Sunday, July 11, 2010

Go Big or Go Home

I thought this was an appropriate time to write about myself....

So last weekend, my brother Fritz, owner of Out Cold Marketing, an extreme event marketing company, decided he was going to build a 40 foot A-Frame to have at our lake house for the 4th. Awesome right? I thought so!! We wakeboard all the time at KC Watersports and this was clearly no different than that. 


So everything is going great, Fritz hits is and everything is good, a little sticky on the landing but all good.  Ty hits it no problems at all.   So now its my turn, obviously I can't back out now.  I hit it the first time, great.  The second time, feeling pretty good... the third time I CHARGE it and oh shit..... Not so good.  I cleared nearly the entire structure, caught an edge and ate it!

All I hear is cheering and you got it you got it, we got it all on film!!!  All I feel is complete confusion and SEVERE pain.  

I pull myself together enough to get my balance and grab onto my brother as tight as I can and say, "My tooth is gone!!!"  At that point, he hadn't seen me yet so he didn't believe me.  I take my face out of the water and he believed me pretty quick when he saw me.  I could feel that one tooth was gone and at least one other was messed up.  The blood was pooling in the lake and I started to realize how serious this really was.

I got out of the lake, sat down, and counted the teeth missing from my mouth.  My two front teeth were still in my mouth but barely hanging on, and my tooth on next to it was completely gone.  Once we had a count, the hunt was on.  Everyone searched frantically in the lake for my tooth which sounds like a lost cause.  Brother of the year, found my tooth in the lake and I headed to the hospital.  After talking with a dentist (and referring to webmd, thanks mom) I knew if there was any chance of saving that tooth, I had to get it back into place soon.  

The doctor at the emergency room got the tooth back in place (still no pain meds at this point) and informed me that the closest oral surgeon was 130 miles away (we were in the middle of northern Wisconsin over 4th of July weekend, you can't expect too much!)  After convincing her I wasn't going to die on the way there, they let my dad drive me to the hospital where the oral surgeon was.

When we got there, the oral surgeon didn't waste a second. We took x-rays where I found that I didn't only destroy my three front teeth, technically, I broke my jaw as well.  The tooth that my amazing brother found in the lake came completely out tearing the jaw bone out with it.  Along with that, I needed stitches in my lip to put it back together.  She gave me a couple local shots and started trying to save my teeth the best she could.  Once they were somewhat close to normal, she added a VERY attractive wire and glue PERMANENT retainer across my 6 front teeth to hold them in place. She then stitched up the inside of my mouth in 4 places and stitched my lip up.  

She explained to me that since there was no bone to connect my tooth into place anymore, it wasn't going to survive.  :(  Thanks for your hard work anyways Fritz!!!  I saw the dentist last Wednesday where he then told me what I have to look forward to.  Two root canals on my front two teeth, a bone graph, an implant, and a root canal on the tooth that came completely out and suggested I see a plastic surgeon to fix up my split open lip.  

I thought for sure I would never wakeboard again, and for a couple hours I did write it off as something I would never do.  A couple days passed and my thoughts have completely changed.  I ABSOLUTELY will wakeboard again, no questions asked.  I might wear a huge mouth guard or a full on face mask but I'll for sure be back on a board.  If you want to see the video, go to www.outcoldmarketing.com  that is still something I can't see... YET!  

I'll keep you posted on life after each surgery! :)