This past Sunday the kids and I, as well as some extended family, went to play badminton with my husband Tim, who is a regular at a badminton club that includes everyone from novices up to the state-champion/Olympic-hopeful category. He's a competitive player, with a B ranking.
We were having a great time. I was playing better than I have before (I'm not much good, but this was better than past tries by a fair distance). Tim was dialing it back some so he and I could play doubles against people with not-quite-so-intense-as-his badminton skills and have a good time. We had come from behind to a small lead when I dove for a shot to my right... and rolled my ankle, hard. It made a series of ominous popping sounds. I was down, and we had to call the game. But hey, I made the shot! Tim didn't notice I was down until he went to return the return of my shot. The man keeps his eye on the birdie!
It hurt a lot in the first half hour. Folks helped me to the sidelines and brought ice, and Tim stuck with me. I cried for a little while from a mixture of pain, overwhelm at getting so much help, and fear about the way my foot was moving when I tried to hold it still -- like one of my usual control wires (ligament or tendon) was disconnected or something. Then the rec center lifeguards took a look, but they didn't have much to offer for first aid. After half hour the pain was getting worse, not better, so my wonderful sister-in-law Melissa took me to Kaiser urgent care to get it checked out, while Tim got the kids to their afternoon Navigators (coed inclusize scouting) meeting, which I was supposed to be helping lead. :(
Broken, they said. But there was so much swelling that they couldn't tell what the nature of the break was, exactly. They gave me a Cam boot to immobilize and protect the ankle, and a referral to orthopedics. They also gave me some painkillers in case ibuprofen wasn't enough, and instructions to stay on ibuprofen around the clock for now. By this time I had some in my system, and the pain was at a much lower level.
Melissa brought me home and set me up with water, food, a book... we couldn't find the crutches I knew were in the house somewhere, but I could crawl or butt-scoot if I needed to get around.
Just after Melissa left, Tim got home and found the crutches, increasing my mobility by a factor of 3 or so. I still couldn't carry, well, almost anything, so I was very dependent on people carrying stuff for me.
That night, I kept waking up with uninjured parts of my foot in a lot of pain. The boot was pressing on them in weird ways, and I couldn't find a way to fix it. I took a painkiller and fell asleep, only to wake up a couple of hours later to intense nausea, sweating, and weakness. Bad reaction, but it subsided fairly quickly, and I got back to sleep and slept in for hours past my usual wake-up time.
Monday I took things easy, mostly. I walked two blocks to the library to return some books and found it really rough going on crutches. The library is about the same distance away as the bus stop; bad news for my mobility with a broken right ankle. So I got signed up for paratransit and ordered a knee scooter (to arrive Wednesday), which should be a lot easier to use than crutches. I got an appointment for Wednesday morning at orthopedics -- I didn't like to wait so long, but I understand, since it will probably take 3 days for the swelling to go down enough to make a good diagnosis. I also figured out how to readjust the boot so it doesn't cause me pain, just annoying discomfort, a small price to pay for protecting my foot. I got a ride to the choir I direct and the one I sing in (back to back rehearsals in the same place). I almost didn't go, as I was pretty exhausted from my rough Sunday night, but I thought about how I usually end up more refreshed after choir than before it starts and decided to give it a go. I'm glad I did. It was good to see more friends and make some really beautiful music together, and I did feel refreshed and heartened.
Monday night was much better. Having talked to a doctor, I loosened the boot a bit with his blessing, so my foot was still protected but not quite as constricted. Mostly I slept pretty well, and I didn't take, or need, a painkiller beyond ibuprofen.
Today is Tuesday. The support network at my church has kicked in, and a friend delivered a walker with a detachable tray so I can carry things (Monday I ate my dinner right in front of the microwave because I couldn't carry it to the table!), and a shower stool. I'm still mostly taking it easy, just trying not to injure the foot worse. I'm working on logistics, planning bus trips or rides to the places we can't easily cancel or reschedule. We already have several rides lined up to classes and church/choir events.
I hope tomorrow's appointment brings some answers about what's going on and what we can do about it. Tim and I spent some time one night going over possible scenarios that might arise with the ortho visit. I'll probably be there by myself, and I wanted to have some mental immunization to possible outcomes so nothing could throw me for too much of a loop. Tim is a terrific imaginer of worst-case scenarios and had some doozies for me (bone density problems or cancer), but the more-likely scenarios he came up with were things I felt I could deal with. We shall see.
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