The Turtle Lady Returns, Goes Away Again, and Returns Once More!

         Forgive me for being MIA for a bit longer than usual. A couple of weeks ago, I had started writing a post about the heat and its effect on the creek critters, in addition to making me even crankier than usual. Then we got a phone call we had been waiting for – our daughter, Liz, was set to climb the last of the 46 High Peaks in the Adirondacks, and on her birthday! She had spent 2 years teaching at the Pokomacready Outdoor Education Center, and usually spends her summers there as assistant wilderness director, and helps run the “hike house” and teaches rock climbing. She had been working to become a “46er” for quite some time. Tradition dictates that family and friends meet the hiker at the summit of their last peak, so Liz chose Whiteface Mountain, so that her father and I could drive to the top – with his heart condition and my inherent laziness, we never would have been able to climb. We were very proud of her! And since we wouldn’t be seeing her again until Christmas, we enjoyed the rest of the visit as well.
       So it was back to New Jersey to sweat out the rest of the summer – until we got a phone call that no parent ever wants to get. One of the camp nurses called from a hospital in Plattsburgh, NY to tell us that Liz had been injured in a rock climbing accident, and was being transferred to the hospital at the University of Vermont in Burlington. My blood ran cold when she said “How soon can you get here?”                   
       Of course we left as quickly as we could, and got more information while driving up the Northway. She had been covering another counselor’s class at the local climbing center (which she helped design and had taught rock climbing), when one of the day campers, who was supposed to be “belaying” Liz, dropped the rope. Liz fell 25 feet to the ground, smashing her heel and fracturing 2 vertebrae in her back, causing significant disc displacement due to the severity of the compression of her spine. She was stable when we got there, but in a great deal of pain. The doctors said she had saved herself from paralysis by insisting
that no one touch her or attempt to roll her over (she had landed face down in
a heap).
       She had already been fitted with a back brace when we arrived, and her left leg was in a massive temporary cast. Thankfully, she shouldn’t require back surgery, just the fashionable (not!) Jewett brace for several months. Her foot was a different story. Her calcaneous was completely shattered, and would require
extensive surgery. Liz had been scheduled to start her new job at Northern
Illinois University in just two weeks, but that was now out of the question.
The Vermont doctors felt that bringing her back to Philadelphia for the surgery
would be the way to go. She could stay here with us, and get her to one of the
top surgeons in the country – we have quite a few, you know!
            My husband and I got back on the ferry across Lake Champlain, and went back to New York to pack up her belongings- George headed back to NJ while I stayed in Vermont to be with Liz. Thanks to some very loyal and industrious friends, my office next to the kitchen was transformed into a hospital room in about 36 hours. After she was finally released, we got her settled in the back of her Outback and made the longest trip home I have ever experienced (at least it felt that way!). 
           We had her records sent to Penn Orthopedic, but the doctor hadn’t reviewed them as of yesterday morning. Knowing that the surgery needs to be done ASAP, we also contacted the Rothman Institute, and they are working out details even as I type. The one thing that has helped to keep her spirits up is the support and positive feedback she has received from a former Flyer, and the thought that she might be able to do her rehab at Novacare where the team goes. Diehard hockey fan that she is, she is just starting to realize that she probably won’t play again, but still won’t give up. She still plans to do the Appalachian Trail, and will do whatever she needs to do to make that happen.
            We are so proud of her, and occasionally wonder if they mixed up babies in the hospital, because she’s smarter and got more character and determination than her father and I put together. Check out her pix from Whiteface Mountain. For more information about climbing in the Adirondacks or becoming a “46er”
yourself, visit www.adk.org or www.adk46r.org