what did you do?

I get that a lot these days.  That happens when you are walking around town with a CAM boot on your foot.  I typically begin the story with "I saved my child's life" but then I just get weird looks so I have to switch the story to "I tried to stop myself from falling on my ass" and then I tend to get looks of "Oh.  Yep.  I've been there."  So what did happen?  About two weeks ago Kara and I were walking out of a local big box store.  I was carrying Alex.  It had started to sprinkle about five minutes before we walked out of the store.  I had on flip-flops.  I stepped from the concrete (sidewalk) to the asphalt (parking lot) and I immediately had lost all traction under my flip flop.  My flip flop bent back underneath me and somehow I managed to stop our fall by coming straight down on my big toe.  See I saved Alex's life.  It hurt.  I said a few curse words and then hobbled to the car.  I will admit that after I tossed Alex into the car seat and climbed into the front passenger seat I was in a bit of pain.  My toe immediately bruised up.  So of course I did what any normal person would do and decided to ignore it.  I did send a brief text message to my medical friends to see if I should to to a doctor.  I got definite NO's all across the board and so I just put some ice on it and continued on with my life.  So here is the thing.  I absolutely could not walk on my foot.  So over the next several days I got really good at hobbling around in my flip flops.  Of course I was also in flip-flops because my toe was too swollen to fit into shoes.  If I was not putting pressure on my toe it did not hurt.  I continued like this for 10 days until I realized that the pain was beginning to increase along with the swelling in my big toe.  So I threw in the towel and went to the Podiatrist.  And I was a bit blown away with how much damage I had actually done to my big toe.  I seriously thought I just jammed it.  It's fractured and in medical speak they tell me there is an "intra-articular fracture involving the base of the 1st distal phalanx" (um. okay.)  But the real area of concern was actually potential damage to the first lateral sesamoid phalangeal ligament (um.  okay).  So basically I was told this is the ligament that holds in place two little bones called the sesamoid bones and on the x-ray these bones should sit directly across from one another.  My bones were "bumped" out of place.  This got me a ticket to an MRI to determine if the ligament was simply torn or if it was ruptured.  Well the MRI came back inconclusive.  The radiologist can't actually see the ligament on the MRI.  Sigh.  So because the surgery to repair the ligament is a bit intense we are going into the wait and see mode.  There is a chance the MRI just didn't pick up the ligament or there is a chance the ligament is completely gone.  So I am in a CAM boot for the next six weeks to heal the fracture.  I will then get the boot off and do some physical therapy.  If the fracture heals and I am still in pain then we will reevaluate the situation.  I am optimistic.  The surgeon feels at this time there is only about a 25% chance of me needing any surgery.  I will take those odds.  So in the meantime I will continue to learn to manage life in the boot.  It's been a challenge but I feel like my body is beginning to adjust.  I had some super sore hips the first couple of days.  It's a blast chasing almost 3 year old twin boys around in a CAM boot.  But I keep thinking that we would really be up a creek without a paddle should I need surgery.  I'm not even sure how we would manage.  It scares me.  So cross your fingers my toe continues to heal without any additional problems.

Mary