TACKLE a Walk to Remember

My spouse and I forfeited our Friday date night to just hang out at home.  I insisted on a stroll at dusk.  My muscles were finally recovered from our climb on Old Rag Mountain a few days ago.  A walk would be a good stretch.  

Since it was near dark, we walked on the too narrow sidewalk instead of the street.  Conversation was flying about the weekly events.  Family weekly rehash:  a car was towed, no one was hurt in a car accident, my spouse landed a new job contract, I hired another employee, one daughter's computer was infected with a virus, one daughter's plan to move to Alaska,  my son and his family are moving to SC and one daughter's possible move to London.   Just when I was getting worked up about the kids moving so far away, I ended up in the grass staring at the night sky screaming in pain.     

It had been five years since I had an injury to my ankles.  I thought I was on a roll.  While chatting, I stepped off the sidewalk awkwardly and lost my balance.  I felt something pop and snap in my ankle.  It felt like a dislocation.  I put my foot straight up in the air and manipulated the ankle area while cursing like a sailor from the intense pain.

I couldn't believe it!  I recently hiked Old Rag Mountain climbing on boulders, rocks and cliffs without any lower extremity mishaps and I injure my ankle while walking near my house.

Lake Jackson VFD ambulance arrived in minutes to rescue me and my poor spouse who appeared to be flabbergasted by my Exorcist-like behavior.  The crew took my vitals and then lifted me into the ambulance.  I saw my spouse wave his camera phone through the glass doors. He was getting the car to meet me at the hospital.  Alone, well with about six crewmembers,  I groaned and got teary eyed thinking about the inconvenience of this injury to me, my family and the ambulance crew.  I am sure there were heart attacks to prevent, but I was seriously crippled and in scale nine pain.

The ER was packed, in fact, near record breaking, according to the Admittance Department.  Great!  It was going to be a long night.   I whispered a comment about having great insurance to the nurse and she smiled. 

Hanging out on a gurney, I noticed my toenail polish looked bad.  My spouse refused to run out and buy nail polish for a touch up.  He also refused to turn off the blinding overhead fluorescent lights in the hospital room.

Two hours later, with an X-ray with no fracture, I was crutching out with a splinted ankle swelled to the size of an orange, a skinned knee and a shattered dream of running in the morning.       

My spouse and I had only been married close to two years.  He mentioned that he had never been with me during an injury.  My kids have endured the past experiences of my pains.  They all sent sympathy texts to my spouse for getting stuck with the injured mom.  Hours later, after my grumpy demands of ice bags, drinks, books and pillows, he understood.  I popped a pain pill and went to La La land for a few hours of sleep.

Laid up for a weekend was good for me.  I worked on homework, hobbled to a birthday party and slept in on Sunday.  The worst experience was going to the dreaded DMV for a handicap pass for my car.  I needed it to survive classes at college where you park miles away.  The DMV had no sympathy for struggling customers.  No drive up windows, automatic doors or priority service are offered to injured or handicapped customers.  The clerk even yelled at me for leaning on the counter and told me to get in line!
It does make you see the world through different eyes when you are injured.  Some people are helpful, but others are rude and impatient.



My daughter and I played artist.  Her face painting is awesome!

 The best time was relaxing and painting with my daughter.  I have not done a craft-like activity in years.  But we enjoyed sharing paint and brushes and creating our two inspiring paintings.  We were inspired by some paintings we found on tumblr, a great site for art.  This injury was a way to be forced to slow down to relax and smell the roses.