the fall

Six and a half weeks ago I was standing on a little stool behind the bass xylophone (it's the instrument that says "BX2") to put up the the purple "rest" poster that you can see. I could easily reach what I needed to reach but the stool was there so I stood up on it. Suddenly I found myself falling backwards and sideways over the top of the bass xylophone and the bass metallaphone beside it. I hit the floor with a thud as my leg made serious contact with the instruments. I made a nice musical landing, scattering bars in every direction. A teacher, who had been in the library which is located beside my room, came in to see if I was ok. I assured him I was. Actually, I wasn't, but I didn't know that for several days.

Howard came home from a trip the day after my fall so I was able to get a picture to record the damage! The bruising was so painful. After a week of gimping along with the pain only increasing I finally went to the doctor. He told me I had torn a muscle. I'm still not sure that was a correct diagnosis but it got me off my feet and off school for 2 days. I spent 5 days over the Thanksgiving weekend on the couch with my leg elevated and iced. By Tuesday I was feeling a lot better so I went off to school. I was fine until third period. I had been walking way too much, and the pain had returned. By Wednesday evening the pain was incredibly worse and the circulation in my foot was poor. It felt like needles were racing down my leg. On Thursday afternoon, Howard took me to a walk-in clinic in Winnipeg for sports and minor injuries. We only waited about an hour which was amazing for that clinic. The doctor looked at my injuries and told me that the pain was a result of the nerves misfiring and they were telling me that there was pain when there wasn't. He said I had to get off the crutches and get that leg moving. He gave me a prescription for some meds which would reduce the pain. Well. After one pill, the pain was gone. Now I could only feel the bruising and something strange in my ankle. He sent me for a bone scan which revealed bad bone bruising. And a few days later he told me I had sprained the ligament in my ankle.

 So now I visit the physiotherapist once a week and have a range of exercises to do to strengthen the ligament. As you can see, the swelling has gone down and the bruising is minimal.

The worst of the two bone bruises is just above my ankle bone and that one is still super sensitive and a raised, hard lump. I figure it will be a year before that disappears. Through it all, my kids were so kind and caring - asking me every day how my leg was feeling. They were so sweet. The staff at my school has also been so kind and concerned. I have lots of people looking out for me there! And of course, my husband took wonderful care of me at home, and even threatened getting angry with me if I didn't let him help me! I told him I was really scared!! :) I am thankful that I am slowly healing from this crazy accident. It was a good reminder to think before acting. Had I just pushed that stool out of the way, I would have been fine. I am very leery about climbing up on anything and I think it will be a good while before I get that courage back.
So that's my story. Hopefully I can be a little more faithful with my posts now, especially since I have my report cards almost finished!  Yayay!