Sarah House 365: My Ankle Break Story

My Ankle Break Story.

If you've broken your ankle and want to bypass the detailed story and go straight to shortened version with advice/tips, see here:

Friday, October 17, 2014

It's Friday evening, 5 pm. I was headed north - always a good way to head in Minnesota.

I was working in the Twin Cities and headed for my parents house for the weekend, meeting my older brother Tom there to pick up my 12 year old nephew Drew and taking him in bow hunting with me. I was excited as I had just finished another work week and looking forward to a weekend of hunting and family.
Those who live in the cities and hunt up north know this excitement.

Always excited to
head north!

I arrive earlier than the boys so I bring in my bags, refill my water bottle and grab some snacks for the deer stand. The AC/DC I was blasting on the drive up still has me pumped up. Drew calls me to tell me they're almost here, he's excited too. I decide to get a little silly and make Drew laugh by putting some eye liner under my eyes like a football player getting ready for a game. I hear Tom and Drew pull up, I go out to meet them with my hat on backwards, black marks under my eyes - Drew laughs at my silliness. Tom laughs, shaking his head at younger sister.

Drew and I drive the short distance down to "The 18", a beautiful 18 acre woods, part of my parents 82 acre "backyard". Tonight we will be hunting a 16' Buddy Ladder stand - a pretty common stand that two people can sit in.

We get everything we need out of the Jeep. I grab my bow, backpack and quiver and look over to see Drew empty handed. I was raised that if I saw someone who their hands full and you don't, help them out, grab something. I want my nieces and nephews to do the same so I remind Drew of Grandpa's saying and hand him the backpack and my quiver. I take my bow and we head towards the stand. We walk about 100 yards through brush, up and down some hills before we arrive at the stand.

The stand is 16 feet in the air so I have Drew go up the ladder first, I stand at the bottom watching him go up. Once I see he's nearing the top, I start going up. I get over halfway up and that's when it happened.

The next part all happened so fast.

It must've been the motion of both of us going up the stand, both of us putting our weight on one side of the ladder, still not sure? One of the legs of the ladder dug into the ground while the other went in the air, turning and starting to spin the ladder. Before Drew and I knew what was going on, our weight leaned to that one side and we started swinging as well. I looked up and hoped Drew was already on the platform where he could hug the tree rather than jump. I yelled "hold on Drew!! Try to hold on!"

The motion is so fast. I am only holding onto ladder with one hand, the other hand is holding my bow.

I am forced to jump.

I jump.

I land, but it's not normal. It's really rocky, uneven and hard. I am laying on my stomach, hands on both sides of my head, like if you were to get down in push-up mode. But I have this heavy pain my foot, wait, my ankle, my leg?

I look down, my boots are in a small pile of logs.

I feel major pain. I instantly know this isn't going to be a "dust yourself off and get up" situation but before I can even think about the pain, I am interrupted by my own thoughts, "Drew! Oh my gosh, where's Drew?!"

"Drew!?" I yell. No answer.

I brace my upper half up on my elbows to see if I can see above the brush and shrubs around me.

"DREWWWW!!!!!!!!!" I yell with more volume.

I am starting to panic. I listen and hear moaning.

"Drew??"

I strain my neck and see Drew hunched over in the fetal position.

More moaning coming from Drew.

My heart stops. Wait, Drew had my arrows. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, is he bleeding? Does he have an arrow in him? Panic is setting in. My mind goes to worst case scenario.

This time I'm all business and he must hear it in my voice, "Drew Thomas, you need to answer me. Are you ok? Do you have an arrow in you?"

He replies immediately, "Whattt??" The tone of his voice lets me know he thinks I'm crazy.

"Nooo. No, I'm ok Auntie, but I landed in the pokeys and it really hurts."

I put my face into the ground in relief. Thank you Jesus.

"Ok, ok Drew, I'm over here, but I think I've broke my ankle or foot. I can't move."

He kinda pops his head up from fetal position to realize I'm not kidding.

We need help. My phone! I think I brought it. I lean up on one elbow and use my other hand to unzip the chest pocket. I slip my phone out and call my parents home number.

"Hello" answers my mom.

"Mom, hi, it's Joey. I think I broke my ankle." I say. Way to get straight to the point, eh?

The swelling begins

"What?!!" If you knew my Mom, you can totally picture her at the phone reacting to my words.

"Can you or Dad just come down to The 18? Drew is ok from what I know so far but I don't think I can walk."

To our luck, Tom and his wife Kari were checking a deer camera down on the land and were not even 1/2 a mile a way. When they got the call from my mom, they turned around and came down to the stand. Not even 5 minutes later, Dad and Mom arrived.

We explained what happened, they checked Drew out and asked me more questions.

Eventually we got over to the back of the van when Dad started to loosen up my boot. My eyes got big. Dad, what are you doing??? He said he needed to look at it before we decide what to do.

My worked on the laces and the tongue of the boot to get it extremely loose before he slide it off.

I bite my teeth together and scrunched my face in pain. Woweeeee - that hurt!!!

Then the sock.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh.

Ok, the boot was off. The sock was off.

The next feeling was so weird. It felt like someone was blowing up my ankle like a balloon.

And as we watched it over the next couple minutes, it looked like it too.

Arriving at the ER

What time is it? It's 6:30 pm now. 6:30 pm on a Friday.

Clinic is closed now. Looks like Emergency Room is our only choice.

They grab my bow, backpack, etc. and we head back to my parents.

There they help me transfer from the back of the van into the back of my Mom's Honda CR-V. I sit in the back seat because we've got to get this foot up, I can feel it swelling by the minute.

My Dad grabs a bunch of the living room pillows (classic Dad move) and props my foot up.

It's a 30 minute drive to the nearest ER. We get checked in and as they wheel me towards the room, a nurse says in passing, "Let me guess, flag football?"

Kinda confused, I reply, "Nope, deer stand."

We get into the room and they transfer me from wheelchair to hospital bed.

A nurse comes in, checking blood pressure and other stats.

"Flag football?"

I'm thinking to myself, what is with the flag football comment?

She points to the spot right below her eyes.

What? Ooooh!! It finally dawns on me that I still have the black under my eyes.

I laugh at myself how this must look. "Ooooh, the black marks? Yah, I don't do this every time I go hunting. I just did it to be silly and make my nephew laugh." Just stop already Sarah.

They do some X-rays and confirm it's broken. They can't say whether or not it'll require surgery but they do know I have to wait until Monday morning to see the foot/ankle specialist.

Until then, they put me in a half plaster hard cast with tons of fluffy padding and ACE wrap and give me crutches.

For the next two and half days, I am under the order of RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

I grew up in a hunting family and since it's October, we're right in the middle of hunting season. We've got bow hunting (deer), duck hunting and pheasant hunting going on so it's pretty likely that people are going to be in and out of the house. This Saturday was no exception. Everybody was checking in on me in between checking deer cameras, food plots, grandkids coming over, etc. I was sitting on the big oversized stuffed chair in the corner of the room, looking down on his huge oversized leg, half ace wrapped, half plaster cast. I was bumming. This was not fun. Drew walks in, I ask him how he's doing today and we chat a little bit. I say to him, why don't you go grab Auntie's bow and I'll meet you out at the picnic table? My mom yells from the kitchen, "Sarah JoAnne, what did you just say???" I smile at her as I crutch towards the front door.

Loaded up in Jeep, one boot, one big sock!

I make it to the picnic table on crutches, lay them down and put my foot up across the bench section. I grab my bow, check the sights and do an overall look over on it. Seems ok. I grab the practice arrows, pull back first one, shoot, annnnd it's good. Within that 6 inch bulleyes area. I pull back 2 more arrows, both are within that 10-12 inch diameter.

I'll take it. Good enough for a kill shot. I'm still in it.

I make up my mind, I'm going out.

My older brother Tom (Drew's dad) is doing some arrow practice as well. I holler over to him about 30 yards away, "Hey Tom, mind if I take the ground blind tonight?"

"You're kidding me," he replies.

My mom thinks I'm nuts at this point. She's probably right.

Nonetheless, I get loaded into the back of the Jeep, head down to the land and we back up to the ground blind.

Even following doctors orders,
ankle is propped up on 5 gal
Home Depot bucket.

We get the ground blind set up and I put one arm over my Dad's shoulder and the other arm over my sister-in-law Kari's shoulder. We even follow doctors orders by bringing an extra Home Depot 5 gallon bucket down to elevate my ankle.

Kari and I are sitting for a while when I catch something out of the corner of my eye. A small doe!
For the first time in over 12 hours, my focus isn't on my ankle. And holy cow, my heart is beating!

"Kari! There's a deer. Look." I say under my breath with urgency. She looks.

"Should I shoot it?" I say. She nods and says yes.

I manage to sit up a little straighter in order to pull back the arrow. I am pulled back, waiting for it to stop. I look through my sights, trying not to pay attention to how fast my heart is beating. It stops.

I pull my trigger release.

(Arrow whizzing/jet sound)

I got it. I saw the neon fletching colors whiz by when it took off.

I got it! I got it!

I am quickly brought back to the reality that I can't get up as quickly as I usually would. Kari calls to notify the boys. They come down to the land. We manage to get me out of the ground blind (it involves some quick moves that cause pain. The boys arrive and come to congratulate me, even though we all know we have to find it first. But it's pretty cool, I mean, I just got my first deer with a broken ankle, that I had just broke not even 24 hours prior. I kinda felt like a bad ass.

After being upright, standing in prairie grass on crutches, I start to feel a heavy pulse feeling - it's not in my heart anymore, it's in my ankle. And it doesn't feel good.

I instruct the boys where the deer took off to and Kari goes with them to track it.

I wait by the vehicles. Ugh, the excitement drains and is replaced with pain. My ankle really hurts.

I wait more. Kari comes back first. It doesn't look good. She shakes her head, they didn't find anything yet. Now this really sucks. The sun is starting to set, it's getting harder to see and it's getting cooler. I wait until the rest of the family gets back, same news: no deer.

Noooo. I feel like crap. No deer hunter wants to wound a deer. We shoot to kill. We don't want to put the animal through drawn out pain. To know I didn't accomplish that is a crappy feeling.

It's now dark. My dad informs me that with the temperatures that evening and overnight, if we find the deer first thing in the morning, in the light, the meat will still be ok. So we head home.

I get in, put my ankle up immediately and get ice on it. The boys reassure me we'll find it in the morning before going up to bed. I'm bumming. This whole ankle thing succcccks.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

It doesn't take me long after waking up to remember we have a deer to track. Tom, Kari, the girls, Mom, Dad, my brother Michael and his girlfriend Taylor all join us down on the land.

I start out with them but quickly learn that 10 ft in prairie grass on crutches is equivalent to 500 ft. on foot for everybody else. I am not going to be able to keep up. I get into uneven ground that takes more effort than it's worth. Not to mention, these crutches are killing my armpits (yes, then I must be doing it wrong). Ok ok, I go to the car and sit on the hood. I wait, thinking about the whole situation, not feeling too proud.

My Dad comes out of the woods and tells me to grab my Buck Knife.

"Did you find it!?" I ask excitedly. My heart rises, but Mr. Pokerface won't give me a yes or a no.

He makes me follow him. I let him know how long it's going to take and that it doesn't feel good. He lets me know his daughter is going to tough it out. I start to slow down and I'm now whining of pain. He stops, walks back to me, looks me in the eye, trying to hold a his poker face but his eyes show excitement when he tells me they found my deer and I am not missing the sight of finding it.

Eeeekkk!!!!!! They found it!!

That news excites me to keep going. It feels like 12 miles on crutches. I know I'm exaggerating and being a baby. I finally come up on it. There it is! I got it! My first deer!

We take photos and I thank everybody for their help. Now it's time to elevate and ice this ankle, I have an appointment with the ankle specialist in the morning.

Monday, October 20, 2014

10/20/2014

I meet with the ankle specialist Monday morning. My ankle does not look good at the appointment (see photos). He shows me the X-rays and where the break is. It's going to require surgery. Dangit.

The swelling needs to go down a considerable amount before surgery can happen.

We schedule it a week out. I am on strict orders to get this swelling down.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The surgery goes well, two screws are put into my ankle.

Over the next 12 weeks, I go through casts and walking boots.

I still walk with a limp, especially in the morning, after a long drive or anytime I'm sitting for a long period without being on it.

Since then...

I broke my ankle when I was 28. I am 31 years old now, writing this just a week before my 3rd ankle surgery.

The reason I sat down to write about this event was because I had no clue what was to come. It's been a long four years with this ankle trouble. I've had so many questions and I just wanted to know what others have done. The story you read was more detailed for the hunters but if you have questions or want tips/advice, visit: Breaking Ankle - what I learned.

Note:

-- For those of you wondering why I was carrying my bow up the ladder - I know, I know, I've already been lectured. I have tied my bow with a string on the ground upon reaching the stand, climbed to the top and then raised/pulled it up in the past but the string broke a couple weeks before I hadn't replaced it yet so I had gone up the ladder carrying my bow the last couple times.

-- Also, I have never worn a safety harness with hunting from a tree stand. I have heard stories and the harnesses just seem to do more harm than good. Maybe with the 20'+ stands but 16' is the highest any of our stands is at so we've never monkeyed with them.

SaraHHouse365 | Breaking Ankle - what I learned.

SaraHHouse365 | Hardware Removal

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