I always thought that 15 years of ballet and over 5 years of yoga and rockclimbing would give me ankles of steel. And so far it has.
But yesterday morning I was worried about my new camera not working correctly, and running around getting ready for work, and I stepped off the top of my stairs a little too far. I landed four feet down right on the side of my ankle with my foot turned under. It made a horribly loud “CRACK!” noise and I rolled around on the floor making an “OW!” face for about five minutes. Eventually I sat up and saw the swelling, so I got my anklet off as fast as I could. I then found my cell phone and called Mark.
I could hop around on it a little, but it hurt like mad. Mark said the prudent thing to do was go to the Dr’s and get it X-rayed, which we did. First lesson learned: When in pain, take pain killers before going to the hospital. Because you’re not going to get them while you’re there, well, maybe if you’re bleeding or something, but I wasn’t in that much pain, I guess.
The second lesson learned was that driving a wheelchair is a lot harder than it looks. Mark got to wheel me around in a wheelchair, which he kind of sucks at. He kept accidentally bashing my feet into furniture or backing himself into signs and equipment. Not that I’m complaining mind you, he was wonderfully sweet the whole time, and continues to do everything I need to keep me stationary.
It was a big day for “ortho” injuries as the nurses were calling us. There was another guy there who slipped on ice and had quite a swollen wrist. The worst one was the poor dude next to me who had fallen down stairs the day before and dislocated his shoulder. He hadn’t been able to get in to see his doctor until 24 hours later, so had spent that entire time with an un-located shoulder. They re-located it at his doctor’s and then sent him to the hospital for x-rays, just like the rest of us.
We were all in a big room, separated by curtains. The dr came in and told dis-located shoulder dude that he had no fractures, but should probably have a follow up with an orthopedic specialist in a couple of weeks. Then she poked her head into my curtain and said “There’s something weird about your X-rays Katherine, I’ll be back in a minute.”
Crap.
She came back 20 minutes later and said I had no fractures or broken bones. Yey!! When we asked what was weird about the X-ray, she said that she and the radiologist think it was probably just something about the angle of the picture. Mark mentioned the 15 years of ballet when I was a kid, and she nodded and said “Well, that might explain it too.” Then she said something about how dancers often develop arthritis in their feet and ankles later in life, and that I should go see a doctor if I start experiencing pain or stiffness in my hips, knees, feet, or ankles. Awesome. I bet all of the crack jamming in Vedauwoo isn’t helping either.
I suppose she meant “if you experience pain in a few years”, because right now I am experiencing a lot of pain and stiffness in this ankle. But the swelling has decreased dramatically and I’m hoping I’ll be back to normal in a week for our trip to Joshua Tree. Hopefully.
