June 1st I was doing a normal thing, on wet grass...
Jerry & I were supposed to run errands when he got home from work. I had let the chickens free range during the morning hours. Around 12:15-12:30 I started rounding the flock back into their dog kennel. One bird went the other way so I started after her.
Left foot down, right foot down. Nope!! That foot slipped forward on the wet grass. Mind you, I am headed down hill on a slight slope. Left foot does not move, but the left leg does. Forward at about a 45 degree angle. I saw it bend the wrong way, I heard and FELT breaking bones. GREAT!!
One day I don't have my cell phone on me as I am just working in the yard. And, Jerry won't be home for at least 45 minutes!
I managed to get down on the ground on my left side. Yes, that is the same side that the implant was put into my shoulder less than 6 months ago. I took my right foot and pushed my left foot back into the 'neutral' position. The bones may not have been fully lined up, but things were more or less in the right direction. And, then I lay there and I prayed. For comfort from the pain. For Jerry to get home soon. For the chickens to stay in their kennel. For the rain to hold off. All this things were answered.
The chickens were freaked out that I was laying in the wet grass less than 5' from their door. As long as I did not move, the pain was tolerable. Jerry arrived home, and despite me yelling for him, he could not find me at first. He brought me out the phone and I called 911 while he locked up the chickens and fed and watered the sheep, at my insistence. And the rain held off until all was said and done.
Two members of Sutton Rescue came and took my information and my vitals, Sgt. Valerie from Sutton Police arrived, and FINALLY at 2 pm New London Ambulance showed up. (I was NOT a priority as I was as comfortable as possible without drugs. What was a priority was a young child that had been hit by a car on Rt. 114 in Sutton.)
They got me scooped up with a hard scoop stretcher, like this one
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoop_stretcher wet grass and all. They all, hubby included, got me up off the ground and transferred onto the ambulance stretcher. At my request, they took me to Concord Hospital.
I have no idea why the driver thought going down Rt. 114 to Rt. 103 would be a good idea to get to the interstate. It would have been a LOT shorter, and yes as bumpy, to just have gone to exit 10. But, when you are laying face up tied down to a stretcher in a closed ambulance, you can not see a lot, and therefore you have no say in the matter.
But, we got to the hospital and they all swung into action. The first thing the nurses want to do was to get the wet grass and dirt filled sheet out from under me. As long as someone was holding the brace with my ankle and foot, I was good to move up and off that sheet. And, then they removed my shorts and T-shirt. That was all good. Just as long as my ankle was not moved!
They came in and took exrays. We got to see them before the doctor. Boy!! Did I make a mess of things! Then, there was a parade of nurses, doctors, and other technicians. 3 times in at least 2 hours I made it known that I needed to pee. FINALLY a nurse brought me a fracture pan/bed pan. That alone released a lot of pressure. 😌
They knocked me out, and numbed my foot, ankle and leg and set to put things back in place. They then put me in a soft cast. After that I was taken down to have a CAT Scan to make sure things were were they needed to be. Then, I was allowed to get dressed and go home, after talking to the doctor.
It seems that when I saw my leg bent at the awkward angle that I had dislocated both the tibia and fibula bones. When I did this, I broke the ends of those 2 bones. I also broke 2 bones in the ankle and one both behind the foot. Now. IF the swelling goes down in my foot and ankle, I am scheduled for surgery June 13th. I have to be back to Concord Hospital at 6 am. Dr. Ryan Duffy from Concord Orthopedics will be doing an open reduction. He will cut my leg open on both sides, put the pieces back together and pin them together. He will only do the 4 side bones. The back bone, when in place, will be mobilized by the cast, and hopefully with time it will knit back into place.
It is going to be a very long recovery! We were supposed to start haying in a couple of weeks. I won't be helping with that. Wilmot Farmer's Market starts June 23, 10 days after surgery! I don't see me doing that either.
Hubby has been on vacation this week, poor guy, and has been able to do all the farm chores. When he goes back to work Monday the sheep will be let out at 1:30 am like they were for the 6 weeks after my shoulder surgery. But, I can not let out the chickens. I felt it was unfair to have someone come everyday to let the chickens out, and to have hubby have to deal with them at night. He DOES NOT like chickens, but he loves me and let me have them. I posted them for sale on the Face Book farm page. The young couple who bought the majority of our lambs this spring is buying them all. I am happy to not to have to break the group up. They were hatched together 4/1/17 and have been together ever since. I will miss going to their barn for fresh eggs, but I can go less than 5 minutes down the road and buy/get eggs from Sarah and her family. I will miss the chickens and their antics, but I am adult enough to realize I can not take care of them.
Thankfully the sheep are easier! Other than feeding and watering them, nothing special needs to be done until breeding time. The electric net is all set up in various parts of the yard. Gates are set up to make it easier to let them into one pasture area, and to lock them out of another. I had already moved my lilac bushes and the burning bush that was blocking part of the driveway to the barn and widened that drive to make it easier for him to back the trailer(s) full of hay to the barn.
My neighbor and her grand daughter came down yesterday and got almost all of the tomatoes in. There are 6 more to find room for. Maybe they will go in front of the chicken house after the chickens leave today. Lots of chicken poop up there from cleaning out their barn this spring. And the chickens are turned a lot of it into the ground already. When he gets some free time, hubby will put in broccoli in the upper garden by the house. It will have to be fenced in to keep the porcupine from eating all of it though. Last year I got nothing! No broccoli, no cabbage, no Brussels sprouts. The little bugger ate it all.
I am taking this one day at a time. I know that God has a purpose for this, and I hope it is made obvious to me sometime soon. I am going bonkers here waiting for the swelling to go down and knowing how much stuff needs to get done. I have a garage FULL of this year's fleeces waiting to be taken care of, and fleeces down stairs waiting to be washed. But, that will all have to wait until after surgery. I am really hoping he will put me in a walking cast sooner than later, but with 5 broken bones I am not going to hold my breath on that! I will just be glad when I can get off the couch and get some things done around here. Like getting soap made, dyeing more fleece, carding fleece and doing some work at the sewing machine.
What they are calling my fractures. Although having 5 bones involved is unusual.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimalleolar_fracture
The surgeon.
https://www.concordortho.com/physicians/ryan-k-duffy-md
The fix.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_fixation
I don't like that it says '
the ankle cannot bear any weight while the bone knits. This typically takes six weeks in an otherwise healthy person, but can take as much as twelve weeks.' It will be OK as long as I don't have to keep it elevated for that long...
Have a good rest of June all. May the rest of the month be better!! On a positive note, it has been 19 years this month since I quit smoking!!
TTFN.
