Almost fourteen weeks ago, I fell in the snow in Rocky Mountain National Park and broke my leg in three places.  I spent seven weeks in a cast, then four weeks in a cam boot.  I’ve been out of the cam boot for almost three weeks.  I have a long way to go before I’m completely healed, but I’m walking and climbing stairs and riding my bike.

I think the most frustrating thing, for me, is the lack of complete healing.  I’m an impatient patient, most of the time.  I don’t like being sick, I don’t like being laid up.  I don’t like not being able to do what I want to do when I want to do it.  So, nearly 14 weeks after my gruesome break, I’m still not really able to do what I want to do when I want to do it.

There are, of course, good days and bad days.  Today started out as a good day, and I was walking with almost no limp.  But by afternoon, I guess it was obvious I was in some pain.  One of my coworkers passing me in the hallway asked “is your leg bothering you?”

Yes, I guess it was.  I was limping like Frankenstein.  I popped some more ibuprofen and an hour later I felt better.  The limp is a result of stiffness and inflammation, and also some sharp pains I get in various places where the breaks occurred.  There are times I can turn the ankle and it feels fine, and others when that little twist becomes the thing that makes me hurt the rest of the day.  I know, I need to be patient.  I need to continue to do my exercises and get on my bike and try to walk as much as I can.  A month from now, I’ll be better.  A month after that, even better.

My goal was to be on a bike by the first of April.  I beat that by two weeks, and I’ve been on my bike five or six times since March 14th.  I started out with small rides (under 5 miles) but this past weekend I did the long ride, the whole 15 miles.  I even did ten hard miles in a strong wind.  Biking, oddly enough, does not hurt.  It is not weight-bearing, which is probably the biggest advantage the biking has.  And the biking will get my knees back in shape.

If there was a pill for patience, I’d take it.  But there isn’t.  So I just need to keep listening to my body and taking it easy as needed, and pushing when I can.  And I’ll keep telling myself I will be good as new.  Someday.

My ankles side by side.  This is first thing in the morning, when the damaged ankle is the least swollen.

Anterior views…

Interior ankle…

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