The day I broke my ankle

Here’s how it happened.

I broke my ankle sliding down an icy hill too fast and using a tree to ‘cushion’ me to a stop. The ‘cushion’ caused my ankle to snap.

I’ve never broken a bone before. To this point in life, I thought I was just invincible and always would be. Now I know I’m not invincible.

I wasn’t in any pain… just afraid I was about to be. I could tell my ankle was just kind of flopping.

Luckily my family was with me and called 911. An ambulance came and took me to a hospital. I told my wife just to take the kids home as I know how long waits can be at hospitals, and to just go home and stay by the phone.

About me

I’m a 50-year-old fat man. I’ve never broken a bone, and never used crutches before. I can lift things because I’m big, not because I’m in shape.

I’m privacy-minded. I don’t use a lot of social media and don’t care for my face and name to be out there. I realize there’s nothing controversial about sharing this kind of story, but I still feel weird about identifying myself and my family, so my pictures are minimal. I’ll do a few here on the site that don’t show anything that can really be traced to me.

I work in tech, and I work at home some days, in office other days. This would definitely come in handy - I am lucky enough that I could work from home while recovering. My wife is petite, and she’s a stay at home mom. (Again - lucky me - I’d need her help quite a bit in the coming weeks).

The ER

So I’m at the ER, and I thought this visit would be an overnight or multi-day hospital stay. I thought there’s no way I’m leaving until they fix this, right?

Wrong. Instead, the ER did some x-rays, slapped a plaster splint on it, and said, “We won’t be operating on it. Here are some crutches. Don’t put any weight on this foot at all. You’re going home - call the orthopedist office tomorrow and make an appointment - they’ll take it from there.”

That stunk, as I wanted to get on that assembly line to recovery, lay back, and let things get started. Instead, I’m being sent home and told to start calling medical offices to make appointments. Having to cold-call medical offices for appointments feels dreadful. I just broke my ankle - why would I have to do this?

But I kept things in perspective: this could’ve been much worse. I could’ve hit my head, or my fracture could’ve broken the skin. Fortunately, neither occurred. I do wonder if they would’ve addressed things more immediately had that happened.

I arrived home that night

I called my wife to come get me, and I was wheeled to the hospital exit in a wheelchair where my wife drove the car up. I was able to crawl in the front seat, and position my crutches next to me. But once my wife pulled into the driveway at home, it sank in how hard this was going to be.

I had to make it out the car door, through the carport, up a step to get into the house, and a few more feet to make it a recliner. All on crutches, one foot only, and not let the broken one touch the ground (not allow it to catch me if I get off balance).

I never found a single step in my carport door so frightening before. I stood there and thought “do I put the crutches up on the step, and sort of jump into it? Or do I leave the crutches on the lower ground and use my good leg to step up?” I ended up doing the first thing, but not very assuredly.

I made it through focus and will, but that short little distance wore me out. I don’t know how I managed to do that without collapsing to the ground or losing my balance to the extent that I would use my bad foot out of habit.

I stayed in the recliner the rest of the night. Sweating. Exhausted from exertion. Tired from a long day.

I wanted to sleep but couldn’t do so yet. There were a couple of things I had to do. First, I sent a message to my work letting them know what happened and that I’d be out the next day or two, and that I’d keep them posted. The other thing I had to do was talk with my wife on how to handle the bathroom situation.