ER - Broken ankle, fractured heel, dislocated, and torn ligaments. =(

Monday, Sept. 24, 2012 - Week 1

Hi, because I wasn't able to find anything to help me understand what to expect, I wanted to start a blog to record my progress to help those of you who are experiencing the same thing and curious about what to expect next. I really hope this helps!

I had my usual Monday night Co-ed Softball game to play and it was the first time we changed around positions! I was so excited! I played first base and got an out! We got the inning over fast. When it came to my turn to hit, I made a great hit over the middle of 2nd base and got on base safely! Next hit gets in and I'm running to second....I see the ball coming to my head so I decided to go in for a slide. The guy runs in to tag me out, runs over my foot, and steps on my ankle! I felt this crazy snap and saw stars... Next that came was a nasty horrible constant pain. I was down on my hands and knees and couldn't move. It was excruciating pain! Shortly after being carried back to the bench, I started to lose my hearing and sight. I guess I was going into shock. Funny thing is it felt very similar to when I last injured my ankle from Rock Climbing class back in college with a fractured heel and torn ligaments on the same ankle!

So my teammate drove me to the hospital and went straight to the Emergency Room for some xrays. As I was preparing, a very nice nurse came to help and let me take my own shoe off because I knew how painful it would be and best to have me do it if I'd like. I was really nervous to find out if it was indeed broken. So I went in, got the xray, came out and the Doctor said, "It looks like you have dislocated your ankle, broke the fibula, and looks like a fractured heel too. First we'll give you some morphine before we pop it back in place and another round of xrays after that. It may look like you may need surgery. We'll have an orthopaedic take a look at your xrays to decide that later." I'm like oh yea, my ankle is angling to the side! That guy what I thought kicked actually stepped on me pretty hard! At this point, I'm turning white in the face and scared. The nurse comes to give me the morphine and just waiting for it to kick in before they pop my ankle back in. Glad that I had someone there with me. I was getting even more nervous. When I get scared, I like to joke around and so we talked about Unicorns throwing up Rainbows. It was an inside joke with my old coworkers to use as a mascot for our team.

Before popping my dislocated ankle back in

Here we go, morphine kicked in and it was time. The doctor came back, had another nurse get the splint/cast ready and to help. They gave me a warning at least and POP! I squeezed my teammate to death and screamed. It felt like a huge knuckle crack! It wasn't as bad as I thought but maybe it was because the Morphine helped. Then the morphine kicked in just a bit more a little too late haha of course after the popping. However, after casting the ankle I felt less pain. They brought me back in to get xrays and the doctor showed them and explained to me how my ankles looked better and were aligned which was a relief. Except he was concerned about the large gap between the ankle still. Then the scary words, "it may look like you may need surgery." At that point I was getting dizzy and started to sweat. I haven't had any food in my stomach so I started to feel very nauseous from the morphine.

After popping my dislocated ankle back in

It was a very traumatizing day! They sent me off to pick up vicodin and to schedule an appointment to see the surgeon as soon as possible to find out if I needed surgery. Gotta smile through the pain, well actually couldn't really feel the pain after morphine at the emergency room haha.

Surprisingly, the pain was barable and wasn't too bad as long as it was elevated and not moving.

To be continued.... with the day I see my surgeon. I need a break from typing!