My Own Catastrophe

Not a good Monday for me

As I write this, I am on my back with my leg propped up on my couch cushions with a gigantic cast on my left leg. If you noticed I haven’t been very active these last few days, I'm going to fill you in.

On monday night we thought it would be nice to take the kids out for some fun. After all, the weather has been garbage during these first few months of the year. It kind of aligns with the political climate, but I digress.

We went to Rainbow Rink. It’s a roller skating place that probably opened sometime in the 1970s. The floors are all worn down, and it has that musty smell of sweat and old pizza. It feels kind of like a Chuck E. Cheese without the creepy animatronics.

Two of my girls had a blast, and I had some fun as well on “the round.” My oldest daughter wanted nothing to do with it, so she stayed home with her angsty teenage vibes.

So we were taking our last few laps around the circle. I was just starting to feel confident up on the skates. I have only been on roller skates a handful of times, but I felt like I really was getting the hang of it—big mistake.

As I was slowing down to head off the rink, somehow my left skate got turned inwards, but my body had other ideas and wanted to continue in the direction that I was heading. I then rolled forward over the top of my skate that was turned 90 degrees. It forced the skate to roll in the direction the rest of my body was going.

This meant that all of my body weight fell on that turned-in leg. The result was not pretty.

I was transported to the hospital, where they took x-rays. When they looked at it, they said they couldn't operate on my leg because of the severity of the injury; I needed to be transported to our downtown hospital, which is equipped with material to handle such an injury.

To say it was catastrophic seems like it doesn't quite describe how painful it is right now. I broke my tibia in two places, and I broke my fibula, as well along with a bunch of ligaments in that area. If you don't know, that is the part of the leg that is below the knee that is made up of two bones, the tibia and the fibula.

I won’t be able to put weight on my leg for the next six weeks. I had two plates put in and a couple screws. In addition, I had a metal rod put in from my knee down to my ankle to stabilize my leg. It's going to be a long road back.

I will do my best to keep pushing my newsletter to you guys. Of course there may be some gaps here and there. But I am sure you guys can understand why.

I keep replaying that fall in my head. I keep thinking about what if I hadn’t gone out and done a few more laps before calling it quits. But I can't dwell on the past.

Thank you in advance to all who end up reading this newsletter. You guys have been such an encouraging voice during this last year or so. I appreciate all of you so much.

Love you guys.

Erik

(Liberaldad)