One swing of the leg and my plans for the next couple of months are pretty drastically altered. Almost the end of the first half of a company soccer league game on Wednesday, one of the first evenly matched ones we played, and our goalie was feeding me the ball around midfield. I heard the warnings of "man on!" and could hear the guy bearing down. I also saw a teammate opposite field to pass to. I kicked quickly and made the pass before the defender reached the ball, but he continued right through my swinging leg. I'm not positive what made contact with my shin, perhaps he was already committed to a kick. I heard a crack and assumed it was my shin guard breaking to absorb impact. I wonder if it was possible what I heard was the bone?
I don't tolerate pain well. I went down in agony, breaking the league rule against swearing. The ref forgot to card me, maybe it is OK if you say it with enough gusto. It hurt so bad, for a moment I thought death or unconsiousness would be prefereable so I could escape.
I laid for a while with teammates around. I really didn't like being the center of attention and eased to a sitting position as soon as I could. One of the guys gently rolled my sock down to remove the shin guard plate to inspect for damage. There was no bruising or swelling, or even an obvious mark. I was helped back to the bench. The gym had a lukewarm ice pack and I sat on the bench icing and stretching a little. We had no subs, so I eventually got one of the women on the other team to fill up a plastic bag with some snow, which served way better. I kept testing weight on my foot, picturing a triumphant return to the field and scoring the winning goal. It didn't happen. We did score a single goal to win, off of a head ball that took everyone by surprise.
When it was time to go, I packed up and tried to walk out. My shin was excruciating as soon as I put some actual weight on it. Driving was out, so two guys helped me to one of their cars. They drove me and my car back to work, where my car still sits. I have an awesome parking space. Greg met me there and took me to a hospital. I felt like it was an overreaction, that I just needed to rest. I checked Facebook on my phone and considered what funny message I should post about heading to the ER. Then we hit some bumps in the road that brought me to tears.
We followed the ER signs and stopped at the first door with wheel chairs. Turned out to be the wrong one, but they wheeled me over to the quickest ER visit I've ever had. The first nurse to check out my leg prodded until she found the spot that made me want to punch her. They brought in an x-ray machine and not long after a doctor came in to tell me my tibia was broken. Probably 6 weeks in a cast. That was the most upsetting part. One moment, and my ski trip this weekend was over. My trip to the New River Gorge early May was out. Climbing at Smith in the Spring with Nicole. And I had a lot of things I was supposed to be finishing up at work, which is stressful enough with the threat of layoffs looming.
They splinted my leg and told me to get to an orthopedic specialist. They gave me a disc of x-rays to take to the specialist (and I was surprised how low resolution they were).
Still gross from soccer, I unwrapped my leg for a bath. Greg helped me get upstairs, and re-wrapped my leg after.
Greg had planned to take off work anyway - he was heading to Ohio for his "Spring break". He wanted to be out ahead of the blizzard. I called a specialist a friend had a good experience with, but they were closing early for the snow. I told them I had a broken leg, so they squeezed me in. The doc wrapped my leg in a hot pink cast (it was a close call between that and glow-in-the-dark) and explained some details that made me queasy. He said it was broken straight through and he could push the bones apart. I asked him not to. He explained I was lucky that the bones were aligned. I had to come back in 10 days to make sure they were still aligned, else I'd need it re-aligned and a rod put in. I really hope I can avoid that. I will have this cast on for 3 weeks, then some sort of removable cast for about 5 weeks. It will be tricky catching rides to/from work, but fortunately I have a lot of great friends and family that have volunteered to taxi me.
Greg had some errands to run, including packing and picking up supplies for his bathroom renovation. He dropped me at Target so I could fill some prescriptions and pick up groceries for my home-bound weekend. I couldn't use crutches and a cart, so I cruised in an electric cart. I felt so badass. OTher customers were helpful with items I couldn't reach, and I made some guy's day when I asked him to get something that was too high for me. A shorter guy, he smiled as he noted that he had never been the one asked to help get something off a shelf.
Greg took me home, then headed to Ohio. Rachel joined me late, after work and rehearsal. I am on the couch at the moment - that is where I spend most of my day. Hopefully things wil get better - last night may have been rougher than the night before, and I was sick this morning. The sickness was likely that I took a pain pill early this morning without food. Rachel has been doing a wonderful job tending me, only a few months after being my nurse post nose/throat surgery. This time I can actually talk, though that is Rachel's call on whether that is a pro or con.
