Accidents Happen

As a mother of two (extremely) active boys we have had our fair share of scrapes, cuts and bruises back in Sydney. Living in the mountains and skiing and snowboarding for 3 months it was always going to be miraculous to escape a few knocks and accidents. January was accident free, February had its' challenges….

I have posted a few photos of the boys on the slopes but in facebook fashion it has not really been true to some of the things we have been through. I promised to keep the blogs honest and so seems timely to provide an update. Dexter was the first one in the family to visit the medical centre in the village – and he arrived there in style on the back of a skidoo following a crash in his lesson resulting in a sore knee. Thankfully we knew it wasn’t too serious as he was smiling for a photo the moment we saw him and he loved showing us the hot water bottle that was hidden in his jacket. After he was checked over we (aka Tim) carried him to lunch. Amazingly (!) after lunch he made it outside (running) to check on ice sculptures building built and by the afternoon he wanted to go back out on the snow and was on his snowboard. Crisis averted....

Then there's Archie. Archie has been to the medical centre the most in the family, firstly for a bump to the head. We were ice skating (badly) on the frozen pond, massive parenting fail from mummy as I didn’t put their helmets on them. Why? I have no idea – I don’t let them on their skateboard, bikes, skis or boards without a helmet. Ever. It wasn’t a bad fall but the way he caught the corner of his eye caused an instant egghead which meant a trip to the medical centre – all was fine, we have watched it change colour from purple, to blue, to green, to yellow over the last week and now it's almost gone. By the time of his second trip, this week – mowed down by a boarder whilst in his boarding lesson we were becoming on first name terms with the amazing people that work there and knew what paperwork we needed to complete. Again thankfully all was ok with his foot and he was out skiing the following day.

The accident that has caused the most challenge and heartache happened on a Saturday when the boys were in their lesson and Tim and I went to the backside of the mountain for a few hours without the crazies. What a morning we had, the best skiing of the holiday. On the last run before we had to pick up the boys, (why is it always the ‘last run’?) both Tim and I ‘came a cropper’, I was skiing too fast from a black to the cat track at the bottom of the run, went to slow down but misjudged the distance, simply ran out of piste and fell backwards through some trees, I landed upside down a few metres down with my skis caught in a tree holding me from falling further. I could hear Tim calling my name, but knew I was stuck. A lovely guy from Germany stopped, climbed down and managed to unhooked me and somehow we climbed our way back up the bank. Amazing guy, huge thanks.

Tim hadn’t been so lucky, after watching me disappear off the side of the mountain in horror, he caught a ski which then catapulted him straight into the flat cat track at about 60km an hour. He said "I think I have pulled something in my shoulder". We got our skis back on, thanked god we both wear helmets, but got on our way as we had to pick up the boys in about 5 min and had to get back to the front side of the mountain. Tim was able to ski to the lift and gently to the medical centre to get checked out. The guys there said we should go to emergency to have an x-ray but the movement looked good, and whilst there was some pain Tim said it wasn’t too severe. We managed to borrow our friends’ car and drove down to Vernon in the afternoon.

The wait at the hospital wasn’t too bad, however we were not prepared for the results of the x-ray – Tim’s collarbone was snapped in two, a clean break. We were in shock and the reality of what that meant took a while to sink in. With painkillers and a sling we headed home.

For those who have broken their collarbone or know someone that has you will know that the only way to fix it is a) surgery b) hold it still until it heals. The type of break meant surgery wasn’t necessary (this was confirmed by the doctor the following week who said it will heal and rejoin 100%). It is also extremely painful. After the adrenaline had gone from the accident the pain increased, Tim had to sit in bed, surrounded by cushions trying not to move his arm.

Then along comes Dr Google – wow there is a lot on the interweb about healing / not healing collarbones. Combined with the emotions of disappointment, sadness, frustration, annoyance, feeling stupid about the accident, as we realized that it would be a long time before Tim would be skiing with us and chances of him getting back on the board were slim. Tim in his usual positivity focused on healing – working through best diet options, how to rest, meditation, endless ancient history he could watch in preparation for central/south America and learning Spanish. It was broken, nothing we could do to change it.

Whilst Tim is the one with the broken bone it has impacted all of us, me more than I thought, primarily because our team of two was down to one and I have never had to manage the full load on my own. I’m in awe of all my sole parent friends and those who take the primary role in the home – it’s friggin hard. I have also missed my network of friends, if this had happened in Sydney there would have been a whole bunch of help (I really miss you all).

So in true blog fashion what did we (ok I) learn, Tim will post his more detailed blog of journey through this in coming weeks…. but for now here's my thoughts:

· You can’t rush the making of a new bone – but you can help it along with good diet, sleep, no sudden movements and having patience

· It’s only a broken bone that can be fixed and not anything more sinister

· We are all still together living in one of the most beautiful places in the world

· It is not as much fun skiing with ¾ of team Francis as the whole team

· We are not working, we are together and so can look after each other

· Doing all the domestic chores on your own sucks bigtime

· We all need meditation – we need to find the time not just when trapped on a bed - all 4 of us!

· New friends and neighbours are awesome – Dani for lending us her car so many times to be able to head down the mountain and Christina (our neighbour) for having the boys over to give us a break and also helping me move apartments – which also happened in the middle of all this

· There will be good days and bad days – for everyone, just need to try and get through them without too much shouting (or crying)

And then the Cavalry arrived – Noona and Pape, here for the rest of the season. The boys were so pleased to see them – they are seriously over all the mum and dad 1:1 time…. We have 6 weeks left here and all will have plenty of skiing, boarding, tubing fun for everyone with no more visits to the medical centre (touch wood)