My Gimpy Foot

I have never broken a bone. Except when I chipped my tooth on the bottom of the pool when I was trying to swim under my brother's legs at the YMCA when we were little... but that doesn't really count. Anyway, I have never really hurt myself at all... before now.

The week after Christmas I decided to play a little volleyball at church. Cliff likes to embellish the story, even though he wasn't there, and say that I was soaring so high above the net, that the guy on the other side that I was fighting for control of the ball with landed first. It was probably more like I jumped late and one of us had our foot over the line. I landed on his foot and twisted my left ankle out to the side. As I was falling, I thought first, "Wow. That hurt." Then, "This doesn't happen to me, it happens to Cliff."

As I was pondering my new situation, I was just trying to get my breath. It really hurt. But, since I didn't hear any popping or cracking, I assumed in was a sprain. It instantly started to swell up and when I could breathe again, I held my arms up in the air and had the guys pull me off of the floor so they could keep playing. It was quite apparent that I wouldn't be playing anytime soon, so I limped off and drove home. Pretty easy considering I have an automatic and it was my left foot.

Someone brought me crutches the next day even though I could bear weight. The only problem was that they were for a huge person! The lowest setting was 5'10." I hadn't planned on using them until Cliff became really nauseous and needed me to go to the store to buy him some Ginger Ale. I thought, "Well, I'm actually in better shape than him, so I grabbed the huge crutches, got in the car and made some huge swings through the aisles trying the find the drinks. When I finally got to the other end of the store, I (sweating) asked one of the grocery guys where the juices were (another request of Cliff ). He pointed to the opposite end of the store... and seeing me in my pathetic state, he offered to go get what I needed. So nice :)

I had a couple of other times where I needed some groceries and had people tell me, "You know there are little motorized carts that you can use." I guess the picture of me trying to hold a small basket with milk, yogurt, cheese, and a few other items while still trying to use crutches didn't look so stellar... I had a major pride issue and told them that I just couldn't go there. I'm only 34 you see. Anyway, God has been giving me compassion for the lame (even though my situation is really minor.)

Anyway, I used som crutches (from Bincy that fit me) and limped around for about a week.....

It started out looking pretty swollen.

Then it began bruising halfway up my leg and pooling blood at the bottom of my feet and toes.

Cambria started asking me every time I unwrapped it if it was my yellow foot.

I decided to go in and get it x-rayed in case it had something really wrong with it because Cliff was going into his longer work-week stretch. Sure enough I had a fracture. So I went in and they said I had to stay completely off of it. I saw a Ortho doc and they said I chipped the outer bump (not their terminology) and slightly fractured it as well. They said the tendon between the two bones was likely torn to some extent and they wouldn't know if it required surgery until I walked around for a while and could see if the bones spaces were widening, meaning the tendon wasn't properly holding them in place. So I needed to get the swelling down some more before we could put the cast on.

This is hard with 4 kids. I made a list of things that I could do from my chair. Some people found it amusing so I'm including it here...

• Blog
• Cancel phone service
  
• Clean up e-mails
• Order pictures
• Homeschool planning and actually teach the kids
• Photocopy Kaiah's math
• Mend purse strap
• Play games with kids
• Plan menus
• Write out/think of verses to compliment what we're studying
  
• Finish sewing stocking
  
• Make star ornaments
• Think of gifts to mail to Ken and Julie
• Get snow clothes ready for the kids
• Cut/pin/sew baby blankets
• Massage, ice, elevate foot
• Thank you notes for Lochlan's gifts
  

To make things more difficult, Lochlan immediately understood my situation and challenged me whenever he could, even daring to stand his ground and stare at me when I told him to come. Well, after about one week of extreme testing and the older kids dragging him to me to be disciplined (and my friends and family praying for me), he seemed to get a lot better.

Cliff was so sweet. On his very few moments off of work, he prepared things for us to eat the next day, measured Kaiah's carbs and wrote them on the boxes, and prepped the kids on what to make all of us while he was away.

They were so cute! They put on their Home Depot aprons and made menus for me to order from, then they went away and put the stuff together. They had fun and it really was SO HELPFUL! They vacuumed the living room, got Lochlan up, laid him down, answered the phone, unloaded the dishes, and much more.


In addition to the kids doing my jobs around the house, my mom and several friends came over to help. They helped with the kids, cleaned up the kitchen, and brought us yummy meals. Because we had help I was able to keep my foot elevated enough to get the swelling down for my cast. Kara even came over on her birthday! We made her a cake, but she did all the work, setting up the lunch, getting the lasagna that Amber brought me out of the oven, cleaning up my kids, and doing my dishes... Happy Birthday Kara *sigh*


I got my (walking) cast on last week and have to keep it on for a couple more. It feels so good to be able to walk again. I'm much more functional now... even if I have a gimpy foot for a while. I think it's going to be OK.... if the cast holds up. I have already gotten the cast wet in 50% of the showers I've taken.


Such is life. At least I got to choose a pretty color (with Kaiah's help).