“On a Mish” #311 A Crazy Couple of Years. Aotearoa. 11.1.2022. To say the last couple of years have been interesting for human beings is a rather large understatement. There isn’t a person on the planet who hasn’t been affected by the global pandemic in some way. We have been lucky in New Zealand, for our location makes it slow for anything to get here (just try waiting for international postage!). Once the virus made it to our shores we closed up shop and have been shut ever since. The change to our lives has been a massive inconvenience for most and the tourism industry possibly took the hardest hit…
Speaking of hard hits, it has now been exactly two years since I had a little accident that abruptly changed my life forever. Muscle displaced and torn from the bone. A couple of hairline fractures and then a calcified hematoma. All results of being hit by a swinging industrial sized fridge door while rocking around in high seas on the Fiordland Navigator. I went from chopping fruit to looking at the galley roof within a split second. I knew something bad had happened, and by the time I got down to my crew cabin I could already see massive bruising starting to appear. Being the stubborn Team Leader that I was, I stuck it out for the remaining day and a half before our week off work (7 days on, 7 days off). During the week off I dulled the pain with booze and painkillers, however the swelling and mix of bruising color was telling me there was much more going on than just a lil’ knock to my side. This was January and it was February before I got up to Queenstown for proper scans and x-rays. Every doctor I have seen has been impressed by the sheer force of the impact on my hip. Knowing that things didn’t look good, I was sent up to Christchurch for my scans (MIR,CT etc). It was now mid March and before I knew it I was stuck in Christchurch due to our first countrywide lockdown. The delay in getting back to see the doctor didn’t do any favours for my hip, and my physiotherapist thinks this has left me with permanent ailments. So with this new unwanted addition to my body I had to somehow continue on with my life. The recovery was painfully slow (literally) and there were many months of dark depression, as I sat knowing I wouldn’t be able to go on my mountain adventures anymore. Some of the doctors I chatted to stated that I might not ever get back to doing what I did before my injury.
Not good news to hear, but also some news that I took as motivation to prove them wrong. At first I slowly reintroduce myself back into the wilderness with some camps near my car. Even though it was painful, I could feel the healing beginning to take place with my mental health. Slowly but surely I have begun to do more and more, and now two years on I have proven many of the medical experts wrong by going on some REAL outdoor adventures. I have to be prepared for a little bit of post-match pain, but the sweet satisfaction of looking at my photos after a mish does much more for the pain than drugs. There are definitely some locations that I may never return to due to the damage to my hip, but there are plenty of other places that I can visit that will soothe the soul like only Mother Nature can. The game is still the same but for me some of the rules have changed. I hope that some people look at my situation as proof that when you get knocked down it may be tough to get back up again, but when you do it will be the best decision you have ever made! The mission never ends, sometimes you are forced to change your plans, but remember – to the determined, quitting is NEVER an option!
