Last Saturday morning at about 5AM, I was on my way to bed when I noticed the motion detector light was on. I peeked out the kitchen window and noticed a large doe eating our rose-bush. I opened the front door and began chasing it away. I chased it further out of the yard than I normally do and my right ankle fell into a hole as I was running full speed.

I fell flat onto my face. I tried to get up and put weight on it but immediately fell to my knees. It’s at this point I realized that I broke my ankle. I embarrassingly crawled across the driveway and through my front yard and used the railing to get back into the house. I crawled to the bathroom, brushed my teeth and then crawled into bed. My wife asked if I was ok as she noticed my breathing was different. She was in a bit of shock when I told her that I think I broke my ankle.

She suggested we go to the emergency room but I told her that if I broke my ankle, or any bones, I should be in a lot more pain. I fell asleep. When I woke up at 11AM, my wife was adamant that we go to the hospital. Since all I needed were X-Rays to confirm if I broke anything, we called an Express care clinic that was nearby. I found out that most X-Ray places at the express care clinics close at noon on Saturdays.

I eventually found a location that can perform and read X-Rays until 4PM. We made the trip out there and every bump that shook my ankle was painful. As we were waiting for the X-Rays to be read, I vomited three different times because of anxiety, worry, and the high possibility I would need surgery. The X-Rays confirmed that I had broken a bone and fractured another. Each doctor that saw the X-Rays said I did a number on my ankle.

We drove from the Express Care Clinic to an ER area at a different Express Care clinic where the doctors numbed up my ankle joints and reduced/realigned my fracture as best they could. (Closed reduction is the manipulation of the bone fragments without surgical exposure of the fragments.)

I also performed a CT scan to determine if there were any more breaks or fractures in the leg which came back negative. Before releasing me, Cleveland Clinic sent over the X-Rays to an Orthopedic surgeon who confirmed I needed to have surgery right away and scheduled it for Wednesday.

Surgery Is No Joke

There were only a few times between the reduction on Sunday and my surgery that I felt a lot of pain. I ended up taking the Oxycoden more for the drowsiness factor than for pain relief. I didn’t sleep much Tuesday night as each hour that went by brought me closer to surgery. While a ton of people suggested that it would be a piece of cake, it didn’t take away the anxiety I had about the procedure.

As I laid in the hospital bed in the pre-op surgery room, I wanted to panic. I wanted to get up and run away. I wanted to lose my mind. Thanks to my wife, I was able to remain calm throughout the ordeal. I told the doctors I was anxious and they supplied me with some medicine that calmed me down. After providing a nerve block down my leg (numbs my leg from my thigh to my ankle through the main vein) I was wheeled into the surgery room.

They covered me in warm blankets which felt wonderful. They kept me calm and told me I’d notice a cold tingling feeling in my left arm where my IV was. This was the sedative that knocked me out, pretty much without warning. When I started coming too, I was back where I started and for whatever reason, I was crying. After calming down and seeing my wife again, I was happy to know that I was now on the other side of the hill towards recovery.

So here I lie in bed with my right ankle elevated, five different prescription bottles next to me and drinking plenty of water. Chasing the deer that far out into the yard was a stupid, expensive, decision. Hell, it was doing me a favor considering it’s the end of the growing season. The lesson here, leave animals alone. You can look but don’t run, especially if it’s a freaking deer.

Here’s hoping I can put weight back onto it sooner, rather than later. I imagine I’ll be going through some physical therapy here in a few weeks. By the way, here is the end result of the surgery.