Things Not to Do When Pregnant

Who knew taking the dog out to potty could end in disaster?

Let me preface this by saying - the baby's OK, and it's not our dog's fault. Though I seriously wish I could blame someone for this one, but it's all me.

I managed to fracture my left fibia this past Sunday. Right around the ankle. For those of you who don't remember your anatomy, the fibia is that smaller lower leg bone. Yep, I fractured that one.

It was Sunday evening, and I went to take our dog out to do her stuff. My sister-in-law also took her dog out. I was taking the steps down, not paying attention, and completely forgot there was a step and missed it. Down I went. And boy did my ankle hurt.

I think I went into a wee bit of shock - I was shaking. I came straight down on my ankle - all that baby weight, plus I'm a little overweight too - but the baby was OK because I fell straight down on it.

My right leg was/is scraped up pretty badly, but I didn't even know I was bleeding. That's how bad the ankle hurt.

So we went to the local ER, which was practically vacant but we still managed to be there for 3 hours. Doing what? Waiting waiting waiting...

After the X-rays and whatnot, they finally cleaned up my legs, put me in a splint, told me to place NO weight on my left leg, and gave me some crutches. Yippee!

Or not - I discovered that crutches look a lot easier to manage than they really are. And getting up and down stairs is next to impossible (scooting on your butt can work wonders, though).

I could not get a cast until the swelling came down. My hopes were that the orthopedist could put me in something that I could walk around in - I was already ready to ditch those crutches.

No such luck. Went to the orthopedist yesterday, and after more X-rays (and me thinking "Good Lord, what is this all going to cost....") he determined that a cast is the best option over surgery, especially considering I am 32 weeks pregnant. Did you know that casts come in all different colors - pick, orange, green - I picked blue since that's Jack's favorite color.

In order for the fracture to line up and heal straight, the cast has to point my foot down a bit - meaning crutch city for me for at least 3 weeks (he actually prescribed a wheelchair, but we're not going to do that - not practical for our house, really). I'm pregnant. With a two year old. I nearly cried.

I've actually laughed a lot the past few days, because sometimes, if you don't laugh, you'll cry, and there's really nothing you can do about the situation anyway. And I'm really very lucky - I have a very supportive family that's going to be here off and on over the next 3 weeks. I can't imagine what I'd be doing without them.

In 3 weeks I go back to remove this cast and get more X-rays. Hopefully at that time, he can put me in something that I can walk around in. I'll probably have something on my leg through my delivery date, as he wants to make sure I don't injure it during labor.

Sigh.