#ankleChronicles

It was the start of Summer 2014. I was only teaching summer courses at ONE college. That is rare! I am usually teaching courses at two colleges at any given moment. This relief in time management for summer was just what I needed to relieve stress, relax, and take some time to really work out in the gym to lose weight. The plan was this: Wake up late, go for a light run/walk in one of the local scenic parks or greenways, spend some time writing, and then end the evening with a cardio class at the gym and weight training. That WAS the plan.

 July 13, 2014 was just a regular Friday for me. My typical day of cleaning up for the weekend, doing laundry, and some yard work was what I planned for the day. I did clean the house, cut the front lawn, and came in to start the laundry before I cut the back lawn. Being the timesaver that I am, I figured, “Why not carry BOTH laundry baskets of dirty clothes down the steps at one time? That would save time. Right?” WRONG! The decision to pile two, large ,laundry baskets on top of each other while walking down a flight of stairs with a lazy Cocker Spaniel lying at the bottom of the steps thus began what I call #ankleChronicles. 

The rest is history. Let’s just say that dirty clothes and the basket reached the bottom of the stairs before I did. Socks, shorts, tees, and towels flew wildly everywhere, and my Cocker Spaniel, Honey, did too. She is an older dog and slightly overweight, but the view of seeing me and baskets of laundry tumbling down the steps made her move faster than a puppy.

 Before I realized it, I was horizontal on the floor and holding my knee. All I could think of was: “Which bones did I break this time?” I was hoping it wasn’t my right ankle because that was broken badly in 2000 (that’s another story in itself). So I moved that ankle and realized it was still intact. Since my knee hit the floor at the same time as my body, I knew at that a knee bruise was included in this fall, so I didn’t really fixate on that pain immediately.

 I began to move my hands and arms. Whew! I thought; no broken arms. As I decided to lean upward, shifting my body weight on what I thought was my “good” leg without the knee pain, I suddenly fell back down. Pain and stings shot straight up my left leg, and I screamed. By then, Honey was peering around the corner looking sadly at me. Slowly, she walked up to me, licked my hand as to say, “I am sorry for running”, and then sat and looked at me with a stare of disbelief.

 So I looked back at her and began to cry. Realizing that my ankle was injured, I slid my body towards the kitchen area to get my phone. I called my Mom, jokingly, she thought I was playing when I told her I had fallen down the steps. What a fine time to want to play games!

 As I looked at my ankle, I could see it had swollen two times its normal size. I already have big ankles from years of sprains as an athlete, but I knew this was not normal. My mom told me to put ice on it and see if it stops hurting. The opposite happened. Not only did it not stop hurting, it began to hurt worse. The swelling continued, and the black and blue discoloration started. Uh oh! It’s broken; I thought.

 Finally getting to Urgent Care after two hours of debate with myself, I found out I had a hairline fracture and a severe sprain with a bone chip. Good, I said to the Doctor; that should be healed in no time. Wrong again. He informed me that this injury would take 4-5 weeks to heal, AND I had to wear an air boot. An air boot in June and July is like wearing a wool coat to the beach. It’s just not right.

 All of my plans for a super, fun summer of workouts were halted. All of my progress towards my weight loss goals had to change. Every day that went by, I was sad and/or complaining about what I could not do. People that I had worked out each day went on with their workouts without me. It just was not fair.

 One day as I was sitting alone in my living room with no television on and staring out the window, I realized that I had not sat down for that amount of time with nothing to do or nowhere to go in over a year. Every day of the last year had some schedule to meet or something to complete. I realized then that God slowed me down to help me. In my hurry of so many things to do each day, everything was a rush, even taking the laundry down the steps.

 Now that my ankle is healing, and I am able to resume normal activities, I am thankful for the moment that I now call my #ankleChronicles. This recovery time allowed me to reflect, pray, and even think about my plan for a better Me. The time it took to heal my ankle was just the right amount of time that I needed to rest and enjoy doing NOTHING. I am glad to say that doing nothing really felt good.

 7/15/14 Dr. Sunshine68