Monday, September 26, 2011

My Big Break, in pictures

Today I'm sharing a series of photos of my broken and dislocated ankle. I'm going to go out of order so you can appreciate the mal-alignment after the fracture. This first x-ray is of my ankle after the orthopedic surgeon pulled on my foot and crunched my bones back into approximate place:


Compare that to the next x-ray of my ankle when I arrived at the ER:



I know, ick. If you have a good eye, even in this "scan of a printout of an x-ray" you can see the way the bottom of my fibula (here, on the right) is snapped off to the side.

Here's an x-ray of how the dislocation looked from the side. Without dislocation, the tibia bone should center over that hump beneath it:



The next photos show you what this looked like in the flesh. Although the angle of the photos make it difficult to appreciate the way the foot is twisted down and to the outside, if you let your eye travel along the top line, you should be able to perceive an aberration. (Got to admit, I have to take a deep breath to look at these, even four weeks later):




To make me feel better—and because we know all such accidents happen in the most heroic and romantic fashion—let's review the effort on my part that resulted in this mishap. Hurricane Irene had knocked something from one of the tall trees by our camp, and it had fallen at such speed, it thrust right into the rain-sodden earth! I was talking to Dave on my cell, and couldn't see what it was through the raindrops stuck to the window screens. I had to go out into the wind-driven rain and investigate!

Turned out there wasn't as much of an emergency to report as I first perceived. The object that had fallen from the sky on August 28 was still skewered into the lawn on Labor Day weekend, when Dave and my sons were scheduled to arrive. Indeed it was still there there when we closed up camp on September 8, when Dave snapped this photo, and it was still there on September 19 when Dave returned to the lake to retrieve my car.

Who knows, it may be there still. What do you think it looks like? (If you missed Dave's answer, it's in the post that explains how I broke my ankle.) Here it is:


5 comments:

Lisa Tomarelli said...

It's an alien life form, digging its way out of the ground in an attempt to investigate the wonders of the lake house retreat.

The desire to keep scrolling down to look at these photos revealed my crazy fascination with all things that are uncomfortable. Reminded me of the desire to check out the swampland on one of the islands of Trout Lake. Crazy, but fascinating. Why do I do such things? Must be because of the friends I love to hand out with.

Prayers continue to be with you for complete healing. You are strong and courageous.

Ciuin said...

OMG girl! From a writer's POV, you've had me on the edge of my seat with your narration. I was eagerly flipping through each day to see your next post!

From a friend's POV, I am so sorry this is a true story and that it happened to you!

I'll be praying for your speedy recovery and I hope to see you at the next convention, just stay off the crutches, ok?

Love ya!
Ciuin

Kathryn Craft said...

Lisa, I love your take on the photo! Thanks for your prayers, now and always, my friend.

Kathryn Craft said...

Ciuin,
Thanks for reading. Reconnecting with people like you is a wonderful side benefit of this blog, the writing of which is healing in its own right. Hope to see you next spring!

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