MELs' Blog

…it was my first weekend since ages that I’ve not been on the mountain 😦 The reason: I’m still not able to ski… My knee is getting better and better from day to day but…

Instead of staying in Innsbruck and knowing that it’s gonna dump I decided to join Nici and go with her to Zürich. Her boyfriend and a good friend of mine is also injured at the moment – broken heel bone, 6 weeks in a plaster… Also not cool!!!

We drove there friday eve and woke up Saturday morning – 15 cm fresh pow in the city of Zürich, oh man, that’s tough!!! But knowing your not able to ski makes it a bit better;-)…

So shopping and chilling day in downtown Zürich, walking through the snow and having fun by taking silly pixxx ;-)…

So we had a very nice, relaxing weekend in Zürich and when we were driving to Austria again on monday morning I looked up the mountains and thought, how cool it would be being up there and skiing down… There was about 20-30 cm fresh pow, blue sky, what do u want more!?

For me it’s a bit tooo early to think about skiing again, hopefully in 2 – 3 weeks I will ski on the Watea’s again!!!

Had physiotherapy on Monday and I look quite funny with the turquoise Kinesio-tape on my right leg…

It feels good to work out and work on my comeback on skis!!! I’m really motivated and I have great people to work with!!!

http://www.physio-fit.at/

Thanks to Klaus, Gudi and Sabine for the great support!!!!

Specializing in coordination and strength gives me back power in my legs…

In the evening we had our 2nd girls eve 🙂 I considered that we should do something social and it works – soooooo much fun with the girls!!!! Looking already forward to the next session on monday 🙂

Today water therapy – the best I can do for my knee at the moment!!! Water is healing 😉 and makes the moves much more easy…

and not to forget – back to school, back to studying;-)…. hehe… a bit at least;-)…

…off of crutches since Tuesday 🙂 …they are back in the cellar… Didn’t have them that long, so really good 🙂

Good news from the doc… No operation, just working hard again with my physiotherapist on coordination and strength and in a few weeks I’ll be back on snow 🙂 I got punctured that my knee is more flexible again – always feels good after that happened otherwise the joint is really limited in flexing… It’s not the first time, so I know ;-)… It was also in my intention that I won’t get another surgery. It would have been the 6th surgery on just ONE knee!!! In my case it could be that it won’t have any effect of getting better, so starting off without a surgery seems to be the better way… Of course on a long-term-base the cartilage will be used up much faster but… Another reason why,  is that I don’t have any replacement ligaments left in that knee, so also the healthy knee would get involved and as long as it’s healthy I don’t want to have any surgery there…

So the Doc told me that I could start walking without crutches, still painful but it’s getting better from day to day… Started cruising on the bike yesterday, where I still was a little handicapped but today I already improved that much – 20 min. on the stationary bike without pain! wow!!! awesome!!! From day to day it’s getting better and better!!!

Life is good 🙂

…drove back with Pia and Kenny to Oberaudorf, Pia’s home and had to drive further to Innsbruck with quite some pain in the knee…

Met some friends in the city but couldn’t handle it standing that long so I went to another friends place to watch the mens slalom final…

The next day I was supposed to have an MRI at 1 p.m. at the hospital in Hoch-Rum… But the MRI-machine had a technical problem, so I was asked to leave my telephone number there, they would call me as soon as they would have fixed it…

Had a coffee-break with friends and was asked to be in the hospital again at 5 p.m. I was really lucky that they could fix the problem – it was SUNDAY!!!

What is an MRI and what is it like lying for half an hour in the MRI-machine???

It’s in German but I wouldn’t be able to define it better….

“Die Kernspin-Tomografie ist ein Verfahren, das im Gegensatz zu einer Röntgenuntersuchung nicht mit Röntgenstrahlen, sondern mit Magnetfeldern und Radiowellen arbeitet.

Im Kernspin-Tomografen befindet sich ein sehr starkes Magnetfeld. Dieser richtet die Atomkerne des menschlichen Körpers aus, sie gehen dadurch von einem energiearmen in einen energiereichen Zustand über. Schaltet man die Radiostrahlung wieder aus, so gehen die Atomkerne wieder in den energiearmen Zustand zurück. Dabei senden sie Signale aus, die durch hochempfindliche Antennen gemessen werden können. Ein Computer berechnet aus den Signalen ein Schnittbild durch den Körper. Im Gegensatz zur Computer-Tomografie können bei der MRT neben horizontalen Schichtebenen auch noch andere Schnittebenen dargestellt werden, ohne die Lage des Patienten zu verändern.

Wann wird sie durchgeführt?

Ein Hauptgrund für ihre Anwendung ist, dass sie sehr genaue und differenzierte Darstellungen aller Körpergewebe liefert, vor allem nicht-knöcherner Strukturen, wie z.B. Weichteile, Organe, Gelenkknorpel, Meniskus, Bandscheiben und Gehirn. Auch das Herz kann inzwischen sehr gut beurteilt werden. Schon geringfügige Veränderungen im Körper, beispielsweise kleine Entzündungsherde, können auf diese Weise entdeckt werden.

Strukturen, die einen geringen Wassergehalt haben wie Knochen, oder luftreiche Regionen wie die Lunge können dagegen mit der MRT nicht gut dargestellt werden.

Was muss im Vorfeld beachtet werden?

Bei der MRT muss der Patient in einer etwa 70 bis 100 Zentimeter langen Röhre liegen. Wer unter Klaustrophobie leidet, sollte dies vor Beginn der Untersuchung dem betreuenden Personal mitteilen, damit er ein Beruhigungsmittel erhält.

Während der Untersuchung werden vom Gerät laute Klopfgeräusche erzeugt. Deswegen erhält der Patienten eventuell Schallschutz-Kopfhörer oder Ohrstöpsel.

Alle elektromagnetischen Gegenstände müssen vor der MRT abgelegt werden: Brillen, Zahnprothesen, Kontaktlinsen, Hörgeräte, Haarspangen, Ringe, Schlüssel, Uhren. Sie stellen eine Gefahr für den Patienten und das Gerät dar. Chip- und Kreditkarten werden durch das starke Magnetfeld zerstört.

Wie läuft die Kernspin-Tomographie ab?

Während der Untersuchung liegt der Patient auf einer Liege im Gerät. Wichtig ist, dass er absolut ruhig liegt und gleichmäßig atmet, damit die Aufnahme nicht gestört wird.

Um die Aussagekraft der Bilder zu erhöhen, kann es für bestimmte Fragestellungen notwendig sein, ein Kontrastmittel zu verabreichen. Der Patient bekommt dieses kurz vor der Untersuchung in eine Vene gespritzt. Es ist im Allgemeinen gut verträglich.

Die Untersuchungsdauer hängt stark von der zu untersuchenden Region ab, beträgt im Durchschnitt aber 20 bis 30 Minuten.

Während der MRT hält der Patient eine Klingel in der Hand, mit der er sich jederzeit bemerkbar machen und, falls notwendig, die Untersuchung abbrechen kann.”

I was listening to Ö3 for the time I was lying there, starring at the wall, my eyes kept on shutting… In between you have a lot of thoughts running through your head…

After the MRI I had a meeting with Doc Gföller… The assistant had already a look on the pix from the MRI before the Doc came and even I could see that the ligament was ruptured again… The doc came a bit later and then it was assurance: the ACL is ruptured again…

Well, after having had five knee surgeries on one knee the first response to the Doc was that I won’t have another surgery… He advised me to have another one but I will have a talk to Doc Fink tonight www.sportsclinic.com – he already operated me twice, knows how my knee looks inside and if it’s “worth” taking another surgery… Of course on a long-term basis it will be better to have another surgery but… will see…

But it wouldn’t be me if I wouldn’t find something positive about it and keep on fighting – the girls from the film-team gave me the Nickname: DURACELL-MEL 🙂 Always standing up after falling down… 😉

…sometimes you better believe and trust your instincts, that day I didn’t – I pushed my limits further and my intentions in which I believe were set aside…

The result: ruptured cruciate ligament (ACL) and the awareness that I shouldn’t jump of cliffs anymore…

How that happened?

I go back a little…

Friday evening we (me, Pia and Kenny) were supposed to drive to Kuchl (Sandy’s home), to film in Gastein for the next day. Sandy checked the conditions there on friday and it was predicted that even more snow should come over night, so blue bird and pow was expected for the next day…

But heavy winds were blowing in the night and didn’t promise any good… This winter is really crazy – the danger of avalanches is at such a high-risk, spring temperatures in February, not much snow, due to the circumstance that I won’t be able to ski this season anymore, the early season finish is not tooo bad – it could be worse ;-)…

So we went to Sportgastein Saturday morning, the weather was awesome – blue sky but looking up the mountains you could see that the wind had gone through, so no pow, just a windblown snowpack… We were allowed to take up the cable car before the public, the operation manager accompanied us with his dog and warned us that we are not allowed to ski any further he allowed us to go… The avalanche commision was still on the mountain, so when we got to the top station we scouted the location and searched for some lines…

Found a cool, short face where we had to hike along the ridge, I was in front and went further… Sandy and Pia took a nice, smooth line with an easy entrance… I had to crawl up on all fours to reach the entrance to my line… Really sketchy and quite spectacular… First I wasn’t sure if I could make it through this entrance as it was just one ski-length wide (114 mm) and the cliffs made it hard to enter… But I managed it, took me a while to enter but then it was just cool 🙂

Mirja, our photographer for the day joined us and the girls wanted to do some cliff drops… We went further and the girls did some great jumps… I was motivated too but knowing that it’s not good for my knee, I stepped back and took it easy…

The next round, me and Mirja found a nice cliff where I was sure that I could handle it also… Took the 3 m cliff and had a soft landing… Went well… Pia and Sandy already inspected the next one, they did already one of them and wanted to jump of the bigger one. I had a look at it, knew that the landing would be okay but somehow I had a bad feeling… I hesitated first, Kenny was rolling and counting down, Sandy was motivating me and then I went for it. The take-off was already a bit to far back and the landing was so unhappy that I could already feel that a ligament in my knee wasn’t okay anymore… Silly me!!!! Why did I do it, Why??? But it doesn’t help know, I can’t turn back the time, it happened and know I have to take the circumstances…

Sandy and Pia kept on filming and I decided to ski down on one ski and drive to the hospital to check my knee… I didn’t think about the fact that the ACL is ruptured again, thought it wouldn’t be that bad… Still, in my mind a lot of thoughts went through, what if…

Got to the hospital, had an x-ray, a talk to the doc – same procedure as usual – I guess I’m really an expert when it comes to knee injuries…;-) The doc gave me an “all-clear”, that it’s just the side-band that got strained but I should ensure it with an MRI…

From the hospital I called the Sportsclinic in Innsbruck and Doc Gföller arranged me an MRI for Sunday afternoon…

…to be continued…

Pics from the day that I just got from Mirja…