I ended up having surgery in Vancouver on Friday, so Gareth and I headed down to the city with Moritz, Johnathon and Johannes (3 really friendly German guys staying in the Lodge) who kindly gave us a lift. After departing with a vast quantity of money via credit card (so glad for that insurance!) I was left starving for a good few hours in the hospital (nil by mouth since midnight) while I waited for a surgery slot, and Gareth and the others headed into the city for a day of being tourists. Eventually, after reading most of a (terrible) book, the anaesthetist came to discuss my drug options for the op and my stomach groaned a sigh of relief that pretty soon it would be fed!
Obviously I wanted to be as awake as possible for the procedure and see what was going on, I mean how often do you get to see yourself being operated on! So after having a huge syringe of local anaesthetic injected into my wrist, a tight rubber band thingy wrapped around my hand and arm to squeeze the blood down towards the armpit, and then a ridiculously tight touniquet around the upper arm, we we're all set.....
I think the anaesthetist gave me a mild sedative, but to be honest I was so excited I felt wide awake the whole time. The surgery was VERY cool! It's a weird sensation to be looking at somebody drilling a steel pin into your hand whilst not feeling anyhting other than that you've got a dead arm (like when you fall asleep on your arm and wake up with it being heavy and useless momentarily). After the pin was placed, the surgeon kept putting my hand under the 3D high definition xray machine to view it from all angles and check it was in the right place....so cool! It was over before I knew it and I was bandaged up and being wheeled into the recovery room within 30 mins. I don't have a lot of experience of hospital recovery rooms, but Vancouver General Hospital has to have one of the most amazing views in the world to wake up to post-surgery! It's pretty high up, and looks out over the downtown area of big glass skyscrapers, past the leafy, green oasis of Stanley Park, and across to the North Shore mountains.....simply stunning.
I only had an hour or so post-op to try and get my heart rate as low as possible on the obs monitor (a personal challenge that I saw James Bond do in a film once and have been trying to imitate every time I get the opportunity since....my PB is 41....I'm sure if I practice some Yoga breathing techniques hard enough I could get it lower!) and then I was allowed to go.
I was expecting to get some pretty horrible pain from the pins in my thumb, but thankfully nothing yet (and its now a week since the op!) just a mild ache.
We stopped off at Cypress mountain on the North Shore on the way back to Whistler, for a wicked view of the sun going down over the city, and then all promptly passed out from tiredness as soon as we'd got back and stuffed ourselves with pizza....it's amazing how tiring a day of lying around in hospital makes you feel!
Since then, Gareth's been out on his bike, and I've been enjoying exploring the local trails on foot. I've decided the cross-country trails make awesome running routes, as they climb via switchbacks so are never too steep, yet have lots of technical interest with rocks and roots,wooden bridges and berms. I've been out most days for at least an hour's run, as well as making the most of my lift pass and heading up to do some hiking on Whistler peak. The mountain had it's second biggest snowfall on record this year, so there is still much more snow than normal up high, and some amazing snow banks where bulldozers have had to clear the road but left 40 foot high cuttings through the snow!
Most exciting of all this week has been the purchase of a vehicle! We decided to rent a car to drive down to Vancouver for a couple of days and check out some of the second hand dealers there, as in Whistler there is not a great deal of choice, and people seem to spend hugely inflated prices for what is essentially a big rust-bucket.
It was well worth it, and after a day spent working out what was and wasn't a good deal we came across our ideal vehicle.....a Dodge Durango, 4.8L V8 engine, black with tinted windows, leather seats and full electrics and air-con (including heated seats...mmmmmm!), only 90,000 miles and in immaculate condition. It can be a gamble buying a second hand car in Canada as there is no MOT, but a lot of the dealers use a safety inspection which is similar, and we managed to secure a 12 month warranty, tax and documentation, all within our budget...whoop! We're picking it up on Saturday as obviously I can't drive currently, and we needed Gareth to return the hire car to Whistler. Should give us a whole load more biking/hiking/climbing options around BC, and of course for our American road-trip at the end of September. Roll on Saturday!
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