Broken Ankle

I broke my ankle way back in 2007. Hard to believe that it has been five years now -- good thing I gave up using "but I broke my ankle" as an excuse last week. ha. I never told the story or shared the pictures, so I might as well go for it now. There are a couple gross pictures, but no blood. Mostly lots of swelling and nasty long leg hair. Fair warning.

It was a late aftrnoon in February and I was running... through Matt's house to the bathroom. [It gets more pathetic, sadly.] I jumped over a pile of laundry to reach the bathroom, unbeknownst to me, there was a magazine rack underneath it and I tripped. ALL of my weight went onto the outside of my left foot, including the gravity propelling me from my jump. I broke the inside part off -- you know the knobby part on the inside that holds your foot onto your leg. Yeah. Gone. Well, sideways, I guess. I am not sure if I looked at it, but if I did, I blacked it out. Matt drove me to the ER and I waited to see a doc -- shaking in pain. They sent me home with a splint so I could get it operated on outpatient.

The next day my Mom flew in (her baby was going under!) and stayed with me for the surgery (my Dad happened to be in town for work). I had to be admitted back to the ER, because my insurance wouldn't do outpatient because it wasn't an emergency, and had the surgery there. SAME DOCTOR as would have operated outpatient -- but about $12,000 more money. Stupid. The doctor was awesome though, seriously fabulous. He found out that I was a college student without parents nearby and he gave my parents his personal pager, so they could reach him at any time with questions (they didn't use it). He also said my injury was the worst he's seen -- and he does the sports injuries for the University. Fabulous. I now have two permanent screws in my ankle. They do not beep in metal detectors and I cannot feel them. The only thing still lingering is sometimes my ankle gets achey in the cold (like at an ice rink)

Anyways, I went back to my dorm (which wasn't handicap accessible, ironically) and was on crutches for about four weeks (two in a soft cast and two in a hard, I think). Then I was in a walking boot for two or three months. At least I could shower then. With the casts I was sponge bathing and no-rinse shampooing. Lame. So grateful for my Mom who got all of that for me. What would we do without our Moms? I was on vicodin for a week and darvoset for another (or maybe less, I am not sure. I tried to stay off the pain meds). Matt was gone the first weekend (Mexico housebuilding trip -- I still wanted to go) and took my truck to get the oil changed -- so I would not drive it. He even told the dealership that they were in no circumstance to release the car to me. haha He already knew how stubborn I was.

I had to miss the second half of my last ever cheer season, although I did go and sit in the stands to join in on some chants. There was one perk though -- I had great (handicap) parking for the last semester of college. Score! I was also able to wear heels again by graduation in May. Awesome. Now you can enjoy these lovely pictures...

Splint. First night. Notice my childhood blankie (I finally let it go when we moved into our house) and hospital ice packs.

Soft cast (between doctor and ER, I think), and my new bed (I ended up sleeping on that couch until graduation -- I wanted to keep that ankle elevated so the swelling would go away completely. No cankles for me!)

Soft cast. It was so comfy. I think I had this for a couple weeks. Then they took it and the stitches off and gave me a hard cast. Sidenote: I miss those pants, they were so comfy. What happened to them?

 

See the gauze stuck to the yellow stuff that they put on pre-surgery? Gross!

Side by side. So fat and nasty.

Close up. You can see how bruised it still was. Maybe this was a week after surgery? The four stitches are covered by tape. I believe he pulled on that long string and all of the stiches came out. So weird.

Stitches removed. It must have been 1 week soft cast 2 or 3 weeks hard pink cast.

My x-rays. Pretty awesome, huh?

We were both on crutches. Lucky us!

 This may have been more for my own need to have this written down somewhere. But now I do. Bam.