Crutches for Everyone!

Remember when I said that my one prayer is that I will stay healthy during this deployment? That if everything stays as UNEVENTFUL as the first couple of months were, we'd be doing great? Well, we are still hanging on, but we've had a few close calls.

N fell out of a tree a few weeks ago. He landed flat on both feet (of course, no shoes on--he is MY child, after all!) I iced it and gave him motrin, and he seemed fine, but then it would swell up again after he was moving around for a while. He was still hobbling around after about 3 days, so I took him for an xray. They said it wasn't broken, but very bruised, and like any other bruise, if you keep banging away at it (in this case, taking steps) it will take longer to heal.

The doctor said "If you want it to heal more quickly, I can either splint it, or put him on crutches." Well, here's my theory--every boy wants to be on crutches once in his life. Until he realizes how much it SUCKS. I even saw N's eyes kind of flicker as the doctor said it. So--I figured, put him on the crutches--in the 48 hours or so it takes to feel better, he'll get really sick of being left out of all the games, falling behind everyone on the way to lunch, and getting his ribcage rubbed raw by the arms of the crutches.

He was quite excited to leave the doctor's office. He didn't mind sitting in the culdesac watching everyone play basketball (because, of course, they all first came over and checked out the crutches and heard about the doctor visit.)

By evening, he was asking to have the crutches padded and band aids put on his sides because of the rubbing (it actually gave him a weird blister...) And by the 3rd day (Friday--baseball game day) he was healed. Hated the crutches and the foot felt better. Perfect.

That was Friday. The next Wednesday (this week) I was running down the SAME road I run every day. The kids had ridden scooters to school and J was riding his home and I was running behind him. We were just going to go pick up the stroller and go for the long run. All of a sudden, I rolled my ankle and went DOWN. In the split second it took to hit the ground I thought "Don't land on J, call clients and cancel workouts, don't break the phone."

I thought I was going to pass out. It hurt so much!!! I really thought it was broken! I hit the speed dial button on my phone for my neighbor, because I knew J would recognize her voice and could talk to her if I did pass out. I was crying and just said "I fell. I'm hurt. Come get me." I could hear her running for the car as she was trying to understand me telling her where I was.

I had just gotten an email on my phone that S was waiting to talk to me on Skype, and had told him I was on my way. For some reason, I wrote him again and said "Fell. Hurt ankle. C coming." I don't know why I did that. I was still in major pain, but I didn't want him to be sitting around waiting on me.

She came and got me and took me home. My other neighbor is a nurse, and between the three of us we decided I didn't need an xray. I was pretty sure it was tendon pain, because of the motions that hurt.

It is much better now. I can walk without any pain, and I keep a brace on it to keep the tendon still until it heals. I don't expect to be able to run for a couple of weeks, but it could have been so much worse. If I had broken it, it would have been in a cast, and then I couldn't drive. This is such a busy time of year, I don't know what I would have done with all the kids activities and stuff I have to get done!! I am grateful that it wasn't worse!!

It does look pretty ugly, though. Bruising covers most of the outside of my foot, but the swelling is going down quickly. I have an excellent brace that I can wear shoes and flip flops with. Guess why I have that brace...because I have done this before!!!

When S was a company commander, they were finishing a brigade run, and it was raining. As they came through the parking lot, I was running backwards trying to get a picture of him at the front of the formation with the guidon. I fell in front of the whole company. S couldn't stop and help me up, because the entire group would have run over us both. Soldiers didn't want to stop because he hadn't stopped so they figured they couldn't. Finally, one of them helped me up. I was so humiliated!! Anyway--Uncle G got me the brace then. I've kept it because when you're as clumsy as I am, it isn't a question of IF you'll need it again--it's just when!