Big Break

So, I broke my ankle. Badly. In two places. I'm a klutz!

Tuesday after work, Rob and I decided to take a bike ride. We've been talking about doing one for a few weeks, but never have gone to the trouble to haul out our bikes. The weather was so nice on Tuesday that we got suited up, dragged out our stuff and headed off on some wooded trails near our house.

We'd ridden about 30 minutes and were on our way back home. I'd suggested going through the neighborhood and out to the main road, but we decided to just turn back on the path. We were crossing a little stream -- literally about 2 inches deep -- when I hit a log or a rock or something, and I flew off my bike like Superman.

I landed in the water. The bike landed on me.

As soon as I hit the ground, I knew my ankle was broken. That was evident when I looked at my foot, which was pointed in a total wrong direction. Yikes!

Rob hopped off his bike and came running over. We hadn't brought a cell phone, and even if we'd had one, we wouldn't have had a clue where to tell the ambulance to come. Earlier, we'd biked past a little boy playing in his yard, and he'd hollered out "hello" to us, so I told Rob to go up the path to that house and see if a parent was there. I scooted out of the water as much as I could, and sat in my wet clothes just crying and praying.

Rob came back in a few minutes and waited with me while the nice man whose door Rob knocked on waited for the ambulance. His wife or somebody brought down a blanket, and the ambulance pulled up about 10 minutes later.

They took off my shoe and splintered my leg, then hoisted me up on a stretcher and wheeled me out of the woods. In the ambulance, they tried unsuccessfully to give me an IV (I have nutty veins), so I got two shots of morphine. We got to the hospital, I finally got the IV and saw the doctor.

The nice neighborhood people gave Rob a ride home, and he got my wallet and came to the hospital, which is literally in the neighborhood across from our house.

Xrays showed that I broke both my tibula and fibula bones in my right ankle. The orthopedic surgeon came in (I kept looking for McDreamy, but he must have been off that night), and he moved my bones back into place (OUCH!) and splinted me again.

Yesterday afternoon, I had surgery to reconnect the bones with eight shiney screws and one plate. So I'm wrapped up again with a splint and I get my cast tomorrow.

Rob has been GREAT and my mom came down yesterday afternoon to be here while Rob is at work. Plus she's going to cut off and hem a couple pairs of pants so I'll have something to wear with my cast.

What an adventure! I'd like to say this was an April Fool's joke, since it happened March 31 and April 1, but unfortunatly it is not. :)