A Broken Foot

So I was getting ready for the Oireachtas (regional Irish dance championships) and had driven to Colorado with my mom for a few extra practice sessions. Late on the 2nd night that I was in class, I fell pretty hard and landed on my right foot. I knew I had done something to it, but I prayed it wasn't serious. On the drive home it hurt to drive so I pulled over and asked my mom to drive and I took a look at my foot. It was swollen to about the size of my head and had started to throb with pain. I've had a broken foot before (same bone other foot) and knew what that felt like and was pretty sure it was the same thing this time, except that the pain was like 8 times worse.

We called my friend that we were staying with and explained that instead of coming to her house we were headed to the emergency room and not to wait up for us. She offered to come and pick up Jeffrey and take him back to her house. Fast forward an hour or so and this was the results we got from the radiologist:

• Fifth metatarsal has approximate 2.5 cm long vertical oblique lucency involving distal and mid shaft most compatible with acute fracture with some medial displacement and mild lateral angulation of distal end with greatest medial displacement involving medial cortex region of distal fracture fragment. 

Didn't understand that? Well I didn't either, they showed me a picture of the fracture and it was pretty messy, I had shattered the bone in a few places and then bowed it outwards in another. The ER doctors exact words? "You have a really interesting break." Well my motto is if you can't do something right don't do it halfway.



Then he said the words that made me terrified, "You're going to have to have surgery to fix it correctly." I asked for clarification and he told me I could let it heal naturally, but I might have bone spurs or problems with it later on. He said it would be best, considering my dancing history, to have it fixed by putting a plate and screws in. He also conferred with the Orthopedic doctor on call (Dr. McVay) who looked at the x-ray and said the same thing. Dr. McVay told the ER doctor that he would be able to do the surgery early in the next week.

So after we headed back to my friend's house we started making plans, have the surgery in Colorado? Have surgery in Utah and then have Cory pick me up later? Head back to Fort Riley and have surgery there? I was running on adrenaline and sheer will power at that point but after things settled down and I started thinking about everything I was devastated. I wouldn't be able to go on the trip (my swan song) to California to compete one last time with friends and I wouldn't be able to drive for at least 6 weeks.

The next few days I spent trying to get surgery authorized through Tricare. It was a nightmare! I spent over 8 hours on the phone over the weekend with TriWest and then Tricare trying to make sure that the surgery could be paid for even though I was out of area. Just when I had one person willing to help, they would say they couldn't do anything for me since I wasn't in Kansas and then another would say they wanted to help and they just needed the Kansas people to change it over and fix it. I spent 4 days waiting hoping that we were going to be able to get everything authorized. We moved to a long term hotel and waited some more. It was agony, my foot was in so much pain that I had to keep taking the medicine for it, but then I'd be asleep for hours at a time.

My sweet angel of a mother cared for me and cared for my son over that week of waiting. She would make sure I ate, drive me where I needed to go (though she is petrified of driving where she isn't familiar), make phone calls to my friends who she had never met, held my hand until I went into surgery and was the solid rock that I needed during that time. She never once voiced a concern about her needs or getting home by Thanksgiving. There is no one on this earth who is as sweet as my mother.

Well, the day that I should have been traveling to California to see Disneyland and all my friends was the day I went in for surgery. I was terrified. I haven't ever had surgery before and I am PETRIFIED of needles and IVs (which is why I had natural labor, the pain wasn't anywhere close to my fear of needles). I remember my mom telling me it was going to be ok, kissing my forehead and then taking my glasses as they wheeled me into the operating room. I felt the sting in my arm and drifted into unconsciousness. The next thing I remember is waking up asking if we were all done. I think I asked that four or five times.  They showed me a picture of my new bionic foot, plate and screws and all, and sent me on my way. The surgery center (Kissing Camels Surgery Center) was great, they were so caring and helpful and the nurse before surgery calmed my nerves about everything.

My mom drove us the 8 hours back to Kansas and I am forever in her debt for helping me while I was so helpless. Thankfully she made it home in time for Thanksgiving.

So now I'm in a walking boot until the end of the year hoping that everything looks good when I go in to see the Orthopedic doctors here at Fort Riley. I don't do well as an invalid. I have cabin fever so much that it's hard not to follow Cory around like a puppy when he gets home just so I can have some adult interaction.

So there it is, the story of the Dancer's foot and why it ruined Oireachtas 2011.