Anna was in a bike accident 5 weeks ago in Aqua Dulce and broke her right wrist and had abdominal pain that was not correctly diagnosed. The doctors thought initially it was internal bleeding that would be re-absorbed by her body and should get better within two weeks. After 4 weeks she was still having a lot of discomfort so we stopped to see a general practitioner who guessed it was more likely torn muscles that hold the rib cage together and that it would take 6 to 8 weeks to heal. So we went back out accepting that there would be another couple weeks of discomfort.
On Saturday afternoon, she sneezed hard and a wave of pain hit her which she delt with the rest of the day and soreness into Sunday morning. After eating a big lunch on Sunday and having drank quite a bit of water she got up from lunch and the pain was overwhelming.
Anna passed out and went into shock out on the trail from the pain of what we found out was two re-broken ribs. I stabilized her and waited for a few other hikers to come along (who happened to be Monologue, present at Anna's initial injury, and a friend from college, Caitlin trail name Root Canal, who I hadn't seen since graduation and had been in my wilderness first responder training group, along with a friend of hers hiking a section with her). Together we carried Anna's gear out while she walked out under her own power about 5 miles down to the nearest trailhead.
Thankfully Caitlin knew someone in the area who was able to pick us up and drive us into Truckee to go to the ER. Huge thanks to Monologue, Caitlin, Levi and Nick for all their help and sacrifices.
It was the Truckee Forest Hospital staff who saw the broken ribs and the indications that they were previously broken. Having passed out around 1:00 and getting to the hospital around 8:00 we were out by midnight after a long afternoon.
The doctors pointed out that backpacking, especially at altitude, isn't a good way to let her ribs heal (which is obvious now after being re-broken by a simple sneeze 5 weeks later).
The silver lining to the whole ordeal was being able to spend an evening in Truckee with Michelle, a really nice section hiker and trail angel who we met in Aqua Dulce after Anna's initial bike accident. She treated us very well with an organic dinner and comfortable place to sleep and let us know more about she and her husband.
So, we are now on an Amtrak train in Colorado on our way to her parents in Virginia. Anna is going to heal up and I will probably find a couple smaller hikes or bike rides to occupy myself with around the Northeast.
It is a pretty big bummer to be missing out on yet another thru-hike, but we will try to make the most of it. The PCT will be there next year... who knows maybe we will be back out there.
I am going to keep posting to this blog trip reports of whatever I end up doing with the rest of the summer. So don't stop checking in.
Anyway, back to rafter spotting along the Colorado River.
3 comments:
I wish things could have worked out for you both, to allow you to finish the '09 PCT adventure, just as you had planned. Unfortunately, however, in God's plan, one which we don't always understand at the time, it wasn't meant to be..., please try to be at peace with it all and trust and enjoy each day. love you!
So sorry to hear about this. No fun. Get better, I will see you guys again.
Heaps.
Good grief. I'm just reading this in August. I didn't realize all the grief and pain you have been through. I knew it must have been hard, but now I see it was really rough!
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