Ouch

Well.... I went in to the clinic on December 30th and got my ankle x-rayed.  As soon as the technician saw the x-ray she immediately sent me to emergency.  It turns out that I have a broken fibula, and it is being displaced by having walked on it for the past two weeks.

Margarit took me to the emergency ward at the Grey Nuns Hospital.  Initially we had to sit there for almost two hours with a room full of sick people, hacking and coughing.  But soon after I was taken in and my injury was partially dealt with.  The doctor put me down under a general anesthetic and reset the bones in my leg.  He was expecting it to be very painful when he gently held my ankle and demonstrated what he was going to do.  At this stage of the game I have discovered that I must have a very strong pain threshold.  I played hockey for almost 45 minutes and then walked around on a broken fibula, including going up and down stairs multiple times, over a period of two weeks.  After re-setting the break a temporary cast was put on my leg and I was sent home. Surprisingly it only took about 4-1/2 hours from the time we arrived at emergency, until I was discharged to go home and stay off my feet.

After the last two weeks I feel as though I could easily walk on my cast leg.  But I am following doctors orders as much as possible and using crutches to bash my way around the house.  I've learned that it is really challenging to carry a hot cup of coffee while on crutches.

It really doesn't hurt much anymore and the worst part is dealing with the itching skin under the cast.  I have to wait for a couple of days to get in for surgery and have the break more permanently repaired.

So, needless to say there will be no New Years Eve celebrations for me tonight, and I will not be playing hockey again for a while.  But it is nice to know that the end is in sight now.

This will be my last post for 2024.  I was hoping to be able to upload an image of the x-ray but they would not provide me with one.  It looked rather hideous, in a painful sort of way.  I'm not really expecting a call from the hospital tomorrow as it will be New Years Day.  But hopefully I can get in and get the surgery over with very soon.  Last night I struggled with what I think we side effects of the anesthetic and I was jittery and sleepless for most of the night.