Ouch!!!

Karen, over at This Old House 2 did a really fun post before all the Blogger issues started and challenged everyone to do a similar one. The title of the post is My Other Self and in it she gave a glimpse of what her "other" life would look like. It reminded me of those bumper stickers you see around town…

My other car is a bicycle

My other child is an honor student

Get the picture? I knew you would!

Anyway, after being sick in bed with a chest cold, I was finally back on the computer catching up with all of you, leaving those comments that have now all disappeared, when I ran across Karen's post. I thought it sounded like a fun post to write, so while blogger was down I decided to answer her question, "What does your other self look like?"

Things were going well, my cold was still hanging on, but I was able to "sit up and take nourishment" as my daddy used to say. I had been sitting at the computer for several hours working on "my other self" when the gate outside the front door started banging. This is an ongoing frustration I have here at my daughter's home. When someone goes out the gate, the latch doesn't latch properly and every little breeze causes it to bang shut. When the breeze is strong it really BANGS shut and startles me, causing me to jump. One of those things that is so minuscule in the grand scope of things, but annoying just the same.

Anyway, like I said I was working on the aforementioned post when the darn gate started banging away. Frustrated, I jumped up to close the darn thing, and when I say jumped, I mean JUMPED! This would have been all fine and well, except for the fact that my foot had gone to sleep. Now, I know all of you at some time or other have stood up and found your sleeping foot won't support you, so you sit back down and move it around until it starts working again. Oh yeah, those pins and needles are such fun, aren't they?

Remember I said I JUMPED up, so needless to say, my ankle just crumpled. This is one of those moments I would like to have on film, I know it would be a YouTube sensation! Everyone would be laughing at the old lady who somehow managed to grab the wheeled office chair, spin around in a perfect 180° and land about three feet away, with one butt cheek clinging to the edge of the (thankfully) armless sofa, all the while screaming her head off. I know I had to have really hollered, because I scared the dogs so bad they didn't come anywhere close to me for the rest of the day.

Did I mention I was home alone when all this took place?

The pain was excruciating! I didn't know if it was broken or sprained, but trust me when I tell you, I thought I had crushed every bone in my foot. I couldn't move and all I could think about as I looked helplessly across the room at the telephone, was that old commercial, "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up." I was laughing when that came out, now, not so much.

Took me close to an hour to get both cheeks onto the couch, reach for my office chair (which luckily I had brought with me in all the falling and wild flailing of arms), pull it to me, get myself into the chair and slowly wheel myself to the phone. By this time, despite the pain, I became convinced that I had severely sprained my ankle, not broken it, and there was no need to call my daughter home from work. It's part of that, "I hate to be a burden" thing.

Picture this — I wheeled myself to the kitchen on my makeshift wheelchair, formerly known as my office chair, and managed to put an ice bag together. Then I wheeled myself back and scooted back onto the couch that had broken my fall. Considering we have tile floors, the couch was positioned in just the right place to prevent me from what probably would have been further injuries.  I proceeded to do the RICE regimen, you know — Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. Well, actually, I didn't do the compression bandage, I didn't have an Ace bandage nearby, so I guess I just did the RIE regimen until my daughter came home about five hours later. I called her when I thought she would be on her way home, told her what happened and ask her to bring me more ibuprofen and ice. Being the dutiful and thoughtful daughter she is, she came in the door with one of those ice bags that work better than a plastic baggie, a gel pad, an ankle brace wrap thingy and more ibuprofen. She waited on my hand and foot all weekend, even making me pancakes and turkey sausage for breakfast on Saturday. We watched TV, I finally read Water For Elephants and I slept a lot. Basically, I did just what you're supposed to do, I stayed off my feet all weekend, except for the bathroom runs. Between my daughter, my office chair and a cane, I managed that little chore just fine.

My foot is still swollen, but the pain is MUCH better and while I can stand and put a little weight on my foot, I'm not walking. I can't sit at the computer for very long or the swelling starts to increase, but I am slowly starting to move my foot around a bit while in a prone position.

As for the My Other Self post, I'm still going to post it later this week, but I will tell you right now…

my other self will not be such a klutz!

If you think this sounds like fun — the My Other Self post, not the ankle sprain thing — go read Karen's post and do one for your other self. I look forward to reading them.

Right now, I'm going to RICE some more and will be back later to see if your weekend was more fun than mine.

Note: It was fun to be waited on hand and foot though!

Today's Ocean Fact: Great White Sharks migrate long distances. Some make journeys from South Africa to Australia – a round trip of 20,000 miles. It’s the longest recorded migration of any fish. –Smithsonian Ocean Portal