Well I guess I'll have lots of time to add things here as I had a fall just before Christmas that has put me on crutches for the last two weeks and now eight more weeks.
The story so far...
On December 23rd, after my second yoga class of the week, I was carrying Grace down the stairs using both arms and I slipped about five or six steps from the bottom. Grace seemed fine, but the impact and the deformed ankle I came face-to-face with let me immediately know that I was not fine. I pulled myself over to where the phone is, taught the kids some new expletives and got Liam to hand me the phone. I called 911 and soon an ambulance crew (4 people - the regular crew, a student, and a paramedic on her first day back after mat leave) and 2 police officers were in my decorated living room. My brother came over to look after the kids and I was on my way to the hospital.
Since I had eaten breakfast, they couldn't knock me out to reduce (undislocate) the ankle, so they gave me a huge dose of narcotics (with an antidote at the ready in case I stopped breathing) reduced it a little and put a temporary cast on it. Though it was x-rayed immediately, it took the orthopedic resident about 5 or 6 hours to come down and decide that it needed to be aligned better. This time they knocked me out with a drug similar to the one I'd had 10 years earlier when I dislocated my shoulder. A couple of hours later it was time for surgery. I opted for the general anesthetic over the spinal block as I wasn't too interested in hearing or feeling anything. I woke up with yet another cast on and some serious hardware. I went home on the 24th and spent Christmas on the couch with my leg raised. Luckily we were ready, so I don't think the holiday was too impacted for the kids. Of course, we didn't make it to the cottage as we planned.
In the hospital they told me that I'd be non-weight bearing (on crutches) for four weeks after my follow-up appointment. I had that appointment 2 days ago and they told me that because of a long screw connecting my tibia and fibula, it was going to be 8 more weeks non-weight bearing!
That means I'll be home - work would be a little hazardous on crutches: I couldn't get there without catching rides from people, and snow complicates things. I did get a much lighter fiberglass cast at that follow-up appointment, and the cast technician suggested getting a hands-free crutch. Today I got the crutch from a medical supply rental company. Hopefully I'll be able to get used to it so I can be a little more useful around the house.
