Friday 14 October 2016

A Quick Catchup

Wow, it's been awhile, hasn't it? The last time I posted was back in May. Let me catch you up on what has happened since then.

The end of the school year rolled around and I had trouble coping with my anxiety during exam week, however I managed it a lot better than I did when I had my first round of exams in January. 

Other then that, my summer was fairly tamed. I worked every Monday-Friday as a lifeguard/swim instructor and I got really good hours. The way it worked is that the first two weeks, I would only be lifeguarding and then the next two weeks I would be teaching as well as lifeguarding and it went by that rotation the whole summer. By the end, I got roughly 58 hours in biweekly so that was pretty good. 

I would say the only downside to working in a pool all summer is the heat. They have to keep the pool deck a certain temperature to maintain the temperature in the water and to keep it somewhat consistent. That means when it gets hot outside in the summer, it gets hot on the pool deck too. I had a supervisor come and check on my one day while I was working because another coworker of mine thought I was already suffering from heat exhaustion. I felt alright and I felt as though I was able to perform my job properly (had I not felt that way, I definitely would've called over a supervisor), so I kept working and I was really thankful to have coworkers that cared enough to say that hey, maybe it's time to step back and have a break for a few minutes.

By the title of this post, you're all still probably wondering about someone breaking their ankle. 

I broke my ankle the last week or so of August.

During my summer of working at the pool, two of my shifts were the opening shift, so from 5am-9am. By the end of August, I was getting used to waking up at 4:40 to get to the pool on time, but when the last week of August came by, I wanted the chance to sleep in so I was looking to give away these shifts so I could sleep in but also have the chance to finish up some summer homework I hadn't really started.

A girl who recently became certified offered to take both shifts, but she was a little worried because she wasn't too sure how to open the pool (how to put in the lanelines, how to check everything in the first aid kit, how to get the flags up) and she didn't want to do anything incorrectly. I told her that I would go in with her on the first day, show her how to open and then I would stay in the staff room a bit, get my homework done and if she needed me, I'd be there, but if she didn't need me anymore and felt comfortable, I'd go home to do my homework.

I get up the morning of and I'm on my way out of the door, eating a bagel and I had my cellphone in hand, wasn't even on it, as I was going down my lawn to get to my car. 

The driveway that the car was in has a hill, probably a foot/foot and a half tall thats on a 60-70 degree angle. I was walking down the hill when my right foot slipped out from under me because of the dew on the lawn and my left foot stayed under me. My foot stayed flat as my leg went down on top of it and I ended up having a clean, diagonal break through my fibula. 

After the slip, I didn't really scream, it was more of a yelp in pain. After the shock set in, I realized that I still have to have someone get to work. 

This is where it get's rather entertaining.

I'm sitting on my front lawn, ankle at a weird angle and who knows where the rest of my bagel ended up but I was able to reach my phone, so I called the girl I was supposed to bring to work. I swear this is almost 100% how the conversation went.

She answered and my voice was pretty steady so she couldn't pick up on anything being wrong, so I said "Hey (her name), I'm really sorry to do this to you, but I can't drive you into work anymore. I think I just broke my ankle." 

She was shocked.

The sweetheart that she is asked if I needed any help or if I needed a drive to the hospital or anything and I told her that I was okay and that I would figure that out and she should go to work because she might be a bit late at this point and call me if she ran into any trouble and didn't know what to do. She hesitated but agreed and she went off to work.

I just felt awful at this point but I was still sitting on the front lawn so that's when I called my parents who were still sleeping in the house. My mom picked up and I just said "I slipped down the hill," and she knew that something wasn't right for me to be calling her and telling her that at 4:45 in the morning so they came out, saw I was in pain and I was at the hospital around 5:00am.

Here's the thing about the emergency room: They don't have x-ray technicians until they start a 'normal' work day of theirs from 8-5. If it's life or death matter, they'll call one in. Since it wasn't, I sat in the emergency room and at 8:00am on the dot, 5 people in the ER got called back for x-rays.

I sat around and waited another 15 minutes or so in back to go get my x-ray and around that time, a supervisor got to the pool and the girl lifeguarding told her what happened. I never heard if she was late getting to the pool or not, but if she was, after she told our supervisor what happened, all was forgiven. I got a text from her saying that she heard I hurt my foot and she was wondering what happened. I told her I'd let her know for sure once I get the x-ray done. 

Got the x-rays shortly after and then the doctor called me over so I could have a look at it myself. Yeah, it was a clear break. It wasn't one you have trouble seeing or you're straining your eyes to find, it was literally right in front of you.

I called my supervisor, said it was a break and I'll have a cast for 6 or so weeks and then I'd still have to stay off of it for awhile while doing physio. I'm most likely out for 10 or so weeks. We agreed that I would attempt to find subs for the rest of my shifts but if I couldn't they would step in and help me find people.

We have a Facebook group where we post if we need any subs and the only thing I said was "Hey guys, I hurt my ankle this morning and I won't be able to work the rest of the week. I need someone to take the following shifts," and I posted my shifts below.

I'll admit, this looks really sketchy for someone wanting the last week of August off, but people wanted the money and they took my shifts.

The first day of school, I ran into a coworker. I guess word hadn't spread on what happened to me/my ankle, but he looked at me, saw me on crutches with a big cast on and said "Wow, you really weren't kidding when you said you hurt your ankle."

School has been a little rough. It's hard to get around the hallways on crutches when people are constantly slowing down in front of you, blocking the way and shoving in the hallway, but thankful I'm almost done with my struggle of getting around school.

The past 6, almost 7, weeks have been extremely long, but I get to go back to the hospital on Monday to have it reevaluated, so hopefully that means at least a walking cast.

For me, it wasn't having the cast which was bothersome, it was the not being able to do anything. I couldn't work, couldn't carry anything, couldn't cook, couldn't stand and I had so many limitations on so many things I don't usually think twice about. When limitations are placed on you, you appreciate all the little things you didn't realize you're lucky to be able to do in your day-to-day life.

I'll be so thankful for when things can return to normal, but I'll remember to count myself lucky for all that I do have.



Until next time!

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