Top Three Grossest Leg Pictures

I had a chance last night to peruse my photos over the course of my injury. Like any true snowboarder would, I was wondering which one was the most disgusting photo.

I found three candidates.

This is a simple picture of a hole going down into my ankle, revealing a tendon. When I saw this for the first time, I thought it was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen. Maybe that doesn't make this a gross photo, but I had to include it in the top three.

I'll be honest. This is my top candidate. It even grossed out the nurses removing the bandages. One of them even said, "I've never seen this color of fluid leak out of a wound before."

This was one of the first photographs taken of my injury. It's what started the blog. At the time, I was extremely drugged up, so having this equipment drilled into my skeleton didn't bother me. Now that I can take a sober look at it, it bothers me.

In fact, four things bother me about this picture.

The first thing is the gigantic blood blister. Little did we know that later on it would cost our insurance company $300 to drain him.

The second disturbing feature is the external fixator screwed through my heel and into my shin below the knee. That's what preserved the length of my leg while the swelling came down.

The third feature that grosses me out is the lumps around my still broken tibia.

And the fourth problem is a subtle one -- there's an "X" marking the spot where an extremely faint pulse could be felt on the top of my foot. Of the several people that tried to locate my pulse, only one physician was able to locate it. This mark shows how close I came to losing this awesome, kickball-dominating foot.