also fractured! (my ankle)

Well, I'm glad I followed the advice of Dr. RickB (my coworker) today and went for x-rays, because what I hoped was just a really bad sprained ankle is actually a fracture. With a nice chip of bone broken off to boot. :(

I've got a temporary fiberglass splint on now and I'm supposed to keep it elevated and not put any weight on it. I also have good pain meds. And a dawning re-realization that I'm really bad on crutches. These things in combination make for a dangerous flight of stairs to and from our house.

So for my safety and yours, I'll be working from home on Tuesday, as this equation shows:
naturally bad balance + crutches + yummy pain meds != safe combination.

badly sprained, episode #73

I have sprained my ankle, again, and it's sprained very badly, again. And it was due to these damn SF sidewalks, AGAIN.

Saturday was gorgeous, and we were on our way to the park with Winston. We had blankets to lay on, and beer, and my camera. Halfway there I stepped on the edge of a newly carved hole that the Noe Valley Neighborhood Association has been cutting out to plant trees. But these holes are in the sidewalk, and lots of them aren't filled to the brim with dirt. As we know, if I step on an edge it's a disaster. My ankle rolled out, and I came down with my full weight on the side of my ankle. I felt and heard a snap. I really thought I'd broken my ankle. I went down, fully face down, and I think I actually might have slid a few inches. I was fortunate not to end up with road rash on my face.

A very nice postman dragged a chair over for me, he and JR helped me into it, and then JR ran home and got the truck and picked me up. Here's the drawback to SF: a gazillion steep steps up to your own front door. I had to drag my ass up the stairs because I couldn't hop up, and JR definitely couldn't carry me, as I'm not down to my "fighting weight" yet.

So I spent the entire weekend laid up in bed with my ankle elevated, icing it for the first 12 hours. I can't even put weight on it without excruciating pain. And oh, the goose-egg it became! We finally found crutches this morning, so I'm at work, and I'm barely able to manage the crutches. Even though I do this a lot, it's been a long time since I used crutches. And I was thinner then. Bonus: every step pulls my shirt up further, so I have to keep stopping to pull my shirt back down.

Ah... The Life and Times of Ashley the Klutz. Good stuff.

Update: Not just badly sprained, but also fractured. Even chipped a little bit of bone out as a special bonus. It just gets better and better!

i'm a klutz again

I've been doing so well for so long that I thought I'd actually beat this klutz thing. The sprained ankle in heels in December was my first hint, but the last week my klutziness has been rapidly accelerating.

Last week, it was REALLY cold when we got home, and the only thing on my mind was getting the electric blanket on the bed. The electric blanket which is, of course, in the top closet in the office. Seeing as how I was already ready for bed, freezing cold, and impatient, I didn't walk all the way to the other end of the house to get the step ladder, no! I decided it would just be quicker to use the office chair. That rolls. On wheels. It would just take a second. The whole time I'm thinking, "This is stupid. I shouldn't be doing this." But I was so cold!

So, after a couple of scary little rolls that I caught myself from, I wrestle the electric blanket out of the top closet. I look down to gauge where to step down, and am suddenly reminded that the chair not only rolls...it tilts and swivels. What reminded me? The chair rolling out from under me as the back tilted as far back as it would go. I went crashing down, slamming my ribs on the chair arms and my knee full force into the floor. The chair shot out with such force that it slammed one of it's rollers into our filing cabinet, dislodging one of the drawers and badly bending it's drawer guides.

My knee was scraped, but mostly just swollen. It's possible I cracked a rib or two, but I'm not sure. It really hurts to bend my knee in my jeans. And that was all before 8pm tonight.

Tonight, we ordered chinese food on our way home, and stopped for a quick sec at the Walgreens around the corner. While we waited on the incompetence of the pharmacy clerk, my phone rang; the chinese food was already there, wondering where the hell we were. I told JR to take the car and get home to pay for the food ASAP, and I would walk home.

[side note: Why do I always seem to get stuck with the incompetent pharmacy clerk who barely speaks English and can hardly operate the cash register? why lord why?!?!]

When I finally got my refills and headed home, it was pretty darn chilly outside, and I wasn't dressed for chilly. I rushed the block or so home, up the hill, and right as I got to the corner store my feet were torn out from under me, my phone went flying and scraping across the sidewalk, and my Walgreens bag launched out 10 feet into the street. I landed HARD on my hurt knee, also scraping my palms, my pinky finger, and my elbow. A really nice lady helped me up. I looked to see what on earth I had tripped on, and it was a huge rubber mat folded in half so the folded part is a huge loop, just waiting to snare unsuspecting walkers.

I hobbled the rest of the block home, and surveyed the damage. My knee now has two scrape areas, and one rapidly bruising swelling. It's nearly impossible to bend my leg at the moment.

All of this, just in time for SXSW. Hooray! It looks like the klutz is back, and I'm not happy about that. Neither is my knee.