We had guests coming for dinner and to watch the fireworks off our patio, and I didn’t want to cancel at the last minute. Luckily, I still had the brace from the time I sprained my ankle before, so after treating the injury with the remedies I’ll list below, I strapped it on and dosed myself with wine to kill the pain during dinner. With an injury like this, your body is usually in shock for about a day, so the worst pain doesn’t kick in until later. So I enjoyed the dinner, my ankle propped up on a side table.

 

The last time I sprained my ankle, I didn’t have insurance, so I couldn’t afford physical therapy, which is a shame, because the second injury might not have been so severe if I’d been able to rehab the original injury properly. But this time I did have insurance, so I called up our doc so that I could have him examine it and get a script for PT.

 

When I went to see him, he had x-rays taken of my ankle and foot and we discovered that I had actually broken my fibula. Fortunately, it was more of a crack than a break—it didn’t go all the way through the bone. It was simple and clean. So I didn’t have to wear a cast. He gave me a boot that I could take off when I slept or was lying down, if that was more comfortable. And it was engineered so that you didn’t need to use crutches. It was really pretty amazing ergonomically, actually. It took all the weight from a step off my lower leg and transferred it to the boot.

 

A couple of issues ensued, however, that I’d like to warn others of in case you find yourself in this situation. One, the boot probably weighed about ten pounds. It felt relatively light when I first put it on, and I was so delighted to have this device that made it almost like I hadn’t broken my ankle, that I was treating it as if it were my previously unbooted leg. I’m in decent shape, but even so, after twelve hours of blithely getting onto the couch and hauling my booted leg onto the raised cushions with no assistance, I strained a muscle in my groin.

 

That totally sucked, as you might imagine. Now I had two injuries. But I took it very easy the next day, and used my hands to help get my injured leg into position on the couch and pillows. So, after a day of this, that muscle calmed down.

 

Of course, my ankle hurt. A lot. For at least a couple of weeks. I read that taking anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen or aspirin might delay the knitting of the bone (inflammation is involved in getting the repair cells congregated and doing their job), so I tried to take as little as possible. Tylenol has never done a thing for me, and I can’t stand pain killers, so I did my best with natural remedies, which most of the time, ended up being sufficient.

 

But it was frustrating to have to stay off my feet most of the time while the injury healed. I started to think that I was going to wear a permanent flat, bald spot on the back of my head. So, I probably hobbled around more than I should have ideally (and a more serious fracture would have necessitated much more caution). Our house has only one bathroom, on the ground floor with the kitchen, and our home office and bedroom are on the second floor. Richard works eleven- and twelve-hour days, which meant I didn’t have anyone around most of the time to help me fetch things. So I used a cane to get up and down the stairs. This led to the second issue. My wrist, unused to supporting that much weight, developed tendonitis. For several days, I couldn’t use my right hand even to brush my teeth or hair. I couldn’t pick up anything that weighed more than 2 grams. It became starkly obvious how one setback can lead to a cascade effect and how focused I needed to become in order to get back on my feet and resume my hands-on lifestyle.

 

Fortunately, by the time I sprained my wrist, my ankle was almost healed; I could go up and down the stairs without using a cane. I bought a brace for my wrist and kept it on most of the time, while developing a new expertise with my left hand so it could rest. My ankle, according to the physical therapists, healed quickly and well, about two weeks ahead of schedule, which was very fortunate, given this second related injury. As I write this, my wrist is just about back to normal, too. And no other injuries have reared their heads. I think it’s safe to say I’m back on track.

 

Here are the remedies I used for anyone who’s interested:

 

 

 

 

 

 

These were the most important steps that I took that I feel helped the injuries to heal as quickly as possible, both the ankle and the wrist. After I was on the mend, I got a deep tissue massage to relax the muscles that weren’t all that happy from being off balance with my compromised gait, and obtained a chiropractic adjustment as well. For residual stiffness and soreness, my massage therapist recommended soaking the affected part in warm water containing Epsom salts. Or better yet, just take a bath with Epsom salts.

 

I was delighted that yesterday, I was able to work on a large outdoor art installation that required a lot of physical activity involving both my left ankle and right wrist. Just in time to help me meet my deadline, whew!

 

 

 

The last day that we went swimming, we came down to this cove to find that the driftwood you can see lying on the shore in the foreground had been arranged into an amazing sculpture. Someone had taken rocks and anchored two of the logs standing upright in the shallow water, then on one of the “posts,” balanced another log using rocks. It was really quite amazing—it seemed to defy the laws of physics. And believe me, the top of the post with the balanced log on it was not smooth or even by any means. How they got it to stay there is really a puzzle. When we were there, the day was fairly windy and there was some boat action on the lake, so waves were lapping up against it pretty hard. Unfortunately, several days later when I came back with my camera, it was dismantled. But if the person who built this sculpture sees this post by some strange chance, I’d like you to know that you completely enchanted at least two people.