Ankle Woes

Last Monday (a week ago) I took a little fall. I was going down our basement stairs in the evening to do some laundry and I thought I was at the bottom. Really I missed the last stair. I landed really hard on my left foot, my ankle gave out, and I fell. My left arm is covered in bruises so apparently I hit that somewhere on the way down too (but I still have no idea how). The most important thing is that I didn't fall very far and that I landed on my backside (rather than my very pregnant belly). Because of the way I landed I was never concerned about the baby. I knew, however, that my ankle was in trouble. As I fell I heard something pop in my ankle and the pain was pretty intense. As I lay at the bottom of our basement stairs all I could think immediately was that I just broke my ankle at the worst possible time of the year for us (we were literally 12 hours away from our first Lifelines trip and the beginning of the busiest time of the year for us). I yelled up the basement stairs for Joe (since I couldn't move). He was really busy in our office trying to get details ready for the next day's trip so he was actually a little annoyed that I was calling him (he probably figured I neeed him to kill a spider). Of course he felt differently when he saw me lying on the ground!

Over the next few hours I was really amazed at how painful my ankle was. After about two hours it had started to feel a bit better so we decided to hold off on going to the hospital for the night. I did try to limp on it to the bathroom and we quickly realized that this was a bad idea. Thankfully Joe was able to get our friend Ryan to guide the raft trip for him the next day and we headed for the hospital in the morning.

After x-rays (during which they carefully shielded the baby with lead) we were thankful to find out that I didn't break my ankle. I did, however, tear some ligaments in my ankle (an ankle sprain). Thus I have spent the last week hobbling around, 7 months pregnant, in an air cast, on crutches. It's not pretty. It's been an exhausting week for all of us. For me it's been hard to just allow myself to rest and relax when I feel like there is so much that needs to be done. Not to mention that doing even the simplest of things (like taking a shower) is twice as much work. Unable to bear weight on my left foot means that Joe has also had an exhausting week, working hard in ministry, but also having to do the bulk of the work at home (getting up with Lily, bathing her, putting her to bed at night, playing with her, walking the dog, making meals, doing laundry, and even just taking care of me).

And yet, there have been some encouragements this week: Joe's mom came up on Wedn last week to take care of me and Lily (while Joe was guiding a rafting trip). I don't know how we would have made it through that day without her. Our staff team has also been really flexible with us (taking on added responsibilities) so that Joe could be home more frequently throughout the day to help me out. We have also had friends come to take Lily and I out (since I can't drive), and make us meals. And through it all I am most thankful that my ankle isn't broken and, most importantly, that the baby wasn't hurt.

And today marked some progress as I was able to go down to one crutch and bear a little bit more weight on my left ankle. This might seem small, but it means that I now have a free hand (and can get my own ice cream cones)!