Show of Hands

Our last trip to Moe's was eventful to say the least. Eversince Tanleng had her ankle broken, she's feeling alot better coming out of surgery cos we've been diligent at nursing the injury. It's also at times like these that your friends show who you how much you mean to them.

Anyway, it's been two weeks since the accident and I haven't had the chance to climb. All my time has been spend taking care of Tanleng's needs and that's simply way more important than anything else right now. Nevertheless, I had the chance to get to the Front for a sesh last Sat after two weeks of being sedentary and gravity hit me like a massive brick wall. I must say I was unpleasantly surprise cos two weeks prior, I was getting to the point where I felt I was in shape. I was super pleased with sending Show of Hands, Lindner Roof, and Underwhelmed, all in a day. But the sesh at the Front left me feeling like the way it was when I was in Spore...super drained, peeling off holds I can usually crush. I'm glad I recovered from that episode of being super ill with a bad bout of flu. I guess there's some truth to the adage "you snooze, you loose." Then again, I really shouldn't be complaining cos being out of shape is still alot better than my wife's current predicament.

Here are two vids of Show of Hands. One's by Joe Kinder and the other's by my buddie Scott Hall who pretty much cruised the climb.

show of hands from jorge visser on Vimeo.

Show of Hands V11, Moe's Valley from Scott Hall on Vimeo.

Scott's feet beta worked like a charm. Thanks!!!

But being 5'7", I had a hard time coming around the arete for the left hand bump to the better hold. That called for some drastic but novel measure...busting out a Sharpy to make a mark on my left forearm to make sure I bump far enough around the arete for a blind slap for the good hold. That was all I needed for the send.

Tanleng's Injury Update

I'll like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for dropping in with their well-wishes, encouragement, and prayers, and also those who came by to visit. Really appreciate it. I would also like to thank Marc & Sybille Le Menestrel, Mike & Amy Beck, and all the members of the church in SLC for going out of the way to comfort and assure us that everything's gonna be ok. Big props to Chad and Scott for hauling Tanleng out of Moe's. I would also like to give a big shout out to the kid who helped call 911 and went out of the way to guide the EMTs to us. I must apologize for forgetting your name but hit me up if you have the chance.

It was really unfortunate that Marc & Sybille came all the way from Spain for this to happen. Would have loved to spend some time together but it was really comforting to have them by our side when Tanleng was stretchered out of Moe's.

Mike and Amy also went out of their way to make some really important phonecalls to the right people in the orthopedic community. Come to think of it, it's really crazy how small the world is and how connected we are to some people than we actually know. Turns out Amy's dad's Thomas Rosenberg of the Rosenberg Cooley Metcalf Orthopedic Clinic up in Park City. They were the ones who operated on Tiger Woods' knee. The surgeon who operated on Tanleng's Dr. Tim Beals, who's a surgeon at the U Orthopedic Center and also a partner at the RCM clinic and apparently is the best ankle & foot surgeon in town.


Dr. Timothy Beals

The surgery took about 3.5 hours cos the team need to fix quite a substantial amount of ligament damage. As for the tibia and fibula, it came down to plates and 11 screws.


X-Ray of the injured leg pre-op.


The shoe that I had to cut up just to get it off her foot.

Tanleng's doing pretty well post-op. There doesn't seem to be a substantial amount of pain but any type of pain associated with a surgery is bound to keep anyone in a certain level of discomfort any time of the day.

Dealing with this injury has affected both of us quite a bit. Week 1 was pretty rough just to get simple chores (ie. cleaning and dressing up, getting up and down our apartment) done. As a friend said, "there's always more than one victim in any accident." But that's why I married her in the first place. Going through life in sickness and in health isn't just lip service.

Calamity!!!

We've been heading to St.George, Utah every other week just to get away from the winter chill in SLC. The sportclimbing on sandstone is quite a draw for many Salt Lakers but we decided to check out the bouldering at Moe's Valley last Sunday in hope of kickstarting our bouldering season.



Show of Hands, V11

Unfortunately, the season ended as quickly as it started. All was good with my one day send of Show of Hands, until Tanleng fell and dislocated her ankle. Her fibula and tibia were also broken and it looked pretty nasty. Worst part was being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no cellphone reception. Good thing there was a kid with a working cellphone but the 911 operator had no clue where we were despite our best efforts in describing the location. All that finally done, the EMTs couldn't get the ambulance in there so they had to get in there in a truck and then hike the rest of the way in to us. Pretty epic if you think about my poor wife having to wait all that while with the foot completely out of place. When the EMTs finally got her stabilized, we had to haul her out of there on a stretcher and props to everyone there especially Chad and Scott!!! Beer and food on me the next time!


Tanleng's feeling a little better now that the docs managed to put her foot back in place and splinted her up for our 300 mile drive back to SLC.

I'll update this blog again for the latest on her condition.

So much for our plans and aspirations for 2011.