Light Duty

Sleeping that first night in that much pain with Vicodin, oh what a joy. Vicodin and me do not get along, see eye to eye or it is just plain evil. The dreams were awful, pretty much the most vivid, horrific, scary like you were really there kinda dreams. It didn't matter thou because I needed that pain medicine one way or another and I wasn't scheduled to see the company doctor yet to get anything else. That next morning when I woke up to go to work I was exhausted from my nights sleep...imagine that exhausted from sleep. It was those wild dreams, I know it. Getting ready seemed to take FOREVER, you never know how important your foot is until you can't use it. Getting in and out of the shower, heck just standing in there washing was hard, then doing my hair and brushing my teeth, all that standing was really taking its toll on me. The most fun was yet to be had when it was time to leave, see I live in an upstairs condo...you caught that right...upstairs, I had to navigate my way down the stairs with my crutches, I'm sure it would have been entertaining for someone, but it wasn't for me. Now the task of getting in the car without hurting myself and getting to work. Yup, I could still drive because it was my left foot, not saying it was easy but I could do it.
Fast forward to work now>>>>>So I get in and the fun begins because no one knows what to do with me. Being on crutches now really limits the amount of light duty assignments I'm going to be able to do, plus I haven't seen the company doctor yet so they don't really have my work restrictions yet. Loss prevention comes in an hour behind us so I knew they would be getting me an appointment as soon as possible, but what until then. Well they stuck me back in our offices making store survey calls...BORING. I couldn't wait to go to the doctor, which I ended up seeing that morning. Darn, and when I came back I was still stuck making those calls.
I made calls for a few days and then we had Thursday off for Thanksgiving and then we were back on Friday. I seemed to go to the doctor every few days and nothing seemed to change, my pain was still at a high level and standing and walking even with crutches was painful. This doctor told me I had a deep bone bruise to my ankle and a crush sprain to both my foot and ankle. What? Sound like an oxymoron to me. He put an air cast on and an ace bandage and still had me on crutches, but now really limited me to more sedentary work.
I was starting to wonder when I would hear what type of punishment I would receive for my accident by that following Monday, well it had already been a week. No sooner I start wondering I find out and man did I find out. Two days later right after I clocked in my supervisor asked to speak to me and had me come into the manager of the departments office, he was in there waiting. After we entered she shut the door behind us, as we have some VERY nosey people in the department. We sat down and I waited for it. They questioned me again a little bit about the accident, brought up any mobile accidents I've had during my career there, talked about the shoulda, coulda, wouldas and then gave me a 3 day unpaid suspension starting that day. My manager said he needed my id while I was suspended and I could return on Monday. I was a little taken back by the suspension because it was an equipment failure, but I was even more taken back when I was told "this is to teach you a lesson". We are trained to stay on our equipment until it comes to a complete stop and I didn't. In that moment when my brakes failed I felt as if I had no other option but to bail from my truck, it felt unsafe to stay on.
I turned over my id and they walked me to the front and I had a 5 day weekend. Not happy that I was home not getting paid but at the same time I was home resting my foot. Monday I was back for more light duty and more doctors appointments. But why am I not getting any better, why is the pain still the same...these answers all in due time....

The ER

So I'm on my un-fun 10 minute bumpy ambulance ride the hospitals ER and now were finally there, AMEN no more bumps! As the EMT's start wheeling me in on the stretcher the first thing I see is one of my best friends in the whole wide world Michelle, boy was I happy to see her. The first thing she says to me is "What the hell did you do to yourself?", and we both just took a second to laugh. She could tell I was in immense pain and I'm sure she could she the swelling. They wheeled me into a room where I was really trying my hardest to stay light through all the pain and for anyone who knows Michelle they know it's very easy to laugh with her so she helped me more then she'll ever know. I can't remember when I asked her how she knew I was hurt or going to be at that hospital but it was sometime close to when I first arrived she told me that her husband Greg had called her frantic from the job and told her I had been seriously injured, she could tell by his voice it was bad so met me at the hospital. If you ever wondered what a true friend is, now you know.
 So back to the story...well the nurses have come in and asked a few questions but haven't touched a thing and now the doctor comes in and I know he is about to take my shoe off. Michelle is standing next to me and I feel like I'm ready to pass out, from the pain...or maybe the fear of whats under the shoe and I'm wondering is he gonna cut my sneaker off or un-tie it and take it off. (My sneakers were only a week old a still looked brand new, well not that one anymore, it was all black from the dirt and grease under the truck but still I wasn't sure about how I would feel about having a new pair of shoes cut off.) Well the doctor sized it up for a second then started un-lacing the shoe and gently took it off. When the shoe came off the pain level shot through the roof, my guess would be because now the foot had plenty of space to expand. His next move was to gently remove my sock and at this point we were all probably holding our breath not knowing what to expect once it was to come off. OMG...shear shock I'll tell ya, I had never seen something that black and swollen in my life, it was ugly. The first words the doctor uttered were "Oh, it's broke!", then set me up for x-rays. Michelle and I had a few moments to discuss the ugliness of my left foot and what we were guessing as the diagnosis just before the I was taken down for my x-rays.
 The x-ray tech tried very hard to be gentle while setting up each x-ray but everything hurt. My time in radiology went very fast, and I was returned back to my room to wait for the results and hopefully some pain meds. Michelle and I still just tried to keep the jokes cracking to keep my head somewhere else, but I think that's our normal MO's anyway...we can't help it. When the doctor returned I couldn't help but to notice that he seemed almost a bit down, then he spoke,"It isn't broke.", it was like he was upset almost as if it had to be broken or else. I was excited, both Michelle and I were a little shocked I think we also thought I had broken it too, heck everyone seemed to think so. I was now feeling great about my situation saying to my bestie how fast I would be back to working and everything.
The nurse came back in and gave me a vicodin for the pain...thank the heavens for that because I needed it and a prescription for more as I would need something for the pain over the next week or so, then she ace wrapped my foot and handed me some crutches...ha-ha, I had never used them before so this was gonna be fun. I asked her what I had done to myself and I was told it was only a sprain, oh, OK. I had managed to be in and out of the ER in under an hour, unheard of right?
So, Michelle helped me out to her truck and returned me back to the job as that's where I needed to go after medical treatment. I turned in all of the paperwork and due to the meds I was given they decided it was best to send me home for the rest of the day and return back to work the following day. So I went home to rest and the next day my journey again would begin.