The saga continues

Without family in the area I was concerned about the logistics of having surgery, but luckily I have some amazing friends that helped me immensely. My friend Chris from Full Cycle now lives in Vail, wooing restaurant patrons with his extensive knowledge of fine wines as the house sommelier. I asked if he knew of any cheap places to stay or off-season deals and instead he offered his couch or airbed. I was stoked, but when I told the doctor’s assistant I was staying on an airbed she literally laughed at me. Chris then offered his room, which was amazingly gracious.

My friend Tara is one of those people who doesn’t seem to be acquainted with the word “no.” She’s always down to go camping, skiing, clubbing, road tripping – if there’s room in the schedule she’ll probably say yes. If I had known how tight her schedule was, or how much help I was going to need, I probably would have asked at least one other person but as it was she flew back from Arkansas Tuesday afternoon and drove to Vail. She took care of me until Friday night, packed Saturday, and flew to Nicaragua early Sunday morning. I didn’t appreciate how worthless I’d be after the surgery and without her I wouldn’t have been able to get into bed, much less out of it. She kept track of my meds, drove me around, and was helpful in every way imaginable.

By Saturday I was starting to feel a bit down. It’s hard to go from being fairly athletic and independent to not being able to walk, and I was getting frustrated. I went in for my last full day of physical therapy and got a call from my friend Steph. She and her crazy Swedish friend Malin were driving to Aspen and wanted to stop by to say hi. They showed up with brownies and breakfast sandwiches, demanding tours of the hospital, stealing my crutches, and generally causing a ruckus. It was awesome – energy and comic relief is just what I needed and they delivered perfectly.

Towards the end of my second PT session of the day Zac stopped by on his way up to the mountains too. He’s a bit of a celebrity around the clinic after having hip and shoulder surgery within a couple months this winter and referring me, so he said hi to people while I iced my hip. It was so awesome to kick it with friends just when I was starting to feel frustrated and they really brightened my day.

  Taking over Chris' room