+ years of skiing, and early in my life, I learned never to take one for granted. Except for being deployed overseas during Vietnam and Desert Shield and Storm, I haven’t missed a ski season in decades.
There is a rhythm to my ski year. After the ski season, I change my conditioning routine and start ramping back up after Labor Day up so that by December, I’m ready to ski my usual 25,000+ vertical feet. Yes, at my age I’m bragging!
On August 23rd, my routine changed thanks to a bacterial infection in my right elbow. During the bursectomy, the surgeon found an infected ulna bone, tendons and muscles in my forearm. Aaaaaaarrrrggggghhhh!
Samples were sent to a lab to grow cultures and find out what the bug was. Over the next four weeks, the four drains were slowly removed. Exercise was not possible because dirt in the sweat could lead to a staph or other type infection, and I had very limited use of my right arm.
Eleven weeks later, the culture and susceptibility tests told the doctors that the infection was a hard to kill avian acid fast bacilli. It takes a combination of three powerful antibiotics taken daily over eight to 12 months to kill it. It gets worse because this is one of the bug that often develops immunity to antibiotics so sometimes in the middle of the treatment, one has to start over.
As luck would have it, I had an allergic reaction to the antibiotic that was the most effective against the avian bacilli that sent me to the emergency room having difficulty breathing, a 102 degree fever, rashes and hives all over my body. I was off everything other than steroids and antihistamines to get my system back to normal.
The bug and the toll the antibiotics were taking on my body sapped my stamina. I’d work on a book for four to five hours in the morning and after lunch, I was exhausted and it was nap time. By nine at night, I was ready for bed!
Exercise, you have to be kidding! Go skiing? No way.
So now in early December, two MRIs and two sets of x-rays later, I’ve started walking again and am up to about four miles every day. By the time this is published, hopefully I’d daily sessions on an elliptical or a stationary bike.
Next major checkpoint is another MRI and x-rays in early January to see if my ulna bone is continuing to heal. Blood work every other week gives an indication the drugs are working. My goal is to ski late in late March but its 50-50.
The point of this piece is simple. Don’t take any ski season for granted. Each season, each trip, each run is precious, and they could be taken away from you in a flash. Just ask!
