The Aftermath

After the Color Me Rad race, I went home to ice my left ankle and right knee. I kept ice on them all day and even put a brace on my ankle! Later that night, when I took the brace off, I was stunned to see that my ankle was even more swollen than it had been at the race!

I stayed off of it Sunday, hoping that would fix what ever the problem was! I would ice my ankle, while keeping a heating pad on my knee. Then I’d swap them.

It was Sunday that I started to get pretty worried about my knee. It was horribly painful to go up and down the stairs….. to the point that it almost brought me to tears! But I figured if I could still walk on it, it couldn’t be that bad!!

On Monday my parents convinced me to stay home and make an appointment with an orthopedic specialist. I didn’t want to go the doctor because they were starting to feel a lot better. I figured I go in, they’d tell me I twisted my ankle and bruised my knee and send me on my way….. feeling like an idiot for paying $35 for that assessment!

But I went anyway, and I waited in the stupid doctor’s office FOREVER!! And by forever I mean it was seriously almost two hours before I saw the doctor!! When I finally met with her, she moved my knee all over the place and pushed on my ankle. I felt stupid, because they really were aching any more and I felt like I was wasting her time.

Then she sent me back for x-rays.

That’s when it got bad.

My left ankle was fractured……not good.

Then she showed me my right knee cap.

I’m no orthopedic expert, but it was pretty easy to see that

a piece of my knee cap had been chipped off….

Bad…. really bad.

And the appointment went downhill from there.

She put my in a huge stupid walking boot and told me to keep weight off of it for two weeks. It was that or put a hard cast on it for four weeks!

Then she started talking about locked knee braces. In my head I kept trying to picture how a locked knee brace would work out when I couldn’t put weight on my left leg and had to use crutches. Luckily, she decided a neoprene brace would work, giving me the ability to still bed my knee.

Like so many times during the race, I could feel the tears coming.

But I didn’t want to cry in front of this lady….. so I bit my lip and nodded as she gave me the rest of my instructions, which included no running for four weeks.

I made it all the way home before I completely lost it.

My Disneyland race was only eight weeks away and I wouldn’t be able to run for four of them. Which meant the chances of me actual running the race were slim to none.

Major meltdown!

I cried for a long time….

For the money I felt like I wasted……

For the unfairness of my stupid weak ankle……

For the fact that I had injured BOTH legs…..

My grandparents were at my house when I finally made it home from the doctor, which ended up being a really good thing. My dad and my grandpa gave me a blessing and I felt slightly better.

I realized I would have to be patient…..

And I would have to work really hard for four weeks…..

So now the countdown is on!! 

Being patient is tough!! 

If only walking weren't so hard!