broke my ankle. ouch.
So… yesterday I played in our third baseball game, a scrimmage with the Grizzlies.. In my first at-bat, I walked, and was then batted over to second on a fielder’s choice (avoiding the double play, I slid hard into second). So far so good.
I took a good sized lead-off from second, saw the catcher bobble a pitch, and I took off towards third. I saw out of the corner of my eye that the catcher had quickly gotten control of the ball so there was gonna be a play at the bag, so I ran hard, and slid hard into third base, just under the tag..
Then I heard a disgusting CRUNCH. Uh oh. Not good. I look down, pick up my leg, and my foot is hanging kind of down and to the left — I get that sinking feeling in my stomach that I’ve just done something really bad to myself. Crap. It didn’t really hurt that much though. It was just the sound and the realization that you’ve done something really bad to yourself that was the sucky part.
So my teammate Bruce drives me over to the hospital, where I’m hoping that I’ve only just sprained my ankle. We go into the ER, which is empty and everyone seems incredibly calm and relaxed — I guess real world ERs aren’t crazy and dramatic places like they are on TV. Like, nobody really seemed to be in a rush like they seem like on TV, but maybe that’s a good thing. They were calm and friendly and just kind of progressed about their tasks like it was their everyday job. Oh wait, it IS their everyday job. I suppose if they ran around like crazy people like they do on TV they’d go crazy and stick themselves with needles in all of the panic and stuff. And I suppose the calm ER doesn’t make for good television.
Anyway, the ankle is swelling up quite a bit, which is a bad sign, but when the doctor takes an initial look, she doesn’t seem to feel anything broken… good good.. there’s hope. I’m in good spirits and take a pic of my swollen ankle (it looks really gross, so don’t click over unless you’re cool with that).
But, we need to be sure, so off to the xray I go…
Yah.. so, I guess that’s not how a healthy ankle should look. I hear mumblings that it’s maybe just dislocated, and that makes me happy.. and then I hear that the emergency room doctor needs to get a second opinion. Uh oh.
And then two doctors come into my room with somber looks on their faces. My heart sinks.
“Yes, it’s broken.”
Crap. And, there’s more — I need to go in today to get surgery to put pins and screws into my ankle so that it’s sufficiently stablized during the healing process. Hooray. Oh, and my ankle was still dislocated, so they needed to pop it back into place. The nice doctor asks me if I’d like some drugs for the pain while they pop it back, and at that point, I’m like hells yah I want some drugs… So, the friendly nurse pushes in the happy drugs.. Weeeeee. I don’t really remember what really happened next, except the room looked really wobbly and the doctor said to relax so I did. My body felt like jello. Ooopy goopey jello. Wee. Where am I?
I kind of come to and there’s a cast around my ankle now, which is getting really hot from the plaster setting. The warmth feels nice around my poor ankle, and the happy drugs are starting to wear off, so the pain is coming back. Not so good.
So yah.. now I’m resting at home (hooray Percocet!) before I head back into the hospital for the surgery.
Yah.. so that was my Sunday.. Woo.. Apparently Coco Crisp also broke a bone while stealing third base yesterday. He broke his left ring finger but apparently he’s still gonna play in the season home opener. Yah, there’s no need for me to play on this broken ankle, and luckily I can still work (thank goodness the commute isn’t that bad). Granted, living in a 3-story place isn’t the most ideal of situations, but I have been thinking about getting a mini fridge for my room for awhile…
So.. no more dancing for me for a few months. Looks like I’ll have to be like Lisa from Saved by the Bell and just dance “The Sprain“. I really just hope I didn’t do anything permanently bad to myself. Apparently I’m 30 now and not “young” anymore or something.
April 10th, 2006 at 9:28 am
YOW! Dude, really sorry about the broken ankle, i hope you have a speedy recovery. You know, this wouldn’t have happened golfing.. instead you’d be getting shoulder, or back surgery. I broke my ankle once when Tanya Schilling pushed me off the monkey bars in kindergarten. My advice, get some LEGOS!
April 12th, 2006 at 8:45 am
test
May 24th, 2006 at 7:10 am
[...] It’s been a little over six weeks since I broke my ankle that fated day back in April, and finally… the cast is off of my foot. I’ve been getting better and better throughout the past few weeks on the cast, and for the past two weeks I’ve been able to walk on it slowly with the aid of a cane. When I switched from the crutches (no hands free) to the cane (1 hand free), it was amazing the amount of stuff I could then do more easily. Being able to carry stuff around for myself (like getting myself a glass of milk from the fridge) is a simple pleasure that you don’t really miss until you can’t do it for yourself.. [...]
July 20th, 2006 at 8:08 am
I broke my ankle and can’t wait to walk again. I was searching for articles from others with the same. Thank you for your site. It is very informative to me. I was worried asbout my swollen foot even after seven weeks. I have a removeable boot now, but the swelling is what bothers me.
Thanks,
Matt.
August 14th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
My ankle has been broken for three weeks, my friends call me the hobbler and I wont be riding my bike for a long time. great site its hard to find good info on the net and this is the best I have found. thanks and I hope you are feeling better.
June 26th, 2007 at 5:49 am
meeboguest651680: Hey Dennis, I dont know if you are still on this blog, but here goes. My saga is a lot like yours, dislocation fracture of my fibula (hospital says at 110 degree dislocation it was the worst they have ever seen). I’m 8 weeks post injury, 61/2 weeks post surgery and got my walking boot yesterday. I’m told I WILL be out of the boot in 2 weeks, walking without aid. The question I have is this, I’m in more pain now that I have since I broke this stupid thing….I’m dedicated to rehab and last night within an hour of getting the boot I was rehabing…..when you got your boot were you in a bunch of pain? Thanks, Rick archers4@att.net
August 11th, 2007 at 11:39 am
I broke my ankle July 14th on my trip to Washington DC. Who breaks a foot on vacation!! I had a dislocation and broke my tibia and had three screws put in. Its almost been a month and I am having an amazing recovery. I have started physical therapy and started using a cane with my walking boot on. It is painful to walk but Dr assures me that I will be able to do more PT without the boot next week. He said that with injuries like this is better to start trying to move it around asap so that it heals faster (I thought it would be the opposite) My foot still swells up a little bit and my big toe is still a bit numb but just seeing the light at the end of the tunnel is great. From what I am reading it seems like everyone just has their own pace of healing and there is no set time frame. He assures me that I will be walking unaided by mid September - we will see.
December 2nd, 2007 at 8:50 am
Hi i just broke my ankle 11/26/07 and had the same surgery done.i am hoping to get back to work soon or i’m going to lose my mind,ha ha.i work at a prison on nite shift as a guard.
December 3rd, 2007 at 8:42 pm
hi i broke my ankle also 11/23/07 i fell down the stairs, im so clumbsy, but i am losin my natural mind.! i had surgery on 11/30/07 i never thought i would be so excited to walk again i hope it wont take a long time im hopin an prayin
April 13th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Hi, I was looking up “sliding when stealing second broken ankle” on google and found you! In March of ‘06, I suffered a tri-malaeor fracture of my tibia (split into three pieces from the base of the big ankle bone) and also a complete break in half of my fibula in my left leg at Joker Marchant Stadium (Tigers’ home) during the New York Yankees’ spring training. Yea, I’m a chick… after the game some gober who was grooming the field dared me to pretend it was a game and to steal second and slide . (I can still hear my mom…”would you jump off a cliff if someone told you to?”) Whatever, it was baseball, the real field my heros had just played on, and of course pretending was the closest I’d ever get to being a player anyway, being female. So I did it. Felt like an idiot when I saw my poor ankle turned an impossible ankle like Gumbee or something cartoonish. Like you, no pain, just oh no, something’s wrong. Grabbed my foot from its right angle position to my leg and janked it back straight, like it should be, if I was to save face and walk off that field - right!? THEN I realized, oh sh*t…and the pain was obscene. Carried off the field to the stupid TIGERS’ dugout and my major league career ended! lol! Doctor said I did a great job setting my own ankle though. Plates and screws in both the tibia and fibula. That was two years ago… and I still cannot run. Last running I ever did, maybe ever? was on that infield between first and second base -same exact piece of the planet where the New York Yankees tread last before me. And we won 4-2 by the way…
For the love of the game! - Michelle
May 14th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Note- if this starts out as a duplicate comment, I didn’t mean to hit some key that made the message I was complosing, dissapear.
1/23/08 I broke me ankle. Stared to walk in March and got sore when I moved it much. I wish now that I had done isometric leg and foot exercizes. That would have keep my muscles from wasting and added to my flexability.
The day 6 weeks was over I started exercising. Rolled a tenis ball and a lumpy ball with my foot.
I took physical terapy HIGHLY RECCOMENDED!
Especially interferential electronic stimulation. Makes my foot and ankle feel great and is stimulating regenation.