Week 11

I tried to overcorrect with my right skate when all of the sudden my right foot bent upwards towards my leg. I felt and heard a loud pop and I fell backwards. My head hit the ice but it wasn’t too bad because I had managed to spread the impact throughout the rest of my body. My foot felt weird, as if it was disconnected from the rest of my leg at the ankle and it hurt a lot but it was manageable. Deep down I knew something was broken but I pushed that thought away and focused and tried to push the pain away. A lot of the group had circled me and were asking me if I was okay. I told them I was fine and to give me some room. I was still in the middle of the ice and needed to get to the wall but I couldn’t stand. I remember vaguely people in the group discussing how to move me when I started dragging myself towards the wall using my elbows to move my body since my right leg was useless and I had no grip with my left leg because of the skate. Some people dragged me the rest of the way until I was sitting against the wall. Two workers from the ice rink had come over by this point and asked me if I was able to stand on my own. I couldn’t so they grabbed me by each one of my arms so that I was hanging between them with my back facing the floor and me looking up towards the sky with my feet extending behind them. We proceeded in this awkward position and the two guys tried distracting me by asking me if I wanted to get married or have a dog. I told them I wanted a dog and before our conversation could continue, we had made it to the gate. They helped me stand up and then left. I propped myself up against the wall while favoring my right leg. People kept coming to ask me if I was okay and each time I would tell them that I was fine and that they should finish skating. I only had to wait about 15 minutes till the park closed and during that time I just watched the other skaters and tried to move my foot. As I waited for everyone to turn in their skates, I managed to hobble over to some steps and sit down. Clare brought my shoes to me and helped Stephenie take off my skates. My right ankle was the size of a grapefruit and was super tender. I couldn’t move it without it hurting but I kept on insisting that I just needed to go back to the hotel and ice and elevate my foot. We started talking about calling a cab to take me back to the hotel when Stephenie called Dr. Wasser and told him what had happened even though I told her not to. She was wise in not listening to what I was saying. Two of the boys let me put my arms around them as I started hopping towards the entrance. It was an awkward movement since the boys were taller than me when Kenneth stopped them, bent down, and literally threw me over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. He had almost made it to the street when a person working in the Red Cross tent called Kenneth over so they could look at my leg. The Red Cross guys examined my foot while we chatted and suggested I go to the hospital and gave me a referral to present to the emergency room attendant. Kenneth carried me back out and a cab was waiting. Stephenie got into the front seat since she was carrying all the papers the Red Cross guys had given her with my information, I slide into the back, and Nathan, a TA, got in the back too. Every little bump in the road resulted in intense discomfort so Nathan held my leg up in his hands to reduce the jolts which helped a lot. Once we arrived at the hospital, Nathan went inside to look for a wheelchair and Dr. Wasser and Kristin, one of our AIB coordinator’s, arrived. Once we got to the emergency room, Kristin began talking to the guy at the desk and brought papers over to me to fill out. Once that was done the wait began. It wasn’t too long before they called me in. I spoke to the doctors and told them what had happened and they sent me back out into the waiting room to wait for x-rays. I got called in a little later and for the first time that night a tear came out of my eye when the x-ray technician roughly adjusted my foot for the x-ray because it hurt so much.