If she had the proper words to say,

My right ankle is really dislocated. I don't remember actually doing anything to it, but it started seriously hurting last night before I went to bed (it began just throbbing out of nowhere when I was only sitting here in the computer chair). Today it is very, very painful.

I don't think I ordered ankle pain for today, but next time I'm going to look over the daily menu much more carefully. *sigh*

Edited to add: When I was prompted to choose a 'tag' for this entry, the best existing I could find was "ankle thing" from last summer. That was almost exactly one year ago, as I fell and injured my ankle on June 27th. Since it is the same ankle in question right now, maybe the bone is just having an early little anniversary party?

My ankle really, really hurts again today. It hurts a bit all the time - not fully healed yet, and I need to go back and have it checked out again, now that the swelling is mostly gone so they can assess for the suspected tendon damage - but I haven't done that yet. I just never seem to have time to make that appointment.

But it is absolutely throbbing and aching today. I don't know what makes today so much different than any other day, except that I'm thinking the slight twist/shooting twinge I felt once when I accidentally turned yesterday at work may have been more than I thought it was. It just really hurts. After we pick up Grammy today, I think I'm going to put it on ice for a while and see if that helps.

In the meantime, I'm actually going to use one of my Inflame Away® samples. I got two samples of this "Advanced Joint Health" pain cream in the mail in the last month, and I thought to myself, "I'll never need these, but I'll keep 'em anyway." I'm glad I did, but I feel older just for needing to use one now. The information on the back says that it is a "topical analgesic," and that it is for "the temporary relief of minor aches and pains associated with simple backache, arthritis, strains, bruises and sprains" (underlining is my emphasis). So it sounds like my ankle fits the bill, and I really hope this offers even just a little bit of relief.

In much happier news, Grammy should be here in less than two hours! Yay!

Whew! Yesterday was a long day, but it ended up being even longer than I'd imagined. We returned home from Heather's block party about 10:45pm or so, and we'd barely just walked in the door (we were still pulling things from the car, actually) when the doorbell rang. Our neighbors across the street invited us over for their fireworks, and they were just starting. So I chatted with Jen while Jimmy set off fireworks, and the boys played Tag with Paige and Hide-and-Seek in Jimmy's old truck. It was 12:15am when we came BACK home!

Even though it was so late, we still had to have baths and showers. We were covered in sweat, dirty, grass and bug spray. The boys bathed quickly, put on jammies, and crawled into bed. I kissed them goodnight, and hopped into a shower myself. By the time I was finished, it was after 1am. *zonk*

I hope to vacuum the floors today. And maybe - maybe - get some baking done. We'll see how that goes.

A.J. got the mail just now. My last two Netflix movies went out today, and I'm waiting on two more to arrive tomorrow. For tonight, I'll have to just watch something I already have - the shame! Along with the mail, we had several goodies:

- sample of K-Y® Intrigue&trade lubricant
- two (2!) different 4oz. samples of Blue® Spa Select&trade kitty kibble
- McGruff's Surprise Party comic book
- Sitting By My Laughing Fire, a book of poetry from Ruth Bell Graham (Billy Graham's wife)
- Highlights magazine (the boys have a regular subscription)
- a thank-you note for Jack from one of his teachers

In other words, something for everyone! :-)

My ankle feels SO much better after a good rest. Two days ago, as I promised magnummom, I did nothing all day. I stayed in my pajamas even, and I just lounged around, mostly staying in my bed with my foot elevated and on ice. I was disappointed to really not see much of a difference yesterday. Even so, I laid around most of the day yesterday, only finally getting up and getting dressed to take the boys to see Ratatouille (of which they'd been counting down the days until opening day last Friday, but then had had to be postponed until I could better manage the theater).

And the movie would've been okay, except for one thing: I forgot about the stairs. STAIRS, and lots of 'em. We only hobbled six rows up, and I decided that was enough. I know I could've chosen seats on the floor, but - well, that's not an enjoyable show, you know? And I tried to keep my foot up on the seat in front of me for the entire movie, but I had to keep rearranging myself, and I wished I'd brought a blanket or something to balance more easily on, rather than the thin back of the chair, which felt like it was digging into the back of my calf or ankle.

But my ankle *is* better today - I can tell. The swelling is finally abating, and today it looks decently close to the shape it should be. To touch the skin, one can feel that it is still quite puffy, but at least the puffiness is not visible from a distance any longer. The coloring, though? My, yes, that's still to be seen at 50 paces!

All that being said, I'm happy now with the healing progress of the past two days, but - indeed, there's a 'but,' and I can't help myself - I have things I want to do today. We have to go grocery-shopping, and I can't put it off any longer. We have no milk, no juice, plus we're out of other sundry items. And that's not all. I'm DYING to put away all the clean laundry I washed three days ago (three loads). For now, it's just been sitting on my couch. I cleaned the kitchen three days ago as well (it wasn't bad, but I needed to unload the dishwasher, load the dishes that were piling up in the sink and wipe down the counters, but then I also made an impromptu decision to clean out the fridge and freezer at the same time), but I'm really really really in the mood to bake cookies. Of course, baking cookies means attending to them constantly until all of the batch is done, which means a longer stand on my feet. And I want to vacuum my carpets and floors. I like to do it at least every other day (sometimes *every* day), and it's been eight days! (I last did them a week ago on Monday.)

I know that if I attempt all these things today, I will likely suffer the cost tonight and tomorrow. But then I rationalize with myself, "But you can lay around all day tomorrow until 3-4ish - that's long enough to recover, right?" And it might be, if that were it. But then I'll be on my feet from that point until dark, partying it up for the Fourth.

I hate this. I know what I should do, what I shouldn't do. I know that no one else cares about my floors... but *I* do. I know that I don't need to make cookies, but we've gotten new neighbors over the last weekend, and I really feel like a heel for having not taken them something already - it's my "thing," and I always do this.

The boys have been so great, they really have. They keep the toys and clutter picked up, they get the mail, they wipe up crumbs at the table, rinse their dishes, load the toilet paper rolls and bring me the phone quickly as soon as it rings. They've brought me pillows and movies, and they've let me sleep. A.J. makes most of the meals for himself and Jack, and he pours all Jack's drinks for him. As a reward, I told them they both earned an extra dollar last week in their allowances, and they seemed very proud of themselves as they took in the extra cash. I am very blessed that they are exactly the ages that they are when something like this happens - it makes me realize and appreciate how very independent they are becoming each and every day. :-)

And in close, I realize that I've still not ever written the story of how/where I hurt my ankle and my knee, have I? I'll need to get around to that at some point, I guess...

I went to the clinic on Thursday morning. I woke at 7am to call in and try to get a same-day appointment (it's the only way to get into our hospital for an appointment, and it stinks), but I was told that anything at all that had happened in less than 24 hours had to be first seen at the Urgent Care Clinic, which didn't open until 10am.

My friend Ann was already scheduled to pick the boys up for VBS, and she came just a little before 9am. Shortly after they left, I gingerly hauled myself up off the couch and began getting dressed. I left around 9:30, giving myself to drive carefully to the clinic, as well as hobble inside from where I'd had to park.

I drove two-footed, very slowly, and I squeezed shut tears as I went. I parked in about the middle of the parking lot, and I started on my way in. I was moving along at a very slow pace, and I gritted my teeth the whole time. When I jarred my ankle on the first of two curbs I had to traverse, I started to cry silent tears. Finally, I made it in the doors. Once inside, a tech jumped to my aid, seated me in a chair and gave me paperwork to begin. After I finished filling it out, he was nice enough to come back out and retrieve it from me, and I was seen first (there had been about five patients waiting inside for the clinic to open when I arrived). I had my vitals taken and my x-rays completed by 10:30 - so quick!

The diagnosis at this time is that I have a very badly sprained ankle, and suspected tendon damage. The techs were able to see "massive soft tissue swelling" on the x-ray, and that's not normal when they usually just see bones (or so I was told). The doctor told me they will have to wait until the swelling goes down to be able to test for range-of-motion or feel for the tendons, as it would do nothing but really hurt me to try it right now. So she wrapped it up well, and I left the clinic.

Wow, what a difference a well-wrapped ankle already made in my hobbling! Yes, it still hurt, but at least there was some support for it then. However, even with putting ice on it regularly, I can't keep it wrapped for more than about three hours at a time - it swells up and turns blue/purple by then. But I wrap it each time I'm going to need to walk on it again.

When we returned home yesterday afternoon, my foot was throbbing from being wrapped once again, and I unbandaged it while sitting in the office. I didn't think anything about it, really, until the boys came in to ask me a question. They stopped short, and Jack covered his mouth in a gasp, "Mom! Your foot is bleeding!"

I looked down and noticed the outside of my ankle for the first time. As it hurt to try and twist around, I'd just been watching the inside/top of my ankle, and I truly hadn't noticed the outside, and even I was surprised to see all the bruising. Of course, I took pictures.

( And here they are, cut for those who might be squeamish. )

And that's where things stand at the moment. I'm taking ibuprofen on a schedule, and I'm using ice regularly (and I hate it - it makes my toes so cold, even though the ice isn't touching them). The swelling doesn't seem to be going down yet; rather, the left/inside side of my ankle is now swollen as well. There is no distinction between the "ankle bone" (the bone that usually sticks out to the right) and the rest of my foot/leg - that's how swollen everything is. And my toes are ridiculously chubby, too. Good thing it's sandal season, as there's no way I could fit into a pair of my shoes right now.

I am going to ATTEMPT to take a bath. It's the getting in-and-out that I'm most scared of...

Therefore, Heather is being induced and has been at the hospital for about six hours now, meanwhile - in the same hour - I fell really badly on my way home from work, and I do not yet know whether it is a very bad sprain, possible tendon/muscle damage or a hairline fracture in my right ankle.

Will know and have more details about both tomorrow, I'm sure.

Tonight, I sleep with ice packs and the phone. Trust me when I tell you that it took ALL I HAD not to just go straight to the hospital where Heather is to have my ankle looked at, if only so I'd be right there if she needed anything. Literally, I called my doctor and got approval to go to her hospital instead of the base clinic, even. The ONLY thing that stopped me was that it made arrangements for the boys tonight extremely iffy, and that there's no point running up there when it could be hours and hours still before the baby is here.

First priority? Baby. Second priority? Enh, maybe the doctor can look over my foot while I hold the wee one. ;-)