Pimp my Gimp

Today my husband had some sort of medical training for school. He's the soccer representative this year so he had go to a day in a half class to learn how to handle medical stuff (prescription drugs, over the counter, inhalers, etc) for kids on school sponsored trips. Anyway, he got out at noon and arranged to come pick me up from work so we could eat lunch together. I took the rest of the day off.

I've been wanting to get some new grips for my crutches. My crutches were up in the attic since my 2002 knee surgery so the grips were a little dry rotted. I joked that I wanted to pimp my ride and so he came up with the "Pimp my Gimp". We laughed a lot about that but no one else seemed to think it was so funny. They probably aren't as cool as we are and never heard of Pimp my Ride show on MTV.

After getting my new awesome grips, we went to get some lunch. The day was on/off rain so the sidewalks were wet. When I walked into the restaurant there were mats but my crutches spread out onto the linoleum tiled floor. My crutches slowly slid farther and farther out until they finally caught on something and I regained my composure. My husband said it took him a minute to realize I wasn't just trying to dance. He was too far away from me to grab me if I had started to go down. It was pretty scary. I have had a few close calls but haven't broken anything else yet. Let's just hope I don't.

First Time to Eat Out in the New Year

The weekends get long and boring with everyone else in the household able to run around freely. I've watched more TV than I care to admit. So this weekend I wanted to have an outing. I knew we needed to go the grocery store badly and felt up to that so I also suggested we go get a bite to eat. It was later than the Sunday church crowd but just barely. We went to Ding How thinking it wouldn't be very crowded. We got seated right away but it was still a full restaurant. It's my first time to sit down in a restaurant since probably before Christmas.

We went to Target for groceries. Just for comparison, the motorized handicap carts at Target go faster than the ones at Publix. Woohoo!!

Shared Injury Stories

Now that I have an injury everyone wants to tell me their experiences. That's all okay, because I like to hear it, and I do plenty of talking about myself. So a coworker told me about her pretty bad ankle injury 10-15 years ago. She gave me a good suggestion. She didn't have a way to get upstairs so she just sat on her bottom and scooted up the stairs and went back down feet first. I haven't been adventurous enough to try crutches going up to our 2nd story. The 3 steps that get me out of the house have been enough excitement. So I've only had a sponge bath for 3 weeks. All this past week I thought of how good a nice hot bath would feel. I was determined this weekend to switch my routine and start taking my baths upstairs.

I made it up the stairs okay but it's a cardio-vascular workout. I'm not that strong and wish I had more core strength. My palms got bruised from pushing myself up. The kids bathtub was perfect. I can prop my right foot up on the edge and submerse the rest of my body and head.

I got hubby to help in moving all my active wear clothes back upstairs. I kept a toothbrush downstairs in case I want to brush at night without going upstairs. Other than the toothbrush, I'm all setup with my personal care back in my bedroom, our bathroom, and kids bathroom.

I have to also mention something else in this post. A guy at work walks by my office and offers encouragement. He's had all kinds of sport injuries. I don't even know his name but he's been very supportive. I work at the end of my workgroup and where another one starts. So that other group's always talking to me but I don't know all their names. Anyway, one day he said to me, "Well, you know your recovery has a lot to do with up here" and he pointed to his head. I do believe that is very true, and I am trying to keep a positive attitude.

4th Week

After getting the cast, hubby dropped me off to Barne's and Noble. He had to go to CPR training at UAH and didn't have time to take me back home. So we got a Starbucks and then I waited there for my daughter to come pick me up. We ran into the husband of the lady that takes me to work. It was nice to have an outing with my new cast! But I didn't have a good way to prop up my foot so it got that heavy feeling as I sat there. When my daughter picked me up we then went to Publix. I rode in the handicap motorized cart to get some groceries. This was my first time to store in 3 weeks.

This week I got used to the cast. My foot was pretty tight inside still. I tried to start limiting my pain meds back to 3 pills a day and then 2 pills a day. It all didn't seem so bad so I got the idea that I better save my pills for later therapy. The doctor said to take Tylenol when I ran out of pain meds so I wasn't sure if he intended to refill my prescription again. The Tylenol seemed to work okay. There was discomfort with the foot from time to time, but there was also discomfort back when I had the pain pills. I felt the foot was healing and I could live with the discomfort.

Colorful Cast

JB is still with me on the big toe. Dr. Bailey's initials marking the right foot for surgery. I haven't really been able to wash my foot very well and he must have put it on there with a Sharpie. This is in my office taken with my iSight camera on the mac.

My Interpretation of My Foot X-Ray

This is my interpretation of what I saw on the x-rays today, as pointed out by the doctor. I'm such a geek to even make this but I wanted to show it to my mom. Crushed metatarsal has me a little worried. He had said several times I had a crush injury. He said today it was like my foot was hit with a sledge hammer. I like to think it wasn't quite as bad as a sledge hammer.

Fourth Visit to TOC -- Cast

Today was a holiday so hubby was able to take me to TOC. We went in the Jetta. Tomorrow will be three weeks since the accident.

I got my cast so I'm elated that I won't have surgery and that I feel like I'm now in another phase of my recovery. Today he took another x-ray. The big toe metatarsal is what now has him concerned. It was more or less crushed where as the others were broken. It's all broken near a joint so he said I could have arthritis down the road, it may heal fine, it may bother me. He may recommend fusing it later which would decrease my range of motion in just that one joint but it's not that big of a deal (ie. that particular joint -- so he says). The 2nd metatarsal had him concerned after looking at the 1st x-ray 2 1/2 weeks ago. It's not aligned perfectly but he said it could heal up fine and the bone part sticking up is covered by lots of muscle and tissue so it may not be an issue. I actually have 5 breaks, 4 metatarsals, and my 3rd toe. My 4th toe was dislocated and it's looking fine on x-ray now. The 2nd & 3rd metatarsals were cleaner breaks, the 5th metatarsal more of a crack. The 1st one crushed. I think he overlooked all this on the first x-ay because the 2nd metatarsal became his focus. Anyway, I'm glad to not have surgery now. My foot is still swollen but it's getting better. It's just slow going. The cast is on for 3 weeks and that's my next doctor's visit. He'll remove the cast then and re-evaluate.

My foot was still too swollen today anyway for surgery but he said it would be fine in the cast. The swelling will just continue to go down.

He did get another opinion from another doctor in the office (his specialty is hand) and after they conferred, he said he felt like he was probably treating the x-ray and maybe not the patient. I could still have problems, even with the x-ray looking "pretty". The 1st metatarsal break sounds more disconcerting now rather than the little bone sticking up from my 2nd metatarsal.

He said there are 17 joints in my foot affected by this – another wards after my foot sits up for weeks, I'll have to rework those 17 joints. That includes the one joint possibly directly affected. Anyway, I've now experienced pain of the initial break so maybe I'll have the guts to get through it all once the time comes for therapy and weight on the foot.

My cast is orange for Grissom colors.

Third Visit to TOC

Today I was another checkup. My foot is still too swollen. Dr. D did remove the tape wrapped around toes 3 and 4 and those toes now feel really weird to touch. My third toe has a little twist at the end but they've never told me anything is broken in it. The 4th toe was the dislocated one so they had taped it to the 3rd toe for stability.

He said I could now ice my foot and wrap the ace bandage a bit tighter to help reduce the swelling. He wants to see me again on Monday. My appt is at 7:30am! Yikes!!

I asked him to contact the Dr. B who had seen me in ER just to chat and see what that doctor had to say about my foot in it's original trauma. So he was cooperative, called the Alabama Orthopedics in B'ham, talked to a secretary who said the doctor was out for the afternoon. He asked if he was in surgery -- "no just out". So then he asked if there was anyway he could talk to him or have him call him back; that he was with a patient. Anyway, the doc from B'ham did call back within about 5 minutes. But after D got off the phone with the secretary, he said "Well, I guess when you're older you can take the afternoon off". He probably has worked very hard since he's arrived in Huntsville. I found out he has been in Huntsville for 4 months. I questioned his newness and he said "Well, I've been a doctor for 7 years, 5 years of residency at Mayo, and 2 years of fellowship at Duke, all orthopedics. Then he said "And since I've been in Huntsville I've done more foot surgeries than any other orthopedic surgeon." And then he said, "You gotta start somewhere."

I also talked about the pros/cons of surgery now, surgery never, surgery later. He said the x-ray did show one bone displaced so it could heal up fine, it could bother me at the top of my foot, or it could just not heal up very strong. If it was strong and just bothered me on the top of my foot, he could do surgery, shave off the top part of the bone sticking up. If it wasn't strong, he'd have to re-break the bone with a saw (yikes!), pin it, and then wait for it to heal again. Basically, he wants to make the bones look correct on an x-ray and then you can trust that it will heal correctly.

I asked about full recovery. He wouldn't commit to that. He said it depends on the person. He said it takes 3 months for the bones to heal, but could be a year to where I'm back to normal. My therapy would be drawing the alphabet with your foot. make an a, make a b, make a c, etc. He said you might find that you walk and something bothers you a bit but you just learn to live with it. He has said there is no ankle injury, no ligament damage, and the muscles will just heal up fine. It's just a waiting game right now.

He does surgeries on Tues/Thurs, so I suspect if things look good next Monday, he'll do the surgery on Tues but he didn't exactly say that. He's just kind of amazed the swelling is taking a long time to go down. I guess it just takes time. They've told me to keep it elevated to my heart or nose. I've kept it up but maybe not that high all the time. That's pretty high when I'm sitting in my chair at work. It's not so bad when you're lying down in a bed.

If the surgery does go through, he'll put the pin in and cast my foot. Then he'll remove the cast after 3 weeks, remove stitches, cast me again. Then after 6 weeks from date of surgery, he'll remove the cast again and remove the pin. Then I think I'll still be in another cast and a boot. I don't know when I'll be able to put some weight on the foot.

2nd & 3rd Week

The first part of the 2nd week I was home alone during the days the whole week. I got into a routine of sleeping in, taking my sponge bath, fixing myself some oatmeal for breakfast. Then sitting up on the couch to play some Wii. This was mainly to get me up and moving arms around some. After the sponge bath and kitchen work, my left leg got pretty tired. All that was standing on one leg. I had a chair moved into the laundry room so I could sit down to put on my underwear and pants.

I went back to work Jan 12th. A co-worker lives kind of near me so she would come pick me up every morning and take me home most days. This was a god send. It was 3 miles out of her way but she was the closest person to me. That first day I took in a sleeping bag, pad, and plenty of pillows. I could lie down if I got tired, and I did at first. I got situated at work sitting in my computer chair with my legs propped up in pillows in another chair. I could type at my computer. It's a little ways to the bathroom and elevator for leaving and coming.

I worked for two weeks before I got my cast on the 19th. I would use my boot to get to and from work but once at work, I'd remove it. It was much more comfortable without the boot and I could exercise my ankle.

My co-w0rkers and others around my office were helpful in offering assistance.

Second Visit to TOC

Today, five days after my first visit, I went back to Dr. D. This time it was at his regular office, closer to my house. John's dad is retired and was able to take me. I sat in the back of his wife's van and propped my foot up on the middle seat. For my first two trips in a vehicle, I was lying down. This seemed like progress but every bump in the road was still painful. This time I did remember to take my pain medicine.

Of course my foot is still swollen but Dr. D talked of a plan for surgery. He'll see me in a week and if swelling is down, do surgery the next day. He'll do outpatient surgery at Huntsville Hospital. He will put a pin in my 2nd metatarsal, and then cast the foot/ankle/leg. He'll open up the small wound from the toe bone coming through, turning it into a incision for his investigation and putting in the pin. The pin will stick out the bottom through my cast and he can remove it after 6 weeks. Then he can stitch up the whole thing so I'll no longer have an open wound to dress every day. He'll leave a small hole in the top of the cast to feed some sort of bone enhancer back down to the bone to help it heal quicker. I'll be in a cast for x amount of weeks (maybe until the pin comes out), and then a walking boot. Total recovery for bones to completely heal should be 3 months. I rather get this all over with now then later so I'm okay with him doing the surgery again. Especially if in the long run it's the right thing to do. He said I've been through the initial pain, will elevate a little bit but not as high after the next surgery, then should continue to heal. He said there hasn't been joint injury so that was good. Ligaments are in tact. Since he didn't initially look at this foot, maybe he'll be able to see more inside next week while I'm under. He told me of a lady that had 24 broken bones in her foot. Also, he's going to check out the toe during surgery, too.

1st Week

The first few days at home, my body was really achy every time I got up to go to the bathroom. Maybe this was from the accident or maybe that's what lying in bed with no activity does to your body very quickly.

By Sunday morning, I woke up with an awful back ache. I knew I couldn't last on the couch so I started to think of my options. I had also started my period which gave me a back ache but I didn't really think that was the true culprit. I finally remember that my father-in-law had a day bed but it was on the 2nd story of their house. I wasn't sure they'd be able to move it to my house and I wanted hubby to ask our neighbor to help out. He's pretty strong and willing to help when asked. What I didn't know was the daybed could be taken apart. So my hubby and his dad moved the daybed into our living room. It's much wider, doesn't sag your back into a bow, and more comfortable.

Jan 2nd, I called into work to let them know of my new found condition. I didn't know when I'd be back to work but I had already looked up my accrued leave time. Between sick, vacation and personal leave, I had 15 total days. Three weeks was not a lot of time for this situation especially if I had to go back into surgery.

On Monday, Jan 5th, hubby went back to work and the kids went back to school. I was going to stay home alone for the day. I was hoping I would be okay. I knew I couldn't take any risks. Attempt going upstairs, going outside, be very careful with my crutches. No unexpected falls. I had my essentials handy. Our weather was mostly rainy and/or cold with a rare sunny day. So the dogs stayed inside to keep me company but that also meant I had to let them out to go potty. I just hoped they wouldn't act up and choose these times to run off.

This 1st week at home, I learned how to manage in the kitchen. I could make some oatmeal, and put the bowl in a basket, then hold onto the basket, and hobble with crutches back to the recliner in our den. John's dad got me a walker for longer periods in the kitchen. I didn't use it too much but if I had to stand in one place, like at the stove or sink, it worked out a little better than the crutches. My awesome husband made me a sandwich for my lunch so I didn't have to worry about making anything myself. I was trying to drink lots of water, eat healthy, stay off sugar, so to further help ward off an infection in my foot. When my husband got home from school, he would help me change the dressing on my foot. I got to where I could do this on my own but at first it helped to have him assist.

A friend of ours called me Monday during the day. This was her last day in town before moving to Washington DC area. She asked if I needed any help. I didn't think of anything until I got off the phone. I really liked the two pairs of pants hubby and my sister had got me at Wal-Mart and knew it would make my life easier to just have a whole weeks worth. So I asked her to go to the store for me to buy more. She had to go down near Wal-Mart anyway to close out an account at a bank so it worked out well for her and me. She got me 4 more pairs so now I had 6 pairs, enough to last a week. I could do laundry every weekend and be all set every day. I knew my husband was pretty busy with having to pick up the extra load, so this was a tremendous help to me.

My better half was busy with after school soccer activities with the kids. We had one driving and one still needing to be carpooled everywhere. He left the house at 7 and didn't return until 6 on most days so I didn't like being an additional burden to him.

First Visit to TOC

Jan 2nd, I called TOC to confirm my appointment time on Monday the 5th at 5pm (or maybe it was 6pm). I was amazed it was so late in the day. My experience with orthopedic doctors was sitting in a waiting room full of people with all kinds of knee, leg, foot, hip problems and waiting long times before you get to see your doctor. I asked if there was any way to see Dr. D on Friday. I said "I would think he'd want to see this as soon as possible. I've had a pretty bad injury to my foot". At first she said no, then she said "Oh, wait, we have an opening today at 3:30. You'll need to be here at 3:15pm." Luckily, hubby was still home on holiday, and so he was able to take me.

The waiting room was not too crowded but we did have to wait a bit. Plus I forgot to take my pain pills with me to the doctor so I could take my next one while I was there. I was taking one pill every 6 hours and was pretty religious about documenting what time I took my meds.

Dr. D's assistant was very gentle with my foot. I thought she was a nurse but came to find out later she wasn't. She is very good but I've forgotten now the title she gave herself.

TOC took x-rays again after finding out that none were sent up from B'ham. I don't know if I was supposed to bring them or not. The x-ray tech took forever to take those same three x-rays that were taken down in B'ham in a heartbeat. Remember I didn't have my pain meds so I was a little impatient and in pain.

So I don't know if they took post-op x-rays in B'ham or not but these new x-rays showed a displaced 2nd metatarsal. From a side view of my foot, the bone protuded up a bit. So Dr. D talked of surgery and putting in a pin but my foot was too swollen at this point. He said it was like a hot dog on the grill and if you cut it open now, you wouldn't be able to put it back together.

This first visit was a bit disturbing. I still didn't realize the severity of my foot injury. I talked of full recovery. He didn't really answer but said it takes 3 months for the bones to heal. He didn't talk a whole lot but kind of stared at my foot, and stared at the x-rays before speaking to me. I think he didn't want to scare me but wanted to point out the positive things. He said "Well, you don't have any breaks in the joints". I also think I was his last patient of the day on a Friday afternoon. Not that time of appt should matter with this ordeal but I felt it played into his response. He did say that if he had done the surgery, he would have put pins in every phalanges. I told him that Dr. B had tried to contact him and he looked really surprised. I somehow think he didn't get the message.

Dr. D ended my visit with his recording the whole visit into his digital voice recorder. I thought this was different, but kind of cool to hear what he says. He's done it every time since so this must be ordinary for him. I've never had any other doctor do this while I was in the room. I figure they leave the room and then do that sort of thing.

I asked his assistant about him. She told me he was really good; that he did his residency at Mayo and went to Duke. He seemed young, new, I had never heard his name, so it sent me to the internet to look him up. Turns out his father is an orthopedic foot and ankle specialist, too.

First Few Days at Home

At home I settled into life on the couch with important things nearby for immediate access. TV remote, flashlight, water, glass, pen & paper, crutches within reach. A cleared pathway was made to the downstairs bathroom. Bathroom essentials were brought down to the laundry room for my daily sponge bath. Our bathroom is off the laundry room and the laundry room has a big sink so all this was very helpful.

My husband did a lot for me those first few days. We were still on Christmas break and so he had more time. I was on paid holiday until Jan 1st but had already planned on taking a vacation day on Jan 2nd, just to finish out the week. My total time off work during Christmas was going to be 12 days. With my injury it ended up being 19. I stayed home the week after the accident and went back to work Jan 12th.

Hospital - New Year's Day

New Year's Day I was released to go home. Dr. B came early in the day, this time without his nurse. She must have had the day off. He told me to go see Dr. D with TOC in Huntsville for all my follow-up medical visits. He talked like he had made an effort to talk to Dr. D but he only talked to the nurse. He changed my dressing and that's the last I saw of Dr. B.

Shortly after the doc's visit the hospital staff started preparing me to go home. I called hubby to let him know he needed to get ready to leave to come pick me up. He is on a Volunteer Fire Department and he had a call in the middle of the night so he wasn't so anxious to jump back in the car to drive an hour and a half back down to Birmingham. I knew the hospital couldn't just kick me out but would have to wait until my ride arrived.

So I called my sister to check in on her. She & her son had finished a swim at the hotel pool and were getting ready to come see me again. She wanted to know if I needed anything else. She went to a Wal-Mart and got me another pair of Danskin stretchy, flare legged pants. So now I had two pairs of pants I could wear. She also got me some DVDs to watch when I got back home.

My daytime RN came to get me ready to go home. She had been wonderful the past day. She was chatty, which I didn't mind during the day, attentive, and basically took really good care of me. But this day, since I was going home, she unhooked the morphine pump and proceeded to take it away. When I inquired if she had to take it this soon, that my husband wasn't there yet and wouldn't be there for a while, she didn't explain really well. Well, shortly after that I was going to go to the bathroom. When I put my foot down and all the blood rushed into my foot, it was incredible pain. So I crawled back into bed and just lost it. Then my sister walked in while I was loosing it. I tried to tell her what was going on and all I could sputter through my tears was "She, she, she, took my morphine away". Her poor son must have thought I was nuts and looking back later in the day, we laughed. However, it was not funny at the time. Anyway, we got the nurse back into the room. My sister got onto her a bit and said she didn't explain the situation very well. I felt bad for the nurse. Shortly after though she brought me some pain pills.

When my husband got there, we left to go home. We said goodbye to my sister and I loaded up into the back of his SUV. I laid down with my foot elevated on pillows for the ride back home. We stopped by the pharmacy to get my pain meds and antibiotic pills.

Hospital - New Year's Eve

Wednesday turned out to be a pretty busy day. I called my brother early in the morning to let him know. He works in Birmingham and I thought he may come see me on his lunch break. I also called my mom. I had called her the previous morning to tell her we were going dirt bike riding. She said to be careful. I was like, "oh yeah, don't worry... we're pretty careful". I certainly didn't want her to worry but I hated calling her this day to tell her my bad news.

So I had many visitors this day. My husband came back from Huntsville, my brother came at lunch, my sister and her son came later in the evening. The Trussville folks where we were riding came to visit and brought some flowers. All this made me feel better, along with the morphine! I also received visits from tons of hospital staff; the orthopedic surgeon and his nurse came AM & PM, my day time RN & PCA, the chaplain to pray with me, rehab to get me out of bed, the person to fit me for my boot, and others I have probably forgotten.

Dr. B made rounds fairly early in the morning between 8 & 9. His nurse changed the dressing on my foot. It was wrapped in an ace bandage with all the gauze bandages underneath. This was the first time to see my foot since surgery and hear the status. Dr. B said "You dang nearly tore off your foot, girl". He talked his doctor jargon but this is what I grasped. Four broken metatarsals. I only have 10 and only 5 in that foot!! So now there are 4 of my 5 that are broken, #'s 1, 2, 3 & 5. 4th dislocated toe. So Dr. B also says "You pretty much affected every phalanges." I came to find out later in Huntsville that I also broke a 3rd proximal phalanges; so 5 broken bones. That would explain the open fracture above the 3rd toe. Maybe this doctor told me, maybe I quit listening after hearing 4 broken metatarsals. The doc talked of cleaning sock fibers out of the open fracture so he thought he got it pretty clean but stressed it was a major source for infection. He said he didn't put in any hardware (pins, wires, plates, screws) in my foot. I guess he didn't feel the need. Also, said I scared the ER doctor. I didn't detect that fear at the time and it's a good thing. It's probably not good for the medical people taking care of you to be more scared than you are. I don't remember everything else Dr. B said to me.

This is the only picture I have taken of my foot. Quality is not so great because it was with my cell phone. Don't you love technology? According to my cell phone, the picture posted was taken at 8:07AM. Tells me what time the doc came in that morning. The yellow stuff is the wonder stuff called XEROFORM. The red piece sticking up is bloody XEROFORM. They cut a small piece off and stuck it down in the open fracture. The other piece is over the stitched up gash. I call it wonder stuff because it didn't stick to my foot, and it served as a protector for infection. It's really sticky wonder stuff!

The package says Petrolatum Dressing -- Fine Mesh Gauze Impregnated with 3% XEROFORM (Bismuth Tribromophenate) in a Petrolatum Blend. They gave us a bunch of it to take home for my daily dressing changes.

The guy that came to fit me for my boot sized up my foot and said I might take a small or a medium. My foot looked huge to me. It was swollen plus wrapped in gauze plus an ace bandage so I didn't think it looked like he could squeeze it into a small and I certainly didn't want him to try. The morphine wasn't that good for pain. So he agreed when I coaxed him towards the medium boot.

I had called hubby before he left from Huntsville to tell him to bring me some clothes, especially underwear. As soon as they would remove the catheter I wanted to have underwear back on my naked self (underneath the hospital gown). I also asked him to go to Wal-Mart to find pants that were stretchy and large in the legs to fit over my injured foot and the boot. He found a pair in the active wear department that worked out perfectly.

The rehab person brought me a walker later in the day. After I had a walker, the catheter was removed so I could then make my way to the bathroom when needed. It didn't hurt to remove the catheter. Maybe morphine helped out with that, too.

Dr. B and his nurse also came back to visit in the early afternoon since it was New Year's Eve.

So even though I didn't have any New Year's Eve plans for 2008, I hope I never have to spend another New Year's Eve in the hospital. That's just not the way to welcome the new year.

Hospital - First Night

Okay, so my only time in a hospital was the birth of our two kids. I've had anesthesia two times, once for wisdom teeth, and once for knee surgery but both of these were outpatient surgery. I went home the same day and never spent the night in a hospital. This time I was in for the real deal, unplanned event.

After my move into a private room, I finally was able to see my husband again. He hung around because he didn't have a car since our friend had brought us to ER. Our friend had gone back to Trussville shortly after dropping us off so he could be with the boys and they could ride all day. He came back in the evening with the boys. They stayed for a bit, then they all left, taking my husband back to Trussville to load up the trailer to drive back home to Huntsville. My son spent the next two nights with his friend. This was a big help to us since hubby drove back and forth to Huntsville to check on me for the next two days.

I called my sister in Montgomery to tell her the news. She was so sweet. She didn't have plans for New Year's Eve so she offered to come see me and said she might even plan to spend the night in town and come back to see me on New Year's Day. It felt good to talk to her and know she'd be coming to see me. She and her son would have fun in the hotel.

That first night I had hourly visits from my Personal Care Assistant (PCA) to monitor my vital signs; blood pressure and temperature taken every hour. Less frequently an RN would check on my IV fluids and morphine pump!!! Now let me tell you about this morphine pump. You push the button and it delivers a dose of morphine for pain. The machine is set to a certain dosage and time frequency. I didn't know all about it until the next day so for the first night I pushed the button about every hour. The next day I was told I could get a dose every 10 minutes but no more. The morphine pump was also a source of frequent problems. It was under lock & key so if there were problems, the pump would just beep until taken care of. Only the RN could deal with it, and sometimes it just took time.

Emergency Room (ER)

We drove from Trussville 9.7 miles (I looked this up) to St. Vincent's East, previously known in Birmingham as Medical Center East. I later found out that my brother-in-law's kids were born at this hospital. We were met in the ER drive-thru with a wheel chair even though the hospital didn't know we were coming. I thought that was nice of them. This was a Tuesday in the middle of the day so I was admitted very quickly. The waiting room was pretty empty. When the first assistant wanted to weigh me, I just told her I weighed roughly 135 pounds and asked if that was close enough. I didn't want to hobble out of the wheel chair and onto the scales. She was happy to write that down. Then we went into my ER room.

Some nurse-types saw me first and removed the t-shirt wrapped around my foot for initial investigation. They cleaned up my foot a bit before the ER doctor came to visit. He sent me for x-rays. He was an Asian guy and didn't say a whole lot. I'm not sure what his name was but I can probably get it from my BC/BS records. I was taken down the hallway on a stretcher to have the foot x-rayed, three different views of the foot. I said to the technician, "My foot's broken, isn't it?" She said she couldn't tell me. I understood but what I was seeing was where the metatarsals and toe bones meet so I thought it was broken all the way across. Heck, I don't know how to read an x-ray but have since learned a little bit more. The orthopedic doctor, Dr. B., must have been on call that day because he's the doc that saw me next. He had a pretty good bedside manner. I honestly don't remember too much about what he said that day. I found out later he was with Alabama Orthopedic, Spine and Sports Associates. At some point he must have told me what he actually saw from the x-ray but I don't think I really knew this until the next day.

They put me in a hospital gown to get ready for surgery. At some point, Dr. B marked my foot for surgery by putting JB on my big right toe. I gave my wedding ring to hubby to safely hold. He put it in his pocket and we still haven't been able to find it. We're hoping it's in his Dad's truck somewhere. I was asked if I was pregnant and even though I said no, they had to give me a test to be sure which means they had to put in a catheter. They had problems with that and finally came back with this straight tube thingy to withdrew some pee for the pregnancy test. They eventually came back with a size 14 mm catheter and inserted with success. They did other stuff to get me ready for surgery. I'm not sure when they started giving me any kind of pain killer but all this process seemed like it took forever. At some point I went to a pre-operation room.

There were lots of pre-op techs attending to me; all scurrying around. I don't remember seeing Dr. B again in this room but I may have. It seems these techs looked around for something to signify which foot was to be operated on, even though that was obvious, then they'd snicker at JB on the big toe and check off that box on their sheet or make a mental note. Honestly, I don't know all their job functions. This pre-op process went by pretty fast. The last thing I remember is that I would kind of be aware during the surgery because I wouldn't be put out completely; just numb "down there". Also, Dr. B said he might have to put in wires, pins, screws, but wasn't sure. Well, I don't remember a thing from surgery and I eventually woke up. Must have been a few hours later.

The post-op waiting seemed like it took forever. I heard someone say the hospital was full and they were waiting for a room. Wow! There were two stretchers side by side in this holding area and my nurse would pop in every once in a while. The lady in the other stretcher was old, and I could here her moan from time to time. I guessed she may have had hip surgery but really had no clue. I was numb from the waist down and felt really groggy. Finally I got moved to a private room. By now it was around 5 o'clock. My wonderful, calm, spouse would probably know better how much time it took because he waited around in the waiting room all that time. My son stayed back in Trussville and got to ride some that day.

The Accident

Dec 30, 2008 - We got invited to go down to Trussville to ride. The weather was sunny and warm after weeks of quite a bit of rain. I bought a helmet Dec 29th but opted out on the $100+ motocross riding boots. My hiking boots would have to suffice. We got down there about 10 and unloaded everything. As we all were getting ready, my husband was having trouble getting his bike started. So the boys, my son and his friend, started to ride their bikes around the property close to the shop. My son was riding the new 150, his friend was on a 250, and I was going to ride my son's 100. The other riders in our party had not begun to ride yet as we were also still waiting for one other rider to show up.

In one last effort to start the bike, my husband rolled it down a long hill to try to jump start it but to no avail. So I rode down to check on him. He borrowed the 100 to go back to the shop for some tools. He thought the spark plug got boogered up (there's a more technical term for it). While he was gone, my son and his friend arrived, and we chatted a bit. They took off, returned, I got back on the 100, and proceeded to go down where my son and his friend had gone. Probably a few minutes had passed by now. It was a long straight wide trail but at the end was a loop. This is from my memory of being there about two years ago. Well, I meandered down the trail not even thinking about the boys coming back, what side of the trail I was on, etc, etc.

I was just getting a little comfortable to the trail when I saw his friend come back from the loop. It seemed he was still quite a ways down the trail. But before I could react to much, he was right on me, and we swerved to miss each other. I swerved to get back to the right, my inclination from driving a car, I guess. He swerved to what I guess would have been open space for him. He had more speed to accommodate getting out of the way faster. But all in all we swerved in the same direction and ended up sideswiping each other. My foot got caught up between the two bikes, most likely catching on the foot pegs. His front or back tire left marks on my front tire fork. As soon as we passed, I had intense pain in my foot and knew something bad must have happened. I kind of teetered on the bike but came to a stop and put down the kick stand. As I got off the bike, I turned around to see how he was. He had wrecked and was pulling himself up off the ground. My husband heard the crash, and came running down the trail to check on him first. He looked ahead and saw me standing so he figured I was okay. By this time, my son came riding past me. I motioned for him to slow down which he later told me he wondered why I was telling him that. I was afraid with the pain in my foot, I could possibly get lightheaded and faint so I laid down on the ground. However, I never got dizzy, at all, ever during this whole injury. By this time, my son's friend's father, had driven the Gator down to check on my husband and his bike, but then comes upon this accident scene. Since I was now lying down he and my husband came to check on me. I couldn't put any weight on my right foot but visibly everything looked okay. They helped me get into the Gator. I felt all hot and sweaty and was probably in some state of shock.

So we rode back up to the shop area and I climbed into the back of the pickup bed to lie down. They asked if I was okay and I said "I think I'll need to go to ER because my foot really, really hurts". One of the adult son's there, who was in a walking cast from a broken leg, suggested I should take off my boot because of swelling. So they helped me unlace the boot all the way down to take it off. My sock was visibly bloody. By now I had a few Tylenol in me. The truck had the trailer attached so our friend offered to take me to ER so I transferred to his van. Once again, the guy in the walking boot, offered more suggestions. He said, "You know you should probably take off your sock because as that blood dries, it may stick to your foot and at ER they'll just yank it off." So I took his suggestion.

At that point, everyone jumped into faster action than before. I had a 1 1/2 gash above my toe, a hole above my 3rd toe, and my 3rd and 4th toe just didn't look straight. They weren't terribly out of alignment but just looked messed up. The open fracture was dripping blood pretty steadily. There must have been a First Aid Kit handy. They covered up the open wounds, and wrapped my foot in a t-shirt and tied it off with masking tape. This way I could go to ER, the bleeding would maybe stop, and I wouldn't get the van all messy.

My hiking boot looked almost unscathed on the outside. There were some teeth marks which makes us think the foot pegs from both bikes met, with my foot somewhere in between.my son 's friend was okay, bruised up shoulder and abrasion for a few days, and a hole in his new motocross jersey. Everyone in the party had motocross boots except me. My son 's friend was not wearing a chest protector. Not that I'm a firm believer now in motocross boots, they could have prevented my foot from getting crushed as badly. It may not have prevented any kind of break.

Dirt Bike History

Wow, It's been a while since I thought I'd like to have a blog and posted the initial entry. Basically, my life wasn't all that interesting to blog about it. But now I decided to use this as the documentation site for my foot injury and the progress I make.

My son has had a dirt bike, a Honda XR 100, for a few years. He can ride a bit on a few short trails around our house with another friend up the street. My husband got a Honda XR 250 shortly after so they could ride together. We've ridden a place called Flint Creek about an hour and a half from our house. Also, a friend of my son, has a dirt bike that he keeps in Trussville at a family friend's place. In Trussville, they have over 1000 acres of private land with all kinds of trails. We've been a few times to ride down there, too. It's the greatest place to ride. The problem with it being a family activity, is that we could rarely ride together, all three of us, because we only had two bikes. I had hinted on occasion that I'd like one so we all three could go out together. Even though we also have a daughter, she doesn't have much interest in riding.

Christmas 2008 - I had no idea what was in store for Christmas but my husband bought a used Honda CRF 150 for me. He bought it from our friend who had gone from a 100 to 150 and was outgrowing the 150. The 150 was perfect size for my son now but he'd be outgrowing it in the next few years, too. The present was a complete surprise for me. The kids spent Christmas Eve busy, secretively putting together a scavenger hunt for me to find this new dirt bike. So Christmas morning we do this scavenger hunt through the house. I joked before it started, "What am I going to have at the end? A new car? A dirt bike?". I was only joking. So the last hint was to go down to what we call the horse barn. It was for a horse before we moved in but is now just our place to store the lawn mower and other stuff. So I get down to the barn and see a dirt bike all covered up. But it didn't register that all the other dirt bikes are in the garage and what the heck is this one doing down here. Well, I knew our friend wanted to sell their bike and suddenly it all clicked with my defunct slow brain. They had bought that bike for ME! A few weeks before Christmas dad and son had been down to Trussville to ride. They bought the bike then, with the promise to pay later. They brought the bike back, stored it at my father-in-law's house up the street. My son got up early Christmas morning moved the bike from house to the horse barn.

I have always liked dirt bikes ever since I was young. I went to summer camp when I was 8 years old and there were these mini bikes (50s or whatever). I wanted to ride them SO bad but my dad wouldn't let me. It cost extra and my dad was very conscious of safety. He wouldn't even let us shoot off fireworks 4th of July or even hardly play with sparklers. He had been in the war, was a doctor, and guess just felt like he had seen or heard of too much, and didn't want us involved with such stuff. When I was a teenager though we had some family friends that got dirt bikes. They lived on a farm and it made for easy transportation to get around. We loved to visit their place because it was just good outdoor fun every time we went. So I had learned to ride a dirt bike (dad permitted it by then) and have liked them ever since.

When I met my husband he had a early 70's Kawasaki Trail Boss 100. I've ridden it a few times over the years. It is still in our garage with the plans for a rebuild (so we actually did already have 3 bikes). My cumulative experience though is not that much riding. I like to ride slowly on the trails and have never been adventurous in trying anything daring.