April 19, 2007

• As many of you may know, I like my feet.

  Weird, I know - but true...they are large [but not when considered in proportion to the rest of my body] but have always been a nice shape and if pressed for a favorite body part [*on MY body, not others* - yeah, that would probably be the one that I would pick.  My feet are the one thing that have always been THIN on my body - that probably has something to do with it...

  Here is a great shot of my feet on the beach the very first morning of vacation.

  

  I digress.

  Hopefully you all remember that I went on vacation a couple of weeks ago [you remember - the one that I was supposed to have posted pictures of and STILL HAVEN'T?  Ummmmm - Christina - apparently 'the Lazy' has gotten out and is spreading through the land of xanga ].  Anyway - for those who don't know - I went to the Gulf Shores in Alabama with the families of two dear friends - it was to be a week of fun and sand and surf...good times all around.

  We arrived in AL on Sunday evening - and got up Monday morning raring and ready to go spend the entire day on the beach...we loaded up the towels and the books and the sunscreen and the shovels and the chairs and the cooler and just about everything except the kitchen sink before traipsing down to the shore [which was really not the trek that I am making it sound - really only a hundred yards or so].

  We set up camp and dug right in - literally...burying one of our group in the sand and shaping the sand around him to look as 'mermaid-ish' as possible... [yeah - we know - we kinda suck at the sand shaping - he looks more like a starfish really - we were proud anyway...]

  

  We got a bit sandy in the process, and although we knew the water was going to be cold, I talked these girls into running into the ocean to rinse off the sand with me...

  

  So I grabbed each of them by the hand [a Sydney and Sidney sandwich - gotta love that! ], and we took off running into the water - laughing all the way...

  We got out to a little above my knees before a biggish wave [and I only say biggish because it was not HUGE or anything - rather not - but bigger than the ones before and certainly big enough to cause the following] came and quite literally knocked us off of our feet.  I knew that I was going down and had let go of the girls hands by this point....

  The following is what went through my head in the next 5-10 seconds.

  [Hitting the water as I fell] 
  '...blow out through your nose so you don't get a face full of salt water...'
  
  [Beginning to come up out of the water]
  '...CRAP - my sunglasses just fell off my head - I really liked those sunglasses - maybe I can find them as soon as I get this salt water and mess of hair out of my eyes...'
  
  [Standing up at this point]
  '...SUPER CRAP - I just broke my foot somehow...this hurts and I can't stand on it!!!'
  
  All of that happened in about 2 seconds - and so there I am standing there trying to orient myself and stand on one foot and wondering how I am going to get back to the shore and our sea of towels on one foot.  I turned to Sydney S. to tell her that I thought I was hurt, only to find her looking at me with no small amount of horror as she pointed at my chest and said '....ummmmm - AUNT HAVAH!!!...'

  Looking down I realized that my ENTIRE right breasticle had been dislodged in the fall and was exposed for the entire world to see.

  For a moment I forgot that my foot was broken.

  After ensuring that all of my appendages were appropriately covered and in their correct spots, I limped back to our little island in the sand and sat down to look at the damage.  My left foot was already turning all shades of purple and swelling like a little balloon had been inserted under the skin.  Sick.

  This is what it looked like that night...

  

  Believe it or not - it got worse - with the swelling wrapping up to my ankle and making my toes look like tiny vienna sausages...I don't think I got pictures of that - too gross really.

  Having actually broken my foot before [not the same bone and not this severely apparently] - I figured that I didn't need to go to the emergency room - knew that they would tell me that it was broken, that they couldn't really do anything for me - to keep it elevated, iced, take ibuprofen for the pain and to stay off of it, etc. 

  Not really able to do much else - Aundrea and I drove into town to buy some crutches and an ace bandage to wrap it with and headed back to the beach, where I spent the rest of vacation on crutches [SUPER fun, let me tell you ] - which incidentally is not the easiest thing in the world when you are IN SAND.  It is easy to store said crutches however....

  

  In this shot you can see the swelling and bruising a bit more...this would be mine, LG's and Audreas feet in the sand ...awwwwww

  

  This would be how I spent the rest of vacation...

  

  

  

  Notice that I am LAYING DOWN in every single one of those...

  It could have been a ton worse however - as it was, I was able to spend my convalescing time on the beach in the sand - being waited on hand and foot [they guys even made us ladies breakfast in bed the day after - total heroes] and loved on...

  When we got back from vacation, I went immediately to my doctor since I was still in a lot of pain...She walked into the room, took one look at me [my foot] and said - 'oh that doesn't look good'.

   ummmm - okay......

  I was packed off for x-rays - turns out it was a pretty bad break of my 5th Metatarsal...

  

   

  So - there you go...that is where I have been and what has been going on with me.  The week after getting back from vacation was filled with doctor visits [they put me in a removable cast - I will try to get a picture of it soon], and paperwork since I can't go back to work at least until next week...

  I go back to be re-xrayed and checked next week - and will try to keep you all posted better.  For now - I am doing alright - resting lots, enjoying relaxing and sleeping and being waited on.  Ahhhhh - too bad there is pain involved - otherwise it would be perfect...

  Gotta run.  [okay - not really run - but at least hobble away from the computer....]  more later.

   

   

  • 9:30 am
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