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August 17, 2005
Starting off on the... broken foot
There's that saying about starting off on the wrong foot, but this is ridiculous. Honestly.
So RA training has started off wonderfully, and I'm enjoying a lovely Tuesday. Working with the staff is great and we went to the basketball courts to play a little pick-up game.
I was playing a lot for my team. I'm more of a sprinter than a long-distance running kind of gal, so I took breaks by tagging in another team member every 7 to 10 minutes. I felt terrific! I scored a few points, and I was blocking like a maniac.
I've never played any kind of organized basketball. Just because I'm 6'1" everyone thinks I'm a natural basketball belle. Yeah right.
So I'm playing like crazy... I jump up to block a shot and land on my left ankle: hard. Really hard. I'd tumbled once earlier in the game and skinned my palm a little, but I bounced back and ran right back into the action. But this hurt.
I knew better than to try to play on it, so I stood on the sidelines shifting my weight and balancing on one foot so I could try to feel what hurt to do and what didn't. Basically everything hurt.
Game over, and my team lost, but that's okay. I found out the nurse didn't come in until 8am. Okay, how about an athletic trainer? Nope--with over 100 football, soccer, and fieldhockey players altogether there wasn't a one to be found.
So I sat on the bench of the picnic table in front of McKenna and called my mom. She was at a local WalMart with my brothers for school shopping, and was going to be bringing me my iBook later that evening. I told her I had hurt my foot and that she should bring me some ice. She said it would be awhile...
No kidding. I sat outside during my favorite time of day (twilight) in excurciating pain just chitchatting with the two Resident Directors that stayed to wait with me. I got a make-shift wrap and ice job, but it hurt still.
Mom arrived and my two younger brothers in tow. They helped me up and into Canevin, and then into the Maura elevator. We got out on 3rd, but I live on 4th (there is no elevator to 4th for security reasons). But lo-and-behold, a gaggle of football players. One saw my tee shirt said "Apollo" and asked if I needed help. He said, "I'll carry you, but I don't think I can carry you to Apollo..."
The nice boy carried me to my dorm, mom and brothers following close behind. He said how light I was, haha. I thanked him and he left, telling me that if I needed more help to just say so. For the first time in my life I was thankful that SHU has a football team. (Is that normal?)
We looked at my foot. Oh God... Mom called dad, and dad said to get me to the hospital--mom had described my foot and dad thought it probably looked how his did when he broke his foot as a kid. Greaaat.
At least the ER wasn't packed. And at least this time I was conscious. I was quickly taken back for help, and then the waiting game began.
My brothers were still with my mom and I, and they were the comic relief that I desperately needed. In the ER, there are distinct beeping tones echoing around the area. Sounds like sonar radar to me, but my brothers decided that it sounded like Pong, the Atari game. They then began using their forearms as the Pong "paddles" and playing what seemed to be a mental game of Pong. Only my brothers would think of this kind of stuff, really :-)
I went for X-rays, and after the first one the technician said, "Oh, you're going to make a great RA with a broken foot..." I was like, "You're kidding."
Well, no. And the doctor later confirmed that it was, indeed, broken. My fifth metatarsal--an avulsion fracture. It's apparently a common mid-foot bone to break. What happened first is that I sprained my ankle--and the tendon attached to the metatarsal just yanked on the bone so that it broke. Simple as that. Painful as that.
So I have a second degree sprain with a broken metatarsal. Yippee. At least I had the nicest nurses and doctor I've ever had in the ER. Sometimes they can be cranky.
I'm off RA training today, for obvious reasons (namely I have a broken foot, but I'm also at home for the day). I can't get a cast until Friday because it's still swollen. It's really painful, but I have a little Vicoden... I'll go to training tomorrow and Friday, and the rest of next week (I hope!), but right now I'm purely bedrest--and ten minutes at the computer so I can blog...
Now the big question: do I get a white cast so I can have people sign it in many colored Sharpies, or do I go with my gut and get a green cast?
Posted by KarissaKilgore at August 17, 2005 3:11 PM
Comments
I still can't believe this, Karissa. I would go with the green cast, though; it will match the majority of your clothes. :-)
Posted by: Amanda at August 17, 2005 6:09 PM
Greeeeeen
Posted by: Mike Rubino at August 17, 2005 7:36 PM
I've got a white-out pen that you could borrow so people can still sign your green cast!
Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz at August 17, 2005 7:48 PM
I go tomorrow morning to get it cast. It hurts worse today than it has in the past two days... I think I'll get green because that was my first instinct. When I broke my elbow in 7th grade (playing football), I didn't get to pick what color cast I got because I was unconscious--they knocked me out so they could put the bones back into place. I was mad because I knew colors existed for fiberglass casts...
So green it is ;-)
Posted by: Karissa at August 18, 2005 8:17 AM
yay green! I man gren. Oh, definalty get a gren cast.....
;)
Posted by: marian at August 18, 2005 3:00 PM
can I type? read: "no".
edit:
yay green! I MEAN gren. (etc,etc)
*le sigh*
Posted by: marian at August 18, 2005 3:00 PM
Oh Marian... That's just one reason why I love you so much. You absolutely cannot spell.
In just a little I'll go get that "gren" cast ;-)
Dr. Jerz, I might take you up on the offer for the white pen :-)
Posted by: Karissa at August 19, 2005 8:12 AM
Karissa, I hope your foot gets better fast :) If you are letting people sign it, I want to sign it next week :)
Posted by: Sue at August 19, 2005 6:23 PM
Sue, I'm definitely letting people sign it :-)
Posted by: Karissa at August 19, 2005 7:38 PM
ohmigod hon!! that is so rough. i don't talk to you for like what? a week? and you go and break stuff!@! silly karissa. aww hon i send you love- and if you need anything- you know i'm right down the road, 10min max. help with ra stuff or just getting used to the fun shower things you can do to keep it dry. (i had a PICC line for over a year, i have a ton of those silly plastic sleeves) call me! i'm here! (: ((((hugs))))
Posted by: beth at August 23, 2005 2:12 AM