The rumors are true....

I did indeed break my leg. Sheesh.

It was a lovely day in early September. We went for an easy hike with friends. The weather was perfect and the views were fantastic!

And then I twisted my ankle and heard a snap, crackle, and pop. I got scared. My friend who is a retired pediatrician poked and prodded and pronounced it to be un-walkable. Maybe sprained. Or worse. I crossed my fingers, used the tree branches that Gary gathered for me as crutches and hobbled back down the hill to the boat. Dang it.

Luckily (?) Gary is used to twisted ankles so we had ice packs, a compression bandage, and lots of Aleve on board. I commenced the “RICEA” protocol. Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation, Anti-Inflammatories. Rinse and repeat.

It was pretty swollen….

But after a few days, I was able to get around pretty well. Slowly and short distances, but still…. I was moving. I bought an ankle brace, which helped. There was some pain with each step, but it was getting a tiny bit better every day. I was hopeful.

Until we hit Chicago a month later.

I walked and walked and walked until I couldn’t walk any more. Then it really started to hurt.

We went to an ER and got actual X-Rays. A spiral fracture on my fibula. Yikes!

Splint, crutches, and no weight allowed on my ankle until I could see an orthopedic surgeon. Double dang it.

Well, at least it made grocery shopping a little bit more fun!

But really it was awful. Would I need surgery? A cast? Did I really screw it up by walking on it so much? Should I fly home to Oregon? Could Gary handle the boat without me? Should we quit the loop? So many questions.

The crutches were exhausting. Finding an ortho doctor who had time for me was nearly impossible. Wondering how much all of this was going to cost was terrifying. And trying to get any kind of financial estimate was a huge time drain, and in the end yielded absolutely nothing. (We still don’t know how much it will all cost.)

Finally, a week after the ER visit, an ortho doc saw me in St Louis, and took new X-Rays. Still broken (of course), but since it had happened so long ago, it was actually healing already. A walking boot was prescribed with weight bearing as tolerated. Yay!!!

So, it is a little clunky. And Gary does have to do much more on the boat, since the boot gets in the way. But hey. No surgery was required, no cast was prescribed, and the walking boot can start coming off around Thanksgiving! Now that’s something to be thankful for.

To see our current voyage path with Gary’s photos, click on this: G&P Voyage Map