Wednesday, November 21, 2007

A Series of Unfortunate Events - Thanksgiving Edition!

On this happy Thanksgiving Eve, I thought I would tell you all the heartwarming little tale of how I broke my ankle. Mainly because it happened over the Thanksgiving holiday three years ago. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Rock was next door at his parents' house (yes, my in-laws live next door) and Supergirl and I were hanging out at our house. Well, around 4:00 or so, she got bored and decided to go visit Daddy. So I threw on some jeans and put on my new favorite sandals - a pair of platforms with no straps on the ankle. We jumped in the car and cruised over to the grandparents'. We got out of the car, I took about four steps in their gravel driveway, my left foot slipped off my sandal, I planted my right foot to try to keep my balance, but no dice - I was down. Rock came running over and started checking me for injuries. I thought I was fine, but then we both noticed that my right foot was sticking out at a 90 degree angle. Not quite right. We left Supergirl at the grandparents' and went to the emergency room. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long. They immediately e-rayed it and told me that I had broken all three bones and dislocated my ankle. They asked if I had been in a car accident! Or fallen down stairs! It took two tries two get it set back in place. The first time, the doctor injected novocaine, which helped *ALOT*. The second time, the novocaine had worn off and he couldn't give me any more. And he had to pop my ankle back into joint, then hold it and try to explain to a nurse how to wrap the plaster around my ankle. While he was explaining, it slipped out of joint (yes, that hurts just as bad as popping into joint). Then he popped it into joint again, held and tried to explain and it slipped out of joint again. Finally, he popped it into joint, and held with all his strength and helped her wrap the plaster around the ankle. Then they put me on crutches and sent me home. Three days later, I had surgery. I still have a metal plate on one side and about ten metal screws throughout my right ankle (which you can feel through the skin), but after two months in casts/ boots/ crutches and three months of physical therapy, it's fine. I've got some pretty awesome scars, though. And I never, ever wear heels.

5 comments:

Tess said...

Oh my GOD, I could barely read this. ACK! The popping in and out!

TSintheC said...

Pain. Oh the thought of all that pain has me cringing.

Shelly said...

Hey Tessie and Hot! Thanks! The popping in and out was horrible. I've had a kidney stone, a broken ankle and given birth. For intensity of pain, the popping in and out of joint wins hands down. It was godawful. If it had popped out of joint one more time, I was going to make the doctor stop until he could find someone to help him who knew what they were doing. There was way too much explaining going on.

Alice said...

OH MY GOD. that's horrific. there is NO EXCUSE to have that sort of thing done to you when you're awake / can feel it!! what the eff were they thinking!? you poor thing.. although the screws and scars are pretty awesome, i bet :-)

Shelly said...

Thanks Alice! Worse than that, they wanted to schedule the surgery for *10 days* after I fell! I went to a different doctor/ hospital for the surgery and he was furious that it had been 3 days. He would have done surgery and fixed it that night. Guess where I've gone from then on?

But yeah, the screws rock. A podiatrist I went to for something else was like, "oh wow, yeah, there are three right here" and traced them with his hand.