Longest Post Ever (Sorry)

I think it’s about time that I get this all down on paper for posterity, or something. Before I forget all the gory details. I’ve been holding off, waiting for the Happy Ending and that’s now in sight, so here we go.

I tried out a new thing in May last year and I loved it – roller skating. I loved it more for the people than my natural skill at skating. Because honestly, we all know I’m not athletic, coordinated, any of it. But it was still fun, I had more fun every time I’d go to another practice. I’d leave practice on the natural high that comes from hanging out with great people while we work hard, sweat, fall down (so much falling!), jump back up and try harder. Somehow, I managed to fit in one or two practices a week, all while also juggling the rest of the family activities we always have going on.

All was well, I only got hurt once, minor thing that bruised up my back but I ONLY missed one day of work for it. For the record, my back thing was when I fell backwards and landed on someone else’s skate wheels. Right below my ribs, but maybe kind of on my lowest rib? It hurt to breathe for a couple of days after that. It’s ok, I already had my injury, I’ll be fine going forward. Plus I’m a better skater now than 6 months ago! All the while, skaters around me dropping like flies. Broken hand. Knee is acting up again. Shoulder issues tonight. More knee problems. You can see where this is going.

 

Six months. I’d been skating for six months. Loving it more every week. Monday night practice rolls around, we get all geared up and off we go. Skating on the oval, round and round, drills to practice this and learn that. Super simple drill. No contact. Meaning, we’re not hip checking each other or doing hip whips or blocking, no one is touching anyone else. We’re practicing going around each other, with half the skaters standing still and the other half skating up to someone, circling around them and then moving onto the next stationary skater. No contact. Totally safe. Low key.

I do the circling around thing a couple times and then skate up to Bulldog, she’s standing still, watching me coming. I circle around her and as I get behind her, my skate tangles up with hers and in slow motion I go down HARD. I curl up on my side with my arms in front of my face, I was convinced she was going to come down on top of me. On my head. By some miracle of athletic prowess, she somehow threw herself a different direction and landed nowhere near me. But I couldn’t process that. I just laid there in a ball. I may have said a few words not suitable for children. And there I laid. I couldn’t get off the track, I couldn’t move. My ankle had been wrenched around so badly that I was surprised, when I looked down at my leg, that my foot wasn’t facing the wrong direction. This is probably around the time that I started crying pretty hard. Good news, though! We have a sports medicine specialist on our team!! She was at my side right away. I begged for an ice pack but she knew better. She helped me turn onto my back and stretch out my legs. She wrapped me up in a splint and as she felt my ankle and leg, I started to calm down. My ankle hurt terribly, but I felt something shifting in my leg as she was testing out my condition. I called David and asked for a ride. He arranged for the kids to get a ride home from the current Scout event and showed up within a few minutes. My skater friends helped me into his car and off we went to the ER.

 

Of course you know how this goes. Hours of waiting. In total, we spent about 5 hours there. I cycled between being able to hold it together, and crying in agony as we did yet another x-ray and just turn your leg this way, just bend your foot that way… So much swelling around my ankle. And what about that thing with my leg? It hurts there too, and you haven’t looked at that at all! More x-rays. Yes. Broken. Broken leg, dislocated ankle. Ugly all around. Here are some crutches, go see a doctor tomorrow.

Tomorrow rolls around. I call in sick to work. David takes me to the surgeon. I sit there, looking at the x-rays, listening to him explain what I did to wreck my ankle and the surgeon’s voice starts to fade out. I can’t understand what he’s saying at all, he sounds like static. I’m getting so warm. Pay attention Amy, this is important! But I’m so hot. I can’t follow him, what is he even talking about? I’m so hot. I interrupt him. I’m so hot – the nurse helps me lay down on the exam table where I have a complete meltdown. I don’t want surgery. I don’t want to go under general anesthesia. I don’t want to go under. I don’t want to do it. The nurse gives me a drink of water. She explains that I won’t be able to walk normally ever again if I don’t have this fixed. It’s all very safe. You have to do this. It’s so safe. She calms me down, I ask 100 questions, we schedule the surgery, we leave.

The non-sciencey explanation is that I twisted my ankle around so badly that it caused my fibula to break. The stress on the ankle and the tendon that connects my ankle to my knee was released when the tendon snapped my bone. My ankle was dislocated, all the pieces were separated from each other.

Now we wait. I lay on the couch with my leg up for a few days, Friday I go in for the surgery. I cry some more, there’s so much talking, the surgeon puts his initials on my left leg, smiles and abandons me. A few minutes later there’s a mask on my face and I’m being rolled into a room with a LOT of people. I see the people for about half a second before I’m out.

I wake up in recovery, lay there for a while and then I’m taken to my own room where David is waiting for me. I still don’t really understand what’s going on, there are instructions not to take the boot off, don’t put any weight on my foot, and we’re sent home again. With a folder with instructions. 

What follows is many days of a strict medicine schedule, so much sleeping, hobbling around on crutches. Friends coming to visit and bringing gifts and company, and it’s all a blur. In the meantime, my family continued on their regular lives. School, catch the bus, do homework, chores, working, making dinner, etc. etc. It all feels like a fog when I look back on it now. I was so out of it. I slept so much. I missed two weeks of work.

Fast forward five months. Skip over the time that I fell down and skinned my knee in the laundry room. Skip the other time when I got a little too brave on my crutches going down two steps and nearly gave Mary a heart attack as I launched myself past the step off her porch and LANDED! (How did I not fall flat on my face??) Forget about the time that I bent my crutch (and almost my leg, thank goodness for the boot) between the ottoman and the couch.

Remember with fondness the times that friends pushed me around in wheelchairs (skate practice, Chicago, everywhere!) or we scooted around the grocery store at top speed while going on a brownie run.

Right here let's talk about how AMAZING my family was. They brought stuff to me, constantly asked what they could do to help, listened to me cry over not being able to walk, not being able to carry anything, not being able to DO ANYTHING. And helped me some more. Those four people that I live with are so compassionate, generous, patient. I couldn't ask for a better family. And, my husband and parents drove me around in those first days, taking me for appointments and medicines and all of it. Everyone made the very best out of a very difficult situation. Thank you thank you thank you!

Physical therapy, more x-rays, off the crutches (six weeks I think?), finally out of the boot (two months? three? felt like forever!) and then. Skates. Skates!!! I get the ok to skate. I go back, and it was better than expected. I was steadier on my feet than I expected to be but I took it easy for a couple of weeks – no contact, then a LITTLE contact, go easy on me. And now, last night, my first time with full contact in our practice. I got to be a jammer for the first time ever and I know you probably don’t know derby but this was my chance to skate fast, ram into people, shove past people and sneak through the pack to score points. I know everyone was going easy on me but it was SO MUCH FUN! Mayhem’s back!