timeline: 12/5/15-day of injury 12/7/15-met with ortho, ct scan, surgery scheduled for next day 12/8/15-surgery postponed another day to obtain equipment' 12/9/15-ORIF with plate and screws. Full non-weight bearing status. F/U for suture removal and cast placement scheduled for 12/23 12/14/15-returned to work-some days from home. 12/15/15-began using iWalk 12/21/15-early visit for cast removal due to cast getting wet in shower. sutures removed. fiberglass cast applied. 12/23/15-visit with ortho for concern of infection. felt heat under cast and low grade fever. window cut into cast-all looked ok. 1/11/16-f/u with ortho. cast removed and cam walker boot placed. ok to begin moving ankle but remain non weight bearing. 1/20/16-began partial weight bearing in boot with crutches. 1/24/16-switched to cane

4.5 weeks postop (posted late)

So the surgery went very well. "Could not have gone better" the ortho said. I had none of the nausea I was so afraid of. They gave me one of those motion sickness patches that go behind your ear for three days and I think it was a great help. While in the recovery room, the anesthesiologist give me a nerve block in my knee using ultrasound guidance. It did not tickle but after it I was completely numb from the knee down for 6 hours. This allowed me to get home and get settled in before it wore off. I was a bit freaked that I could not wiggle my toes but was relieved when around 9 pm I could start to twitch them. So surgery was on a Wednesday and I was pretty sore through the weekend. I did not work. That Monday I was feeling better and worked from home and then went in the next few days par of the day. Knowing I could not live with crutches or a walker for the next 6 weeks I ordered and iWalk 2.0 hands free crutch which arrived on Tuesday. I immediately began using it and loved the freedom I had! My postop cast was only 3 sides so nothing hard on the top. This made the crutch very comfortable. 

  2 weeks post op I was due to have bandages and stitches removed and a hard cast applied for another 4 weeksof total non weight bearing. Due to getting the bandage wet in the shower this was done a couple of days early and with Christmas the next week I opted for green and red candy cane stripes. The new hard cast was not comfortable at all with the crutch. But I was going to figure out how not to be in pain and walk. I took a hand towel and folded it in there for extra padding and also added the toe section of angel shoe insert between my skin and cast. This helped tremendously after much trial and error for the right placement.  2 weeks after the hard cast either the cast shaped or my knee got used to it and I am down to only using the gel pad on the outside of my pants and sometimes doesn't need it alt all. This past week was the first full week I went to work every day and did not work from home. But I am getting so bored with the inactivity. I can feel the muscle loss in my left quad despite walking with the iWalk. I am sure it would be greater if I was just using crutches. 

Surgery day attempt #1 12/8/15

Surgery was scheduled for Tuesday morning with a chance of having my case bumped earlier. I was asked to be at the hospital by 9:15, so I had not been able to eat or drink since midnight. SO and i got up around 6 and he ate and i got ready, packing a small overnight bag in case i needed to stay due to the nausea & vomiting. We were planning on starting out to the car at 7:30 when my phone rang at 7. It was my doctors nurse calling. She did not know i had not gotten the message last night. basically what had happened was that when the doctor reviewed my CT scan, he found some loose bodies that had been created by the dislocation. not uncommon but the easiest way to get to them and flush the area was going to be arthroscopically. that is with a couple of tiny incisions and a camera to guide him. there is some part of the machine that is not kept in the hospital-apparently none of the hospitals "keep" them and the company has to be called to bring it in for the day of surgery. They tried very hard with the short notice to get the machine here but were unable to so surgery for Tuesday was canceled. My doctor doesn't usually do surgery on Wednesdays-it is an office day, but they were rearranging some appointments so i could be booked for Wednesday instead. so the coffee was brewed and breakfast was eaten and another day of rest was taken. It worked out rather well because all of the activity from the day before had taken a lot out of me, more than i thought.

Day 2&3 Sunday and Monday

So Sunday was a whole different world. I felt great finally being able to eat and drink and my pain was under control with Ultram and Advil for breakthrough. I rested and elevated and watched Netflix. SO brought down his daughters twin bed and I was set up in the living room. I was not going to see the 2nd floor for quite a while. 

Monday morning I immediately called my hospitals best ortho/sport medicine doc and got an appointment for 3pm that day. I also was able to borrow from church a walker instead of crutch. Have I said how i hate crutches? 

I switched to a wheelchair when we arrived and we were taken back very quickly. Nurse intake as usual then Dr. C came in. He reviewed my x-ray disk and was extremely happy with the reduction done. He hates it when the ER waits and leaves it for the ortho and causes more damage. He explained the breaks and damage and that I was going to need a plate and screws for the spiral fracture on my fibula. He did not think it necessary to repair the read of the malleolus and the prices was not that large and would not take a screw well unless he created an additional fracture line. I was doing fine with all of this until I asked about recovery and he said that only 1:4 are back to normal in a year. That made me loose it.  He talked to his scheduler and surged was going to be the next day-Tuesday. Yikes! 

I was sent to radiology for a preop CT and them went to visit co workers and show my bosses that I would not be back tomorrow with an air cast. 

So we headed home and got the call with my OR time on the way. Arrived home and got another call asking if I could come in earlier then previously asked as the case before me was on the fence and I might be able to go in sooner.  Sure no problem. Another call with a garbled message came later and when I tried calling back the office was closed. I figured they would call back if it was important. 

So that evening, SO and I discussed all my fears. I had never in my 43 years really broke anything or had any surgery except oral as a kid for braces song was scared. 

I did not sleep great and in the early morning had myself a pity party cry about it all and my loss of independence. 

Who I was before...and then the accident 12/5/15

  So a brief history of me.  I consider myself fairly active. My family and I take long walks on our local rail trails and in the Catskill Mountains. I love spinning and have been doing the at least twice a week. I should have been going to the gym more but lifting to me is boring. I have done two Warrior Dashes (last one this past summer) and The Insane Inflatable. Also, I and "fluffy".

My hospital job is primarily sedentary but I get up and move and avoid the elevators as much as possible. That was until now. Fast forward to the wee hours of 12/5/15. 

  I woke around 2 am to use the bathroom and then could not get back to sleep. Not wanting to have a cranky boyfriend in the morning I took my phone, pants and pillow and headed down to the couch at 2:50am. Bad move. I missed the last step and down I went. I knew right away it was bad and it was confirmed when I saw the angle of my ankle when he came running and turned on the light. Having many stairs there was no way I was getting to the car so while he got dressed I called 911. 

The tile floor was freezing and I was shivering so bad but the paramedic got a line I and gave me some

Morphine and loaded me up. 

At the local ER it was confirmed I had a dislocated left ankle and 2 fractures. Using conscious sedation they reduced the dislocated and splinted me to above 

my knee. We were home my 7:30 am. Being this was a Saturday morning, my ortho consult was going to have to wait until Monday. 

So I tried to rest Saturday but with all the pain and drugs I could not keep anything down. So Saturday evening he drove me to my hospital and hour away for vomiting and dehydration. I had had no pain meds since 10:45 am.  By the time I got there I was so worked up my entire body was pins and needles. There I receive 2 liters of fluids, IV morphine, reglan, protonix and Benadryl.  Benadryl gives me restless leg so my leg was jumping in the splint. No fun. Went home by midnight and slept so so.