A snowy day and the operation

It's funny how things turn out. This weekend we were going to contact someone we have known for many years who is an extremely skilled skier and very able professional mountain guide, to take the boys off piste skiing to areas of these mountains that were unknown to them. It never happened due to Luke's accident - but by coincidence this same man turned up at 6.30am to collect Luke and I to take us to the hospital in Davos (because in his other life he runs a taxi company!) I was thinking, if only Luke had seen him in that other scenario rather than the one we we facing this morning. Gavin and Thomas also left at that time to go back to Zurich to the airport.

We got to the hospital on time and it was all very efficient with lovely, friendly nurses - who happily spoke English to Luke until they realised he could speak German (as long as it was Hochdeutsch and not the complicated dialect of Swiss German which is is not understood by a High German speaker) and then were delighted to talk to him in German. He went in to theatre by 7.40am and I headed off back home. By now it had got much colder and was snowing. Using the train and buses was also very easy as the system is very efficient with the two dovetailing each other.

I went back to see Luke at about midday - he seemed to be in theatre for nearly 3 hours, but it all went well. He had no pain immediately after the operation as the spinal anaesthetic was still effective, plus he had a pain relief on a drip, but by the time I left at 4pm he was starting to feel more pain. The surgeon came to see him after 5pm and Luke phoned me feeling quite upset as the surgeon said the operation went very well but that he was shocked to see how bad his cartilage was and that he can never play rugby again or do any serious skiing. The damaged cartilage is not connected to the accident and the strange thing is he has never felt any knee pain previously when skiing or playing any sport. We will have to investigate that issue further. 

I also helped Luke find a good physiotherapist who specialises in knee injuries in Berlin, so that he can continue treatment as soon as he gets back there. He starts physio tomorrow at the hospital so he needs to keep it up. 

It has been a dull day with snow falling all day but it did not really settle, it was more wet and damp than anything else. We had moments of bright light but on the whole it has been low cloud all day.