2008-03-29 Injury

I am having Thanksgiving thoughts at this Easter time.

As I write this Good Friday morning it is only too easy for me to think back to Good Friday two years ago. It was a typically busy morning for me - I was exercising, boiling dozens of eggs to be colored later in the day, doing some Tellabs work from home despite it being a paid holiday, needing to wake my kindergartner and have her ready for a 10:30am birthday party, all while having my four plus two extra kids in the house.

On what turned out to be my last trip down the basement stairs, I stepped out apparently thinking I was on the last stair, but wasn’t, and landed hard on my right ankle bone. I heard cracking sounds on both sides of my ankle and was immediately in excruciating pain. I quickly called the kids into action to take care of all the things that needed to be done including calling my husband to come home and take me to Urgent Care. There I was diagnosed with a sprain, sent home with an air cast to wear for a few days, and told to use ice and take Vicodin and Naproxin.

Three weeks later after a few more doctor visits and x-rays I wound up with a better diagnosis and was put into a hard cast for a few weeks, and then another one for a few more weeks. It was exactly nine weeks before I was able to put even an ounce of weight on that foot. That whole time I had to keep my foot elevated above my heart as much as possible. When down for even a short time my foot and toes turned purple and swollen. The hard casts were followed by a few weeks of a walking cast, then a brace, then orthotics. A few months and a couple dozen visits to physical therapy later I was walking short distances with a limp. I was first able to drive thirteen weeks after the misstep.

I’m not a sports person and had never before had any kind of major injury, had never been in a cast or on crutches. Months of not being able to walk or drive gave me new appreciation for what handicapped people have to deal with every day. One day at a local department store I was unable to shop upstairs because the elevator wasn’t working and I was in a wheelchair. I found that when both hands are on the crutches and one foot can’t be set on the ground, it’s difficult or impossible to move anything from one place to another. Getting through doorways with automatically closing doors required help from another person. Many normally simple tasks were beyond the realm of my new reality. This was worse than just inconvenient.

I learned that injuries frequently don’t heal as good as new. Mine is known as a Lisfranc injury and is basically several torn ligaments and several dislocated bones, but no fracture. It turns out the cracking sounds I’d heard were not bones breaking but the most unpleasant sound of ligaments tearing from bone. My doctor told me I was lucky to escape the need for surgery. Yet two years later I still don’t have a full range of motion, I still can’t run without problems, I still need to wear gym shoes most of the time, and I still haven’t had my doctor’s wish come true - that I would at some point have a day in which I don’t have to think about it at all. Yet I can walk and drive and I can now walk barefoot (this was a major and important accomplishment).

The schedule at my house has been known to make people’s heads spin. During this time my husband was both traveling for work and had a completely inflexible work schedule when he was home. Jessica, my oldest, had a driver’s permit and wound up getting a lot of driving time in chauffeuring me and the other kids. However, she had her own busy schedule and frequently needed rides as well. I depended heavily on my husband, family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers during this difficult time.

While I was laid up we of course had to keep up with the usual household things like groceries, dishes and laundry. Our schedule was as always, crowded with the kids’ activities. Jessica at the time participated in badminton, Model UN, Student Council, Girl Scouts, and Anime Club. Kathy had orchestra rehearsal four mornings a week before school, Christian Club, and Confirmation. Jonathan was in chess club, band, and chorus, and Allie had swimming lessons and Daisies.

On top of that there were orchestra, band, and chorus concerts, Easter, a wedding shower hosted at my house, my brother-in-law’s wedding in which half my family was in the wedding (and shopping for clothes for several of us to wear for the special day), four of our six birthdays, Mother’s Day, a sick cat to the vet for surgery, orthodontist visits, piano lessons, school field trips, special end of the school year events for my children finishing kindergarten, fifth, and eighth grades, a fashion show which featured clothing Jessica had made, the district’s annual Fine Arts Festival in which my children’s performances were spread throughout the day, Kathy’s Confirmation, and birthday and graduation parties. Once the school year ended there were Girl Scout camps, Vacation Bible School, music camp, sports camp, Father’s Day, a church mission trip, more doctor and orthodontist visits. During this entire time I continued to work full-time from home except for occasional trips to the office for meetings. A long-planned and much anticipated major family vacation wound up being more difficult than fun.

On this Easter weekend, I am exceptionally grateful that I live in a time and place where this injury is treatable, that I was able to recover in comfort with help from so many people, that I have insurance that helped with the cost, that I have a job that can be done remotely, and most of all I’m so very, very happy that I can walk and drive. Most of all I’m thankful that it’s this year and not that one.