We were to meet these friends for a bike ride in the sun. Instead they are cheering and sending us love, care and positive thoughts as we endure the Ankle Adventure.
At 4:30 Thursday morning (I am an early riser), the day we were to meet these friends for the ride, I came out of the bathroom to find Susan kneeling next to the bed and moaning. Being who she is, she was gathering all needed things (while moaning) she could reach to bring with her to the hospital. This was before I even knew we would be going to the hospital. In between some moans she said she had broken her ankle!!!!!!! HUH??? Did you fall out of bed?
Had not fallen out of bed. She had gone downstairs to do something and after finishing the task, did a basket ball shot (she played and coached BB for decades) of her Kleenex into the waste bin in the garage. She missed the shot, which does not usually happen, but being the coach she was, followed the shot for the ‘rebound’ to put it into the bin. She came down on the step and fell onto the floor hearing the crunching of her ankle bones. She CRAWLED up the stairs to the bedroom as I did not hear her calling to me (in bathroom, door closed, water running, no hearing aids in!!). We immediately drove to the emergency room in Everett.
At the hospital.
Doc showed X-rays and explained that she had ‘jack hammered” her ankle breaking several bones which were now splayed out at their ends. YIKES! I knew it was bad because with her high pain tolerance, and being staunch about injuries, her moans frightened me.
We were in the hospital ALL DAY, and most of the time was spent in the ER. We had gotten there around 5:30, they did a ‘repositioning’ of her ankle fairly early on — couple hours maybe. Then the wait.
Repositioned and wrapped tight.
Also, Susan being who she is, she was searching around on the internet on her phone. We have a ‘buy nothing’ group in our community and have given and gotten things from that group — all free. How fortuitous that Susan should find this item that had just popped up…
She contacted the guy, was in time to get it before anyone else had asked, he said he would set it up for the injured leg (the right), and would deliver it to the house!! And he did!
Back to the ER where we spent what seemed to be endless hours. I was able to leave and get some breakfast, go home for a few items Susan wanted/needed, and return to see she was still in ER.
Finally they took both of us to Pre-op, got her all prepped and at 4:10 they took her into surgery. About two hours later the doc called to tell me all went fine and she was on her way to recovery room. Of course I was not allowed in there, and since it was now evening, they were waiting for a room for her which could take quite a while, and I knew Susan was ok, I finally went home for a restless sleep.
Her cast looks similar to the repositioning one from earlier but is much thicker.
She may come home today (Saturday) or maybe not until tomorrow, but is enjoying the good food they have been feeding her, and she has a room with a view — of Everett’s Portage Bay, and the Olympics.
Heavy duty pain meds have kept her comfortable and able to sleep. The hard part coming is — SIX weeks of absolutely NO weight bearing, then probably well enough for LIGHT weight bearing. OT was there during my visit yesterday and she was rather good with hopping around using the walker. She thinks PT will be there today and go over the knee scooter with her.
SIGH…
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