3 days

I have an orthopedic appointment on Tuesday where, I’ve been told, I’m getting my cast sawed off and getting a walking boot. It’s hard to believe that six weeks will have already gone by since I broke my ankle while skiing in Colorado.

And I’ve been cheating. Although I was told by two orthopedics to not put any weight on my left leg, against doctors’ orders I have been walking around on my cast. Although I’m still slow and have to stumble around, I’m convinced I’m more mobile on foot than on crutches. The downside is that I have to peg-leg around with my foot pointed out to the left as I use my heel to walk. This has taken its toll on my back, neck, shoulders and hip. So after I get the cast off on Tuesday, I plan to make a chiropractic appointment soon after as well as a massage and a pedicure for my left foot. Yeah, my left foot is pretty nasty. I’ll probably need to take a belt sander to the bottom of it next week.

So the past six weeks have been pretty difficult. I’ve taken for granted having four functional appendages in the past. While I’ve seen the good in most people, just yesterday as I was walking into our office building, I caught the reflection from the glass door of a guy coming up behind me. I thought he was going to get in front of me so he could open the door. Nope. Blew right past me and used the revolving door. “Thanks, dude!”

Trotting around on crutches means I have to swing open the building door and the plant my right crutch so the door doesn’t swing shut on me. Getting in and out of the car is always a spectacle. Four weeks ago, playing with Maly was a difficult task. And now that Spring is here in full-effect, there’s work in the yard and around the house that needs to be done, but I’m limited, so Elise’s workload has doubled.

When I wiped out on that mountain and knew I hurt my ankle, I didn’t think I broke it. Halfway to the clinic I thought it might be kind of cool to have a broken ankle and be in a cast again, just like being a kid again. And it was, for a few days. But then the cast and crutches became hindering. And friends, family and coworkers would get onto me about not using my crutches. All the while I hated being partially immobile. I guess I’m an on-the-go kind of guy.

In the meantime, we’ve started to see the bills trickle into our mailbox. I guess we’d quickly forgotten how much of a pain in the ass it is having to deal with our insurance company. Apparently the leg splint that I was put in was not an approved splint, so we’re expected to pay $300 for 24″ piece of fiberglass that probably costs a dollar.

So the next time I break a bone, I think I’ll just set it myself and fabricate a cast with wet newspaper and Gorilla Glue.

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