I was walking through the gym to get my purse and heard my ankle snap.
4 YEARS. That's medical school. Or a presidency. Or my late 20s.
I am going to write my surgeon a letter tonight. I've never thanked him for what he did for me. I'm not good with words and emotions, but he deserves to know that he gave me my life back. There were years when I couldn't even walk to my mailbox without pain. And he didn't give up. How the hell do you say thank you for that?
We didn't understand til May of 2011 how that was possible. It turns out I had created a perfect storm. About a month prior to that night I thought I had sprained my ankle. I just woke up one morning and it hurt. I took that month off from the gym and that night was my first night back. I did about an hour on the elliptical with no pain or issues and it was as I was leaving that the ligaments snapped and the bones broke.
What really happened is that I have a genetic disorder that makes my connective tissue weak. I didn't know that a sprain for me is more serious. A month off with no physical therapy is not enough for me. The elliptical warmed up and stretched out those damaged parts to the point where all it took was one step to completely destroy that joint.