Injury Report

It was the evening of November 30th. It also marked the first basketball game of the Tuesdays vs. Thursdays (the guys who play on Tuesday night against the guys who play on Thursday night). The game was going quite well. For some reason we were playing with 20 minute quarters, but we still seemed to have energy going into the second half. The Thursdays(my team) took an early lead in the beginning(being up by at least 20 points at some point in time), but the Tuesdays were making a huge run. They had cut the lead to single digits a few minutes into the 3rd quarter. It was at that point that I took a jump shot from around the free throw line. As I came down, the spot on the floor my left foot wanted to land on was already occupied by my defender's leg. The result was my foot landing on his leg and making a popping sound. I went to the ground and let out a nice growl. Jed was there and told me to stay on the ground. I looked at my leg and saw my ankle trying to look back at me. This was obviously not your typical ankle sprain. Surprisingly, I was not in pain and think that I was pretty calm under the circumstances. We gathered my things, loaded me into Jed's truck and headed to the emergency room.

They got me in immediately and laid me in a bed. One of the nurses recognized me from our last place of residence, so it was a good opportunity to catch up with an old acquaintance. They cut off my shoe laces removed the shoe and cut off my sock. After that, this is what we saw:

It appeared that I had dislocated my ankle. Luckily, it didn't look like I had broken any bones. And, although the bones did rip a couple of holes in my foot, they didn't burst out. So, it seemed like there were some positives to the situation. After doping me up and trying to get government secrets out of me (why else would they be twisting on my foot?), it was determined that they weren't going to get my foot back in. A surgeon was called and in the mean time my wife, parents, and father-in-law all made an appearance. Xrays were taken and the surgeon, wearing a sporty L.L. Bean fleece showed up. He said that I had a very rare dislocation of the joint just below the ankle. I believe he called it the subtaylor joint. They were going to take me up to surgery and knock me out. They hoped that the muscles would then relax enough to be able to slide my foot back into place without having to cut me open. The surgery was a success and I came away with no stitches. I am currently using crutches and a walking boot. The swelling has gone down significantly over the last couple of days, and I am gradually applying more weight to it. I have another appointment to see the doctor in a week and a half or so.

Initially, the doctor said that I would not be able to play basketball again. However, when I saw him last, he had changed his tune a bit. I will still have to do physical therapy and it will be a long process to get to that point. It is still frustrating not being able to do much during the holidays, but a lot of people have helped us out. I am hoping that I will be in decent shape before Bodie comes. This seems like a reasonable excuse for the huge gap since my last post. I do have some events in the past to report on, so check back over the next few days to learn about my Disneyland trip with Skyler and my visit to the world's largest bunny museum.