"C" Ankle Photo's

The Leg Journal

Quality Packaging.   Good PMS.  Leg elevated.  

Slightly swollen, "C"ankle is a bit off center

Clearly fractured Tibia and Fibula (Pilon Fracture)

Cankle after days of wrap

Daily Photo of BWCA Trip

Day by Day

Wednesday June 18 - Heading Up to Ely

Thursday June 19th   Heading in on #14

Friday, June 20th, View of a section of the 310 rod portage

Saturday, June 21, Nina Moose River Flowing North

Sunday, July 22 Tria Orthorpedics, Bloomington MN

100 Hours into this leg break and I am still thinking it is all a bad dream....but reality is setting in.   On the bright side.....I am finally "taking it easy" which is something my wife is always telling me to do.   Another bright side is I get to see how good our friends really are.   Even my son's friends (keep in mind these guys are 18 on summer break.......I am fairly certain I was not driving around wishing my parents friends get well cards and bringing them cake) are stepping up and bringing small gifts and thoughtful signs.

• I get to work from home - a new discipline that is actually working.
• I am home during some of the best events (World-cup Soccer, Wimbledon and soon Tour de France)
• I get to spend more time with my lovely wife (which i hope she continues to appreciate)
• I get to build up my upper body (
• I get to grow out a beard.  No Fire duty no shaving requirements 
• I get to write these 'thought-provoking' blogs

I'll work on the things I can't do next.

BWCA Trip 2014

This trip has been in the planning stages since 8 family's all joined together for a Spring Break cruise in celebration of (the parents making it through) kids graduating high school.  Four graduated seniors...Four dads.

Not many entry points available so we landed on #14 (Little Sioux river) for June 19 (Smack dab in the middle of graduation parties)!

Planning:  Every time  I have gone into the BWCA I end up returning with extra food and clothes.  One of the objectives is to pack as light as possible (including both food, gear and clothing).  We usually shop for 2-4 people so this was the first time we shopped for 8.

A new discovery - Dried Chili-Serves 8.   We purchased 2 and that fed all 8 of us.  Just add some tomato paste and extra seasoning (or fresh vegi's).

We left MPLS on Wednesday, June 18 at 5:30....making sure we hit the pinnacle of rush hour.   Note the hand crafted wooden canoe making its second trip into the BWCA.  After a few hours we decided hit Sammy's (Pizza) in Cloquet and then our final pit stop at the steakhouse/bar in downtown Ely for some Jagermiester and our last cold beer for a few days.   Then we finally reached our outfitter on Big Lake who I would highly recommend.  Very flexible, accommodating and centrally located to all entry points on the Echo Trail.

With two trucks and four canoes we were fortunate enough to enter on #14 and leave a car at #16 entry.  This gave us the option of doing a one-way loop or round trip.
Weather forecast for Ely was 40%-70% for "Thunderstorms"; Bug Forecast rumors included black fly's so thick it prevented fisherman from going on shore to so aggressive they have forced loons out of their nests.  Needless to say that was the biggest concern for me and the group and the biggest reason I avoid the BWCA in June and July.  Not sure if it was the prep, the timing or the expectations but the black flies and ticks were barely out....mosquito's......this is MN.

Entry was Little Sioux with a 40 Rod Portage to the Little Indian Sioux river.  We were fortunate enough to have a strong wind out of the South plus the flow in our favor.   Going into Upper Pauness, Lower Pauness,a 260 rod portage into  Shell, Little then on to the onto the only site on Little Shell.   Our long portage into Shell was a first for me.  During the middle of portage the path was so wet we literally had to canoe a portion of the portage!

Another first for me happened on this leg...again with a portage.  But this time my son and I felt a bit over confident and decided to shoot a short stretch of rapids versus the 10 rod portage.  Well....we made the first drop and then caught the edge of a rock and we rolled.  Canoe, Two Dry Bags, Two Day Bags, fishing poles and all.  We had everything sealed to what we thought was water tight so after a quick inspection and bailing of the canoe we were ready to go.  But my son noticed one thing.....actually a few things.  We were missing our fishing poles (2), his wool Kuhn Sweater, Map and Rope.    Thank god the other experienced BWCA individual purchased an alternate/back up map. And about a 1/2 mile down the river we recovered the rope.  So the rest of the trip we were down two fishing poles and nice wool sweater.

Good Camp Site.  Plenty of room for four tents.   We cooked 6lbs of hamburgers, cheese with bacon mashed potatoes.  Not to forget we also dined on a small Walleye and returned a few Small Mouth bass.  Weather.....overcast all day and some good thunderstorms over night.  Woke to wet grounds and hungry mosquito's

Day two started with a portage that was so flooded we were able to canoe through it which led to Lynx, Hustler and finally Oyster.  This day included a 290 and 310 rod portage.....which definitely took its toll on the group.  Oyster Lake produce a few Small Mouth bass.  We luckily caught a few more walleye in the previous lake so we were able to dine on Fish Soup/Stew with noodles.    Once again....Major thunderstorm at night.  Wet morning with aggressive mosquito's

Day 3 - Again, Thunderstorms at night.   Luckily the wind died down which allowed us to cross Oyster Lake with relative ease.   However, something happened to the handmade wooden canoe and Dean and his son ended up rolling their canoe on the edge of the portage.  Nothing lost.  A long day of meandering rivers, pulling a few northerns from Nina Moose River, we spent the afternoon at  a wonderful camp sight on Lake Agnes that had some stone chairs and tables.   After lunch and a lot of fishing we pushed on to our final night on Nina Moose.

By far the best day .  Great scenery, good fishing (Walleye and Smallies).  We ended up cooking all the remaining food which included mashed potatoes, fresh fish and noodles.  The first time we came home with absolutely no food.

The final day out on Sunday turned out for me to be one of the worst days of life to date.   I won't go into details since I already did that here.

The prognoses.......

Thought I would re-engage this blog to occupy the next 3-6 months.....as I recoup.   Just completed a wonderful trip to the BWCA with my recently high school graduated son and three of his graduating friends and their dads.

I'll post a trip specific blog shortly but we spent four nights/five days in the BWCA where we canoed over 30 miles and portaged 5 combined miles.   On the last day and only a mile from 'civilization' I managed to put myself in one of those rare situations that could go horribly wrong - or with the right people, be able to sit back and write about.

During the last leg of a short portage I was carrying the canoe (45lbs), Duluth Pack (50lbs?) and day pack (5lbs?).   I stepped onto a large rock (normal for the BWCA) but slipped off and with the weight of the gear and 2' fall managed to break my leg in two place (a Pilon fracture).    As I was falling I saw the lower part of my leg bow in an unnatural fashion outward, as the canoe and gear fell ontop of me.  I think the sound of the bone snapping was covered by the canoe and gear hitting the rocks (and my horrible screams).

After a minute of adrenaline pumping screams i was able to calm myself down.  Thanks to my son and good friend they immediately went to splinting my leg using tree branches, sweatshirt and electrical tape.

Not knowing the specific's (but i was 99% sure it fractured). They loaded me into the canoe and we moved on.  We only had a short paddle up creak to reach the next portage which was less than 10 rods.  I was able to hop and use the canoe paddles as crutches.

The next paddling section was less than 200 yrds before we reached the final portage of 160 Rods, uphill and through mud.    Once again, my group fashioned a portable chair using two wooden canoe paddles and some rope (Thrashing).    We were able to go 20 yds then i would hop 20 yds and then they would carry me again.  It was going well until one of the paddles broke.  That sent another blood curtailing scream through woods as my 'bad' leg instinctively tried to catch the fall.  After a short recoup we just made our way, should on shoulder until we reached 'civilization' (the car).

My next decision was whether to get treated at the Ely Hospital (after making a quick stop at the DQ for a bacon cheese burger, Smore Blizzard and some fries (remember, we had been living on filtered lake water, noodles and fish).   Keeping a close eye on my toes (see photo above) I was able to determine I was maintaining good per-fusion, mobility and sensation (PMS) so the decision was made to keep driving towards the "Cities" (Mpls/St.Paul)

In route the pain was surprisingly manageable.  Not sure if was shock but the last blood curtailing scream came about 4hrs into the drive when my right calf cramped into a rock solid softball - anyone who knows about cramping calf's is the first reaction is to flex the ankle/foot to counteract......wrong move on a potentially fractured leg.    Between my screams to "Stop" the calf from cramping and the NO - Keep driving to the driver it took me a few minutes to recover from this episode....which happened two more time in the ride.

6 hours later we finally arrived at Tria Orthopedics.  After careful consideration I decided to go to the place that specializes in athlete injury's versus the 'general' hospital (Methodist) where I would be competing for attention with people suffering from illness, colds and other maladies.

At Tria I was seen right away and there were kudo's on the quality of the splinting.   The leg definitely had a deformity and the foot is a bit askew.

So the prognoses....Not Good.   CSCAN today.
Meet with Surgeon on Thursday.  Surgery in 7-10 days.  No driving, No Fire Department, No running, No Cycling, No Walking,  No water skiing,  etc......... for a while.  

I am told that I have one of the 'worlds foremost expert' on this type of surgery.

So, for now I am set up in my 'home-office' with leg elevated, laptop on lap, phone in hand and a loving family to help me get around.......plus a good mix of pain medications.

High Rise Training

I kick off the new three weeks of high rise training. This was a new topic for me as we have had minimal high rise training in our department. If using the "international building" code definition of 75' occupied floor above the lowest apparatus level Eden Prairie has gone from 1 to now 4 buildings. But for our purposes we are focusing on any multi-story structure containing standpipes. Key Message - Support FDC; Quick attack (w/back up); communication and PPV.

October

Month one complete for duty crews. It was a interesting first month as we look to improve our response and time management for many fire fighters. For me personally, I think I ended up spending significantly more time “working” in the duty crew model. Now that we are tracking hours I know I recorded 104 hours plus another dozen or so of unlogged hours. I love it but I do have maintain a balance which is really the toughest part of being an officer (lead by example)..but when it is something you love doing it makes it much easier. I started the month with a plane crash and ended the month with a house fire. In between there were only a handful of calls. Plane Crash Cardiac Mutual Aid House Fire House Fire And a number of false alarms.