I need to get back to something safe like climbing

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The Lisa

Trad climber
Da Bronx, NY
Aug 21, 2014 - 09:14am PT
Rich, I am glad it is only a flesh wound.
I won the Best Blood award in a trail race once but I think you would have me beat.
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
Aug 21, 2014 - 09:28am PT
good thing you only use your brain for your livelihood...
...I'm notorious for not getting these things checked out. Once I was T-boned by a police cruiser in Illinois, totaled the rental car I was in... fortunately the cruiser hit about 3' in front of the passenger door. The cop wasn't wearing his seat belt, hit his head, and was convinced he had killed me.

He was out of his car in a flash and desperately yelling at me "are you all right?"

I was sitting in the wrecked car trying to determine whether or not all the warm liquid around me was from the Starbucks coffee I had recently purchased, or my blood. Turns out to have just been coffee. I replied, eventually, "I'm ok."

The ambulance got their quickly (the cop's boss was following him) and after they checked me out the recommended that I go to the hospital, a recommendation which I demurred.

The collision was a lot more violent then I had appreciated (of course) and though I had felt relatively fine that day, I was sore on my left side. I had attributed that to the seatbelt catching me, it was only later that I realized that the seatbelt would have mostly affected my right side.

Anyway, I woke up the next day very sore, but I woke up... so that was good.

It would have been prudent to have been checked out, even though it all ended up ok. I was a bit fuzzy headed (though attending MINOS collaboration meetings sometimes left me feeling that way) and probably suffering from a mild concussion due to the impulsive force of the collision.

With what is known about head injuries now, whacking my head hard enough in a fall to make it bleed would probably have me going to the hospital just to have another experienced person evaluate the injury. I'm not that experienced in head injuries, and head injuries by nature can effect one's ability to make a judgement...

rgold

Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 21, 2014 - 10:21am PT
I've had two concussions, one with momentary loss of consciousness and one without that was actually much more serious, so I think I know what they feel like, and I don't think I have one. I think the real worry is a slow-growing subdural hematoma, which could take as much as a week or two to produce symptoms.

Like Ed, I tend not to get things checked out until it is late in the game...I've scrupulously driven partners to the ER for stitches and then just slapped some butterfly closures on analogous wounds when I get them.

But you kind folks here, and of course my wife and friends, have been patiently explaining to me (and not for the first time) that I'm an idiot, so I've got an appointment this afternoon to get checked out.
rgold

Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 21, 2014 - 02:08pm PT
Ok, doc says all is well, suggests running in bubble wrap from now on. Thanks for your concern folks.
rgold

Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 21, 2014 - 02:24pm PT
No offense DMT, but if you had showed up instead of the super hot naked angels, I would have been seriously bummed.
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
Aug 21, 2014 - 02:49pm PT
angels can appear different from what they actually are... and DMT's imagination probably could have cooked up an awesome avatar with whom you've had gone off with gladly...


you might have been disappointed later... angels are angels for a reason, after all...
ladyscarlett

Trad climber
SF Bay Area, California
Aug 21, 2014 - 04:48pm PT
Heheheh!

I hear that angels are actually quite fiesty! ;)

Glad to hear you're doing just fine and still staying in shape for Red Rocks season...

When is that again? :)

Cheers!

LS
goatboy smellz

climber
लघिमा
Aug 21, 2014 - 04:59pm PT
Accidents tend to happen when we let our guard down. I can't recall how many times I let my guard down daydreaming only to be woken up in mid fall.
Good to know you are okay Rich.
Dingus McGee

Social climber
Laramie
Aug 21, 2014 - 05:35pm PT
Rgold,

Poles didn't help me this time.

I am of the impression that poles are generally a hindrance to self rescue(motion slow down) because they have too much inertia too move about as quickly as needed. You can get your hand in brace much quicker without poles.

Poles have their place in walking for stability because they add two limbs. If you want better stability while walking move only one of these 4 limbs at a time, Grandad.

Run without poles and you will have you hands ready for that mantle like brace that will save you face & teeth when you crash.

D
rgold

Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 21, 2014 - 07:16pm PT
Dingus, it is a mixed bag in my experience. I've stopped a lot of trips and ankle twists while running with poles, some of them would have been falls and others not, I don't know how to tell in retrospect. A fall like the one I just took---very rapid---you're right, I might have stopped myself from hitting my head if my hands were free (of course at the possible expense of a broken clavicle), but there was no hope of help from my poles.

To some extent it depends where the poles are when you trip. If they both happen to be behind you, then as you say you won't be able to get them forward in time. If one or both are forward, you can probably keep from falling. I had just gallumphed over a low log planting both poles, so they were both behind me when I daydreamed my way into the dry stream bed beyond.

It is also possible for the poles to cause you to trip. I executed an elegant pole-driven face plant a month or so ago. This is not easy to do and folks with less talent will have to put in considerable effort. You have to be using the wrist straps, and then you have to step on a pole basket, driving the pole into the ground and pinning it there. With your body plummeting heedlessly forward, the pole now firmly anchored to the ground, and your hand pinned in the strap, things can only go one way.

Being my ever-inventive self, I've found other ways to trip on poles while running, but enough for now.

I only started running with poles two years ago after my ACL surgery, at first because I really needed both the help and the stability to compensate for the weakness in my leg. But I got used to them. They help a bit running uphill, especially steep uphill, and make a big difference for me running downhill on very uneven ground with rocks and roots---typical NE terrain. I also kinda like the idea of having crutches with me when I blow it the next time...
phylp

Trad climber
Millbrae, CA
Aug 21, 2014 - 09:38pm PT
I'm glad you went to the doc and got the all clear. Head injuries are nothing to take chances with. So glad you are OK.
rgold

Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 21, 2014 - 09:53pm PT
Glad to hear you're doing just fine and still staying in shape for Red Rocks season...

Ah, Red Rocks. I dearly want to get back there for some more long routes before I completely decompose. My time for that is Spring Break, which is sometime in March. But I think this year my wife---who sensibly decided years ago that climbing was pretty damn nutty---and I are going to go on a nice little desert sight-seeing trip with the odd moderate hike thrown in (no running, thank you very much). So Red Rocks will have to wait for another year...
crusher

climber
Santa Monica, CA
Aug 23, 2014 - 08:28pm PT
Rich you do have a way with words! Glad you're ok and that you got checked out. Head wounds do bleed a lot but you never know if you knocked some screws loose inside....and don't we all have some loose screws?!!
rgold

Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
Topic Author's Reply - Aug 23, 2014 - 09:21pm PT
In my case so many screws are loose already that a few more here or there aren't going to be noticeable anyway.
HighDesertDJ

Trad climber
Aug 24, 2014 - 07:36am PT
Glad you're ok, rgold.

I have a friend who did the exact same thing but wound up with a good concussion. Bled all over her bathroom and didn't even remember driving herself to the ER (scary!). When she posted the scenario on Facebook all her friends wanted to know was "why on EARTH were you running alone without a gun!?!?!?"
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