I’m sorry Miss Walsh, you have a Trimalleolar Fracture…

So my life has sort of fallen off course! My 20 years on this planet; I have never been seriousley injured. I have never broken a bone, never have had stitches, nothing. Although, I am a huge klutz; I have always lived on the safer side of life.

Unfortunately, on January 22nd 2008, that all changed. It was an okay day, the first day of classes. I woke up late for my 1:30pm math class, I was being lazy because I dread math! I finally got to school by 2pm! I was happy because there was no traffic and I scored a spot in the front of the building. I went to class, my professor seemed cool and I even knew a couple of people that were in my class. 3:15 pm came and I rushed out of class, anxiously awaiting some nicotine! I decided to take the outside stairs leading to the student life center! It was a cold day a bit damp and rainy, but not too rainy. I guess you would say it was drizzly!

As I approached the doors that led outside to the top of the stair case there was this big 300 pound moron taking her sweet ass time to get outside, it aggravated me so I cut her off. I guess I’m ruthless! I stepped down two stairs, everything was fine, the 300 pounder was now caught up and behind me. All of a sudden I slipped and fell down the flight of concrete stairs about 8 steps. I landed on my knees and immediatley felt a jolt of bad pain. I also heard a horrible pop noise and ripped off my ugg boot. I started cursing and moaning with pain. Something was terribly wrong with my ankle! It hurt unbearably and I could not move it. As the pain increased, I thought to myself this is what I get for talking shit about that slow, heavy girl! God sure did punish me!

These really nice women happened to see me fall and they got me help immediately. Everyone kept asking if I was okay. It was quite aggravating because I was in killer pain. It all happened so fast, the pain and throbbing persisted, but I did not cry. I sat on the cold concrete platform of the stairs with rain drizzling on my cold ankle. I waited with these two women who kept me company. Thank goodness for these lovely ladies. The cops showed up pretty quickly, they said the emt was busy helping with other serious incidents on campus, so they brought me blankets and called 911. They asked me what had happened and I explained to them that I fell down the stairs. Turns out the stairs were covered in ice and had not been salted! The police took note of everything.

I waited about 15 minutes in the cold for the emt to come. She checked out my ankle, but wasn’t sure if it was broken or not. I prayed to God that it wasn’t. It looked super swollen and mangled, but I really couldn’t tell, since I’ve never experienced any type of break or injury like that. I was very upset and called my mom. She upset me even more because her first response wasn’t are you okay? It was DO YOU HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE? I said yes of course I do angrily and said I don’t want to talk to you. One of the nice women who helped me from the beginning (Karen) took the phone and told my mom the details.

Monoc the paramedic company finally came. My ankle began to really give me a lot of pain, they gave me some ice to reduce the swelling. It was now time for me to go to the hospital, but I couldn’t stand on my own or walk because my leg was really fucked up. The paramedics got this conveyor belt seat contraption, they put me in it and took me off the stair platform where I was laying and down the rest of the stairs. They put me on a stretcher and shipped me off into the ambulance. I was comfortable until the ambulance started moving. I felt every bump and pothole it was excruciating. The emt first responder rode in the back with me. She had to ask me a thousand questions. I got aggravated because I was in so much pain, but I answered them as best I could. The ride to the hospital felt like forever, although it was only 15 minutes away from my school in the sweet little town of Red Bank, NJ.

Once I got to the hospital they wheeled me to the ER. Although I was in terrible, horrible pain it was fun being wheeled around on the stretcher. The ER doctor was very nice and my wait was very short to see him. I was sent to a room, given ice and relaxed for a few minutes, until it was time for xrays. Xrays were horribly painful. I had to turn my body and move my ankle to the sides which was extremely torturing. I was moved back to the room in the ER and was very suprised to see the nice woman Karen waiting for me. I was very happy because my mom hadn’t yet arrived and it was nice to have company. What really sucked was that the xrays didn’t come out right, so I had to go back in and repeat the process all over again. It wasn’t as bad the second time around because I knew what to do.

It turns out my ankle injury was so bad the ER doctor couldn’t pick up on all the damage, so they immediately called an orthorpedic surgeon down to look at my xrays. By this time my mom had arrived. The surgeon came down to see me. He was a typical surgeon, very brief with little bedside manner. He told me what was wrong and what he could do to help me. All my hope shattered in to pieces on the ground. It turns out I did not have a sprained ankle at all! Instead I had 3 broken bones and a ruptured ligament! My injury is called a trimalleolar fracture. In easy non-doctor terms, I broke my tibia, fibula, and ankle. I was horrified!!! He showed my mother the xrays, she was stunned. He explained that I needed to have surgery as soon as possible.

With that said I was admitted to the hospital, and changed into a hospital gown. The surgeon put a splint on my leg and explained to me that my surgery was scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. He also explained to me that I needed a metal plate, pins, a rod, and 3 screws to fix my ankle. He got in to lots of details about why I needed all these things, but I can’t remember all those details. I was weary! I wanted a second opinion so another orthorpedic surgeon came down to look at my xrays. He agreed with my surgeons diagnosis. He left and after about 2hours I was wheeled up to a room. Karen left, but my mom stayed.

That night was terrible, I was given shots of morphine for pain, it made me so sick. I think I slept a lot that night, but I don’t really remember. My mom felt so bad for her initial reaction to my injury on the phone, she realized the severity of the situation. She stayed with me for a while, but I told her to go home and that I would be fine. I had 2 wonderful night time nurses named Wendy and Claudine. They were so nice, and helpful I loved them. It was so hard for me to do anything. I was not allowed to get out of bed. The following day came 1/23/08 and that afternoon around 4pm, I had my surgery.

I was very, terrified. I’ve heard so many horror stories about surgery, it was the last thing I wanted to go through, but I had no choice. The nurses and my mom told me I had to take out my piercings before going into the OR. I cried because I love my monroe piercing. I refused to take it out. Claudine said she would talk to the anaesthesiologist to see if I could keep it in. (Taking out piercings prevents infections) Pre-operation I was happy because Claudine said I only had to take out my belly ring. I didn’t mind doing that. She said I could keep my monroe piercing in. Although I felt terrible, she made me very happy.

I said goodbye to my mom as the transportor wheeled me down to the OR. I was terrified. I started crying, but then I calmed down. The nurses put a cap on me and took me into the operating room. It was very cold and scary looking. It was all Male nurses and doctors they all introduced themselves, they were all nice and very funny. I felt better. They lifted my body on to the table and the anaesthesiologist came over to me and introduced himself. He was this funny asian man. He told me he had some good stuff for me as he hooked me up to the IV. I fell asleep, and woke up in the recovery room. The surgery took about 2 hours or a little less. Being in the recovery room is a huge blurb. I remember a nurse watching me. I kept asking her where I was and why I couldn’t move. (I was strapped down) She answered me once, but after that ignored me. I was all drugged up, I can imagine how annoying I was. I felt like a prisoner stuck inside that bed.

I was eventually wheeled back to my room. I was so suprised to see that I had visitors and lots of flowers and presents. I was very, very excited and happy. Tara came to see me, that made me really happy 🙂 She also brought me my favorite foods, but I didn’t eat them until like 2 days later. I slept really well that night, and continued to get morphine shots. I stayed in the hospital from Tuesday until late Friday night. I was in a lot of pain the whole week and I was scared to do things on my own.

The whole hospital/surgery experience wasn’t as scary as I had thought it was going to be. I met a lot of nice people that helped take care of me. Getting home was a huge challenge and learning to get around. I had to use a walker for the first 2 weeks that I was home. I was really embarrassed, but the crutches were too hard for me to manage. I didn’t really get out of bed too much only to go to the bathroom. I did not have a full plaster cast. It was some type of cast, but it was soft. I guess it was like a splint with a plaster back. I went to the doctor a week after my surgery. More xrays were taken and he cut the cast type covering off. He put me in a big funny looking boot called a cam boot. I have to wear it all day, but I can take it off for a few hours or sleep with it off. He showed me some exercises that I needed to do to gain strength and get rid of stiffness in my ankle. He arranged for physical therapy sessions right away. The following week I went back to the Doctors and got my staples removed. It wasn”t that painful, just kind of pinchy. I guess I cheated by taking a percocet before getting them taken out.

I started going to physical therapy last week. I love it and I am now on crutches. I was a huge klutz on them, but now I can go out in public without stares. My physical therapist (PT) is awesome. He gives great leg massages and has taught me a lot of different leg exercises to get my ankle better. I was terrified about going to PT at first because of horror stories I’ve heard. But its really isn’t bad. I like going.

It’s been about 3 weeks since my surgery or a little over? Things are going much better. This is the first week that I am no longer using a lot of my pain meds. I did pop some oxycontin tonight because I had pain after pt. But other then that I don’t need them anymore. The whole initial healing process takes 12 weeks. I think I have ten more weeks left without walking. Around the 8th or 9th week, I need to have one more surgery to remove one of the screws. I am not looking forward to it, but I am glad that I will have one less screw in my ankle 🙂 I think after that I can begin walking. I found out today that I also hurt my knee. I may have torn my miniscus, which is tissue that lies between the knee joints. It’s not a huge thing, but it hurts sometimes. I may get an MRI done when I go to the Doctors. It’s always something!

This whole ordeal is something that I can cope with but, I get upset a lot because I had to change a lot of things in my life. I had to drop some classes, stop going to work, and stop driving. I don’t get to see my friends a lot either, or the boy that I like. Those are huge things for me to be missing out on. But I am keeping a positive attitude. In 10 more weeks hopefully I will be a lot better. I may go back to work in a week or so because I am running out of money. I still need to pay car insurance even though I’m not driving, which sucks!

There are some good things that have come out of this situation. After 3.5 years of smoking I finally quit and feel great about it. I also have lost some weight because I eat a meal or 2 a day, I don’t want to get FAT!!! I am also becoming closer with my stepdad because he helps take care of me during the day when my mom is at work. But most of all this situation has made me realize that life changing events can occur at anytime. No one is invincible to anything. I thought I was invincible to breaking bones and surgery, but look what happened! I am now thankful for all the days I had when I could walk normally. But I am even more thankful that I am going to heal and that I can now walk with crutches. Being positive is key and it is something that I am doing well with.

I hope my story makes you cherish the way your life is and the importance that a life changing event can occur at any moment. Just remember when things get messy all you can do is try your best to clean up! Never give up and always stay strong.

xoxo-Melissa