December/January 2001/2002

I mean, it all started out so normally. I went home, having finished my classes for the semester, to a well-earned 2 week vacation, a time to rest, relax, and thank God for the blessings of the year.

Then on Christmas Eve morning, I was hurrying down the steps after having gotten a shower and getting dressed, and I went to step over our dog, Princess, who was lying on the bottom step (one up from the floor). In the process of doing this, I caught my big toe on the edge of the step and threw my foot at a weird angle forward to the floor. I felt a twinge of pain, not surprisingly, and immediately hopped over to the couch, figuring I sprained my foot again (I've done it MANY times).

However, Dad heard the loud clunk and came down the stairs to find I had passed out. Such a weird feeling, really, fighting this blackness because I was hearing his voice, but unable to do anything about it for a few seconds.

At this point, everyone knew I was hurt pretty badly. I don't often pass out!

My sisters put some ice on it and gave me a glass of orange juice to get some sugar going again, and then I sat for a few minutes until mom (a RN) got home. She looked at my foot, touched it a couple times, then told me we were going to the hospital, which seemed like a perfectly logical thing to do.

We got to the emergency dept of the hospital in Meaford, and by this point my foot was swelling pretty good. There was absolutely no lineup waiting at the emerg, I was in and seen in about 15 minutes, (that's with the usual rigamarole of admission!) and seated in a wheelchair. The doctor who was in that day, looked at my foot, then started to touch it a little, which didn't feel too bad until she hit one spot and I pretty much jumped out of the chair!

So the next obvious thing to do was the X-ray thing.

This turned out to be not too bad, since I was in a heck of a lot of pain anyway, so moving my foot around wasn't any different. The disturbing part was that while all this was going on, it was getting busy in emerg. A snowmobiler came in, who had basically destroyed his wrist. A young child came in with a broken elbow.

Then the x-rays were brought back, and I got to see them. A normal bone is a straight line.
My bone, as it appeared in the x-ray, approximately:

Dr. Wong comes in, looks at the x-ray, and says, "I can't set this. It'll just fall apart again." So they had to call in the bone surgeon. Mind you, once they saw the snowmobile dude, it was worth Dr McCall's while to come in, even if it was a Sunday.

So by this time it's around 10 am, and the nurses are saying, we'll have you in surgery by 12:30 or 1. Just hold on a while. SO they start an IV drip (to help with the anaesthetic required for the surgery later). More folks come into emerg, including one woman who dies in the room next to mine, and a woman who needs hip surgery. McCall's up to *3* surgeries now.

McCall arrives, around 12:40. Looks at my x-ray. "You're second.". Goes to work on the snowmobile dude.

Time passes.

Mom and I intermittently nap and sing Christmas carols to pass the time.

3 pm, the intravenous is low, Mom calls the nurse, she replaces the IV. All is well. 4 oclock-- "We're cleaning up the OR now, you're up next. 4:30-wheeled into OR. 4:31-Unconscious.

*somewhere in here Dr. McCall slices my foot open, puts a plate and 4 screws on the bone to hold it together, then stiches it up-10 stitches*

7:00 pm. I come to. High on morphine, I crack a joke with the doctor as I'm wheeled from recovery to a room for the night, as requested by my dear mother who has stood guard the last, oh, 11 hours instead of sleeping, having worked the previous night. This means she's missed both Christmas Eve services too. She goes home and sleeps, around 8 pm.

I have a restless night. My foot hurts.

Christmas morning. Breakfast at 7 am. A Christmas card on the breakfast tray. Too funny. Mom comes in around 8, and I"m discharged to go home and sit around. High on Tylenol-3s, I'm not feeling much pain.

Mom and the rest go to church, me, I sit in a chair with my foot elevated and doze in and out of the local country station CICZ 104.1 playing Christmas carols. Then all the normal Christmas stuff happens.

I guess it's a Christmas I'll never forget, if for no other reason than that I learned an awful lot from the 24th to the 17th of January, during which time I had no fewer than 2 casts and 1 splint at various times, before getting the surgeon's clearance to return to life. I learned that I've been far too complacent about the many good things that I have. You never realize what a blessing it is to be able to walk from one room to another until you can't. You never realize how unfriendly a mall or store can be to someone in a wheelchair or walker until you experience it. You never notice how you stare at the people in the wheelchairs until you're the one stared at. And so forth. Too often I've taken for granted the many gifts and blessings I've been given. It's sad that I needed to break my foot to realize this. At any rate, to those of you who I forgot to send Christmas greetings to, here's a belated wish of Christmas and God's blessings to you this new year, and to all the rest of you, here's a wish for God's continued blessings in all your lives.

Here's to a blessed 2002 to all of you.