Sticks and Stones...More Like Hard-Packed Snow May Break My Bones

You should never skip church to go snowboarding....even if you are on vacation in Idaho and that was your only chance to go. Why? Because instead of lightning striking you, you will fall doing something stupid (like getting off the lift) and fracture your hand. Trust me on this one... I KNOW!!!

Grand Targee is an amazing resort. There are no ropes anywhere so you can go anywhere. Every run has parts of it groomed and parts of it left totally natural so you can do the whole powder and swerving in and out of trees thing. Jake and I got a couple good runs down the mountain before I got hurt. The snow was perfect! I was truly enjoying carving down the mountain, the fresh mountain air, and the beautiful Teton mountains when it happened.



To tell the truth I really don't know what happened. We were getting off the lift and i must have just caught an edge and fell. Instinctively I put my left hand back to help break the fall, which is never a good idea. At first the only thing I thought was hurt was my butt and my pride. Jake and I were both laughing. I scooted out of the way and was just resting on the side for a minute. My left hand hurt but I really didn't think I had done anything that bad to it. Jake went on ahead of me because I told him I needed just another minute to gather what was left of my pride.

When I went to strap in my other boot that's when I knew something was wrong. I couldn't do up my bindings. My fingers couldn't move so I used my right hand to do up the bindings as best as I could. Then I went to push myself up off the snow to go down the catwalk to the run but my hand just buckled and pain shot up my hand and wrist and I knew that it wasn't good. However in true Wells fashion i decided to "walk it off" or in this case board it off. I used my right hand and got up and started down the mountain. Looking back I should have just gone to the guy in the in the lift and asked for a ride down. Oh well!



As soon as tried to carve down the mountain, which requires my arms for balance, my mindset changed from practicing my S-turns to "get down as fast as you can safely." I used my body as a splint and just rode my heel edge down. Jake was waiting for me about half-way down the run. At first he had this sly smile on his face like he was going to make some comment about how long I take but as soon as he saw I wasn't using my arm his face changed to "Oh crap, something is really wrong!"

When we got to lodge Jake helped unstrap my board and we took my mitten off. There was a nasty looking bump on the top of my hand. My wrist and fingers were all swollen and we both just knew. We went to the snow patrol first aid tent and met Bud, a 65 year man whose wife is from Winchester, VA ironically. The conversation went something like this.. I walk in and he looks as me and says "Snowboarder??" "Yup." "Wrist?" "Yup." I guess anything waist and up is snowboarding anything waist and down is skiing. Bud helped me get comfy in a splint while Jake loaded up the car.

Bud is awesome!! He and his wife retired a couple years ago and moved out to Tetonia, ID because the both love to ski that much. His wife used to teach 7th and 8th grade and hated it so she moved down to 5th and loved it (yeah the more I learned about Bud and his wife the more I liked them.



While Bud was telling me his life story to keep my mind from the pain Jake called home to inform the family. Their reactions were classic...

DAD- "Oh man. Oh man. Oh. Oh..oh man." (according to Jake he sounded like Grandpa!)
HOLLY- "Well thats what she gets for snowboarding on Sunday!"
ROXANNE- "Was the snow patrol cute?"
BRENDAN- "That sucks. Is she ok?'
RORY- "HAHA she fell getting off the lift! HAHA Well is she ok?" (no worries I was laughing about it too! It is a pretty pathetic story!)

Once the car was loaded we headed back to Rexburg to go to the hospital where I was treated by the most idiotic doctor ever. I seriously don't know how he graduated Med School. They took X-rays and he said I was good to go without even looking at my hand. As my jaw dropped to the floor I asked him about the big bump on my hand and he said "Oh, is that not normally there?" I told him no so he went to look at the X-rays again. 20 mins later he came back in and told me I fractured the big bone connecting my elbow to the wrist (no where near the big bump) and that I just need to were a splint til and this a quote "the snow melts."

My response...what snow...your yard's or mine? Top of the mountain or in the valley? Virginia's snow, Utah's or Idaho?? Needless to say I got a second opinion when I got back to Provo the next day. This sane doctor told me that I fractured the bone connecting my wrist to my middle finger and that I needed to come back in a week for more x-rays when the swelling has gone down so I can get a permanent cast.

Moral of that extremely long post: Don't go boarding on Sunday and don't trust doctors in Idaho they've had too many potatoes!!