First Broken Bone...Make that Three

On June 16, 2017 I broke my ankle!! Ouch is right!!!  After Armin's Kindergarten Grad the night before we decided to head to Little Bow and camp for the weekend.  Armin was beyond excited!! He told his teachers that he was going camping for 4 days and he would get to ride his bike all over the place!!  We got there late Thursday evening, well before dark.  We backed our trailer in and had a campfire before heading to bed.  Everyone was very tired and all the was quiet before we knew it!!


The next morning the kids and had a little sleep in, until around 8:30am while Jared headed into work for the day.  As soon as the boys were awake they got dressed and out they went to ride their bikes, I was sure I would have to go look for them at some point to get some breakfast in them, but for the moment I let them be free!!!  Emry too got up and off she went on her bike too!!!  I got myself somewhat ready for the day before I headed out to use the bathroom.  Well, I didn't make it very far because as I stepped out of the trailer both my ankles collapsed under me.  I heard a horrible crack sound and down I went, right to the ground.  I looked at my ankles to see where all the pain was coming from and noticed that my left ankle had a good sized scrape down the front and my right ankle was all cock eyed.  OUCH!! I carefully grabbed my right ankle and brought it back facing straight, yes that hurt, a lot!!  But I'm thankful I did that, it prevented it from being done in the hospital.  I sat there for quite some time wondering what to do.  I was all alone.  The kids were off biking and Jared was at work.  I prayed that Emry would drive by soon so we could get some help, I knew my ankle was broken.  I sat and sat until finally the camp management drove up in her golf cart.  She happened to be coming to collect our registration since the office was closed the night before.  As soon as she saw me sitting there she asked if I was okay, I told her I was pretty sure I broke my ankle.  She got Jared's phone number and said she would drive to the top of the hill and call him and then she said she would look for Emry!  She did find Emry and she came right to the site when she was told what happened.  When she saw me she instantly went white.  Poor girl, she was brave though, once Calum came back she got him playing a game with her so he didn't get a chance to worry about me.  He did cover my foot with his sweater though, what a sweet, thoughtful boy.  We had to wait for Jared to come, he was north of Vulcan when he got the call.  He turned around right then but it still took about an hour and a half before he got to us.  Armin finally showed up to, but wasn't interested in me being hurt so off he went again!!!  He did make it back when Jared got there and after getting me in the van we all headed to the hospital in Vulcan.

I got in rather quickly and was even able to have an x-ray before the lab closed for lunch.  The x-ray showed that it was indeed broken so they fitted me with an aircast and said I would probably head to Calgary where an orthopedic surgeon was going to look at it.  We left the hospital and took the kids for lunch, we got the call while they were eating to head to Calgary.  We dropped the kids off with Mark and my Mom and on we went.  We got to the South Health Campus by 4:00pm and again got in quite quickly.  I had another x-ray and ct scan then they put a partial cast on it and I was taken to a bed in the day surgery wing.  I actually broke three bones.  One near the top of my shin, and two in my ankle.  I was told I did in fact need surgery.  They needed to put plates and pins in to support the bones that broke, the ones right on the joint.  They would do nothing with the bone in my shin, he will heal itself.  They gave me morphine for the pain and said my surgery would probably be the next day sometime, they needed a little extra time to get my blood regulated.  My INR levels were actually quite high for performing surgery.  Too thin, so I would bleed a lot more than necessary.  I was given three oral doses of potassium and one through intravenous to bring my INR down.  Finally, it was at the right level by mid afternoon on Saturday.  I was so hungry, I had to stop eating before midnight the night before, but really I hadn't eaten since lunch the day before.

The anesthesiologist was so dry, I almost started laughing because it was comedic how dry he was.  But I refrained.  He finally convinced me that having an epidural was the way to go, I did tell him I didn't want to be awake at all through the surgery, he said with the epidural they also give me something that will make me sleepy.  It was my first epidural even with having three kids.  And it wasn't as bad or as scary as I thought it would be.  It took me awhile to come out of it in recovery.  It worried Jared because they told him 2-3 hours tops, well 6 hours later he was quite concerned.  I was wheeled into my room shortly after that and then into another room in the orthopedic wing where I would be staying for a few days until they could get my blood levels back up to normal.  I had no feeling in my right leg for quite a few hours and even into the next day.  But it slowly came back, a weird sensation.  Jared brought the kids and Myrna to see me that afternoon.  It was nice to see them, Emry was pretty teary, my poor girl!!  Armin missed me laying with him at night, but they were well taken care of.  I ended up staying in the hospital until Tuesday at lunch time.  Everything was back to normal, well, except that I couldn't put any weight on my broken ankle for 6 weeks.

I saw the surgeon again yesterday and she said it is healing nicely, they took the staples out, which I couldn't look at and it did hurt.  4 more weeks with no weight bearing and then I see the surgeon again.


Its going to be a long summer, and I feel bad for ruining the kids summer.  But we have had lots of offers to take them to the pool which is about all we were going to do anyway.  But camping will be limited, I'm scared to go now.  For never having broken a bone I sure did it up good.  I guess the saying is true, go big or go home!!!!!