Back in July- while we were at the Wheeler Family Reunion in Island Park and Yellowstone- I stumbled on some steps and sprained my ankle. It hurt lots and lots and lots.
How did it happen, well, I was walking down the outside steps of a cabin, while carrying a book, a kindle and a couple of boxes of snack cakes.......in the dark. I don't know how exactly it happened, but I found myself falling, then hitting my head as I finally came to rest on the ground. It didn't really hurt immediately, in fact I tried to stand up and quickly discovered that I couldn't. So there I was, in the dark at the bottom of the stairs outside of one of the two cabins our families had rented for the reunion. The shoe I had been wearing on the foot of my hurt ankle had flown 5 or more feet away from where I had been. I used my arms to boost myself from step to step until I got to the porch of the cabin and eventually I was able to signal to one of my Brothers in law that I was in need of help.
This is what my ankle looked like the next morning. I wasn't able to bear weight on it at all. The swelling seemed high to me, and I wondered if it was broken.
While our boys went with their Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins to see Old Faithful, Ken drove me about 100 miles to the nearest (open) medical clinic. (There was a clinic about 5 minutes away from our cabin, but it was closed 1 weekday per week......it happened to be the day I needed them) My ankle was examined and X-rays were taken and we were told it was sprained and to keep resting and icing it.
This is what my bruising looked like the second day.
By the time the reunion was over, I could bear weight, enough to get from the couch to the kitchen or bathroom. But it was still quite swollen and the bruise was pretty awesome. This picture doesn't do it justice. From about 2 inches above my ankle to the top of my foot, there was a large purple bruise, then from the middle of my foot down to my toes my food was a beautiful purplish-green.
When we arrived home, about 3 or 4 days after my fall, it started to feel worse, I could no longer bear weight and it was painful almost all the time. I decided to go have it checked out again. The doctor that saw me here at home was VERY impressed with my bruises, I bruise really well. He told me that what I had was a "High Grade Sprain" these are the kinds of sprains that people will sometimes say are "worse than a break" I'm guessing it's because you can do something for a break......but all they can really do for this kind of sprain is put you in a boot and tell you to take pain medications.
The boot was pretty much a miracle. I went from not being able to get around without using crutches to walking with not much pain at all! I wore it for about 4 weeks. The sole boot is between 1 and 2 inches thick, so I had to wear a shoe that was close that that tall on my other foot- I only had one.....so I wore the same shoe (my Black Doc Marten Mary Janes- with an extra sole insert) for 4 weeks. This was hard for me. I really like shoes.
Even though I WAS able to walk I was not supposed to walk for long periods of time, SO whenever I had the chance, I took advantage of "carts"! I think the kids loved it almost as much as I did. I am a pretty good cart driver, if I do say so myself.
After 4 weeks in the book I was downgraded to this beautiful brace. which allowed me to move more easily AND wear any shoes I wanted!!!!! (well almost any, some shoes just didn't work). AND I could wear PANTS again! not just shorts and capris pants (good thing this injury happened during the summer) I also started physical therapy. I told my doctor that I needed to be able to run again BECAUSE I had missed it, and missing it was making me sad and when I am sad I self medicate with cookies and chocolate......I blame this injury on me not making my goal of maintaining most of my weight loss from last year (all is not lost, I had hoped to maintain a weight between 145 and 150, I'm currently maintaining between 153 and 158 which isn't horrible)
At physical therapy I learned 7 exercises and stretches that helped to strengthen those tiny little muscles in my ankle. After 2 weeks of PT I was given the go ahead to start running again, with the brace on.
I had not run in 8+ weeks. I learned the hard way a few years ago that you should take twice as long to return to running the distances that you were accustomed to running regularly as you were unable to run. SO I planned for a slow, 16 week recovery. I've taken it really slow, as I've had a few colds and other illnesses that slowed my progress, BUT by the end of the year I'll feel like I've fully recovered AND hopefully I won't have to deal with the "runner's knee" that I had back in 2012. That was a sad sad lesson, but I think I've learned it well.
I've set a new goal for next year- 12 races in 12 months! It's going to be awesome!!!!!
