{Ouch!}

It's been a humbling 2 weeks. I broke my foot, being somewhat of a klutz. We were at our friends' home for a 60th birthday party. Having been there only 10 minutes, I was headed out to the living room to take a picture with my new camera (its first official outing with a crowd of people!!) when I missed the two steps into the sunken living room. Trying to protect my camera at all costs, I twisted then fell on top of my foot. I knew immediately it was broken and after about 15 minutes of swelling and intense pain, Greg took me to ED where I was fast-tracked and casted!
So for you medical buffs, I broke the top of the talus. You can click on the x-ray above and see exactly were the bone fragment is "floating." There is a fair amount of certainty that the tendon and/or ligament was also torn away from the bone, but that's for the next x-ray to show. Too much swelling had occurred! And yes, it hurt!
This is a temporary cast....it has "openings" in the front and the back to allow for the swelling. It weighs about 4#. I am not supposed to put any weight on this foot (hence, non-weight bearing) but do use my heel to balance....I don't need to fall and break something else here!!!
My improvised "stair-climbing!" I just haven't mastered the crutches and stairs so I scoot down and pull myself up the stairs. I mainly wear sweats and scrubs as they are the most comfortable and easiest to manage right now.

Next is the visit to the surgeon, hopefully this week. I'm told there is a 20% chance of surgery to reattach everything but that decision will be made with the next diagnostic test. For now I'm NWB until the end of February. Still working but with reduced hours. Working in rehab I had a good understanding of what my patients go through but now truly can say I feel a strong affinity with those trying to navigate our environment, which is so lacking in access. I use a walker in public for the most part as I am not good with crutches on wet, slippery surfaces (that's what living in Oregon does for you!).

There are blessings in all of this as well:

• Pain has been minimal for the most part and managed by ibuprofen (thank goodness!)
• My husband has taken over ALL of the household duties, including meal preparation. I just don't seem to manage carrying food/drinks/things with crutches!! I can't say "thank you" enough to him as he as willingly helped out and not complained even once!
  
• I have had to accept help from others, which has always been difficult and am learning to ask for help and to be grateful for it, rather than whining about not being able to do it myself.
  
• I am accepting that God has a plan for me in postponing my running dreams and is teaching me to solely rely on Him to figure this all out. I have a peace about that now and am willing to work hard to return to running when I can.
• I am keeping a positive outlook on all of this now. That wasn't the case last week when pity parties seemed to be everywhere, everyday. Thank God those are over!
  

So I'll keep up with blogging and posting my progress and status and hopefully have some good news to post later this week!