Hi folks, long time no talk. It's been a long while since I composed a personal blog, and a lot has changed in the last 5 years. To keep things short, I'll summarize very quickly: I'm married and have a three year old daughter. Life has been wonderful, but hectic. It limits my time to write, but I wouldn't change things for the world. That being said, there is a reason why I have returned to write a blog today. You see, most recently I have come into a lot more free time - certainly unplanned. I experienced an accident in home that changed my world.
It was Saturday, November 9 around 6 P.M. We had just finished dinner and my parents had stopped over to the house on their way home from shopping in town. My wife, Melissa and I had originally planned an evening out, which was supposed to include going to see a movie and dinner. I changed plans and decided not to go, seeing how tired I was and thinking I might have difficulty staying awake during the movie. I had started cleaning out our daughter's play room, which still was in disarray since we moved into the house this past summer. So we decided to stay home and clean house, essentially. Since my parents were still over, I didn't want to ignore them until they left, but Melissa thought it would be a good idea to continue putting some of her books away by moving them from that room into our family room. And she could put books away and still visit while my parents were over. I was okay with that.
Our house is considered a tri-level (to be precise, you could even call it a quad-level). So from my daughter's play room to the family room is one level down. To continue the cleaning process, I grabbed a box of books to bring down a small flight of stairs over to my wife. My daughter was with my mom who were close by in my daughter's bedroom playing. My wife, father-in-law (who also lives with us), and dad were in the family room visiting. I've carried stuff up and down these stairs countless times with no issues. But I do recall slipping and tripping up a couple of times; but managed to regain myself. Yet, it was this one particular trip down these stairs that did me in.
Upon descending the stairs, I go down a couple of steps normally, no problem. But then something happens. I lose my focus and end up missing a step. So instead of naturally stepping down the next stair, I fall down to the next step and land very awkwardly on my left foot, essentially dislocating my ankle and breaking three bones in my ankle. I knew right away something was wrong. It happened so fast; and I'd like to say I remember feeling or hearing something snap, but I can't recall. All I knew was that something definitely was not right. I fell the rest of the way down the stairs, ontop of the box of books I was carrying, onto the carpeting below. I am thankful the books were there to break my fall, otherwise the injury could have been worse. But the damage was done to my ankle. I yelled out, "I'm hurt," "help," and then "my leg, my leg, my leg" over and over. The pain was excruciating. I never felt anything like it in my life. I didn't dare touch it, fearing it would hurt all the more. When I fell, I fell straight on my stomach. I kept my injured foot up in the air and elevated, figuring that was the best position to keep it in until I could be moved. My wife knew it was going to be impossible to bring me to the ER with how out of place my foot was, so she called for an ambulance. They came in a relatively short amount of time, gave me something for the pain, and loaded me onto a stretcher to the ER. They finally were able to position me on my back instead of laying flat on my stomach on the stretcher. Thankfully we're not all that far from the hospital and was treated in short order.
While in the ER, they reset the foot so that the bones were aligned like they were supposed to be. And no, I don't remember them doing this because I was put out (thank god). But because I broke the three bones around my ankle, I would end up needing surgery. I didn't have a compound fracture so I didn't need immediate surgery. I ended up having a consult with an orthopedic surgeon that next Tuesday and having the procedure done Wednesday. I am happy to say that I am back on the mend. I've been doing a lot of resting, a lot of binge watching TV, and not putting any weight on the ankle. It'll be at least another 4 in a half weeks before I'll be able to put weight on it. But at least I can say the worst is behind me.
Needless to say, I've experienced a lot of firsts with this accident. First broken bone(s), first surgery, first major medical incident. And I hope it ends up being the last for quite some time. It truly changes your life once you can't do the normal things you essentially take for granted doing as a healthy being. But I have a goal to be able to do all of the activities I was able to do before the accident. It'll take a lot of work along with physical therapy. But I am committed to getting back to that point. Will my ankle ever be the same? Who knows? But it shouldn't limit the activities I was able to enjoy prior to the accident. And you can bet the next time I end up carrying something down those stairs, I'll go about it much differently. Safety first.
