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The first camping trip of the summer ended abruptly when I was walking down a slope that had loose gravel on top of hard packed earth. I was wearing Fit Flops, a kind of flip flop summer footwear that is supposed to help tone leg muscles. Mine were old and loose fitting. As I walked down the hill, I stepped on the loose gravel, which acted like marbles under my feet. Suddenly I found my feet rolling two different directions and then went out from under me, but not before my right foot caught in a rivulet in the hard earth and stuck there, causing fractures and dislocation of my right ankle. I landed on the ground and saw my right foot poionting 90 degrees right of center, definitely not good. I felt no pain initially. I tried to move my right leg and watched (and felt) my foot pop, pop, pop three times back more toward center, but it was still awkwardly pointing away to the west of where it belonged. A bone appeared to be protruding from my skin on the inside of the ankle; my media malleolus was not where it belonged and nothing about my ankle looked or felt right.
I knew I should not attempt to get up, so I started calling for help. I remember a guy with tattoos on his arms trotting over toward me from an adjacent campsite. He looked down at me, sitting askew in the dirt and sun, then he headed to my campsite to inform my daughter that I needed help. If he said anything to me I do not remember. His face said it all. Someone else from the same campsite approached me, a woman saying she was a nurse, I think, and she asked permission to assess my injuries. By then my son Mark arrived, daughter Rachel and her husband Jose and son Joey, who all rallied around to comfort and hold me while I think I cried and sweated and sat on the ground in the hot morning sun. My son Mark got down and sat behind me to give me something to lean on as I sat in the dirt. I remember a running monologue from my mouth to my son about what I would now not be able to do over the summer, and how I had wrecked the trip for my grands and my adult kids. My son said later that he thought I was going into shock at that point. I had no idea. Grandson Joey kindly knelt beside me and held my hand and someone else stood nearby to offer me shade. Kindness all around.
A nearby Cal Fire team arrived shortly to assess my injuries and stabilize my ankle. I was indeed grateful for these young men who stepped in, wearing a lot of bright yellow gear that I remember thinking must be very hot and uncomfortable. They hoisted me onto something not gravel (some kind of cardboard stabilizing device?), then a gurney, and eventually helped get me loaded into an ambulance while I rambled on, apologizing that they had to pick me up when it arrived. I remember thinking how awful that they had to lift all of my weight and felt guilty for making them do that. Shock indeed.
The ambulance was some kind of volunteer group stationed in California Hot Springs a few miles up the road. They would drive me a few miles until they met a second ambulance service that could provide me with life support assistance. I was transferred to the second ambulance where I was given an anti-emetic medication for motion sickness. What a miracle drug that was! I had never before experienced a ride anywhere but in a front seat where I did not get nauseous from motion. Way cool! I also got at least three doses of pain killer, maybe more during that ride. I felt pretty lucid at that point, carrying on a conversation with the EMT who was most kind. Or at least I think I was chatting politely. Who knows?
A 65 mile drive to Kaweah Delta Medical Center ER and I was delivered to my next step in treatment. A series of X-rays was necessary to determine my injuries and a plan of treatment. I believe I sat in ER for a good while, seems like I did anyway. In the process i had more pain control meds, then I was given something that I think was the closest I will ever get to an LSD trip. The drug that was used to sedate me while my ankle was set and splinted caused hallucinations that are difficult to describe; like many pastel colors that slowly moved, intersecting with each other. The intersects were where I believed truth and reality could be regained but I was unable to reach them, and it felt as though I would never reconnect with real life. A very frightening kind of twilight zone!
I did finally come around and I don't suppose it was as long as it seemed. I looked down at my foot and discovered it was now in its correct position and swaddled in a very thick, cotton lined splint. It was now close to 4 pm and I remembered thinking I had not peed all day and didn't need to now either. Huh. Strange what I think about. I was discharged after 4 pm, and Rachel helped me fumble my way into the back seat of her car. She and I were trying to find our way out of the hospital complex when a discharge nurse called us back to pick up the crutches she was supposed to have give me. Then we headed to Walmart where Rachel got my RX for pain control filled as well as purchasing a couple of pillows for my comfort as we set out on the hour plus drive home. My discharge instructions were to see a surgeon in my town within 48 hours. I would not heal well without surgery. In addition to the dislocation I had three broken bones in my ankle: the fibula, the medial malleolus, and the posterior malleolus. Prior to this I had never given my malleouses much thought. I was thinking about them now!
A nearby Cal Fire team arrived shortly to assess my injuries and stabilize my ankle. I was indeed grateful for these young men who stepped in, wearing a lot of bright yellow gear that I remember thinking must be very hot and uncomfortable. They hoisted me onto something not gravel (some kind of cardboard stabilizing device?), then a gurney, and eventually helped get me loaded into an ambulance while I rambled on, apologizing that they had to pick me up when it arrived. I remember thinking how awful that they had to lift all of my weight and felt guilty for making them do that. Shock indeed.
The ambulance was some kind of volunteer group stationed in California Hot Springs a few miles up the road. They would drive me a few miles until they met a second ambulance service that could provide me with life support assistance. I was transferred to the second ambulance where I was given an anti-emetic medication for motion sickness. What a miracle drug that was! I had never before experienced a ride anywhere but in a front seat where I did not get nauseous from motion. Way cool! I also got at least three doses of pain killer, maybe more during that ride. I felt pretty lucid at that point, carrying on a conversation with the EMT who was most kind. Or at least I think I was chatting politely. Who knows?
A 65 mile drive to Kaweah Delta Medical Center ER and I was delivered to my next step in treatment. A series of X-rays was necessary to determine my injuries and a plan of treatment. I believe I sat in ER for a good while, seems like I did anyway. In the process i had more pain control meds, then I was given something that I think was the closest I will ever get to an LSD trip. The drug that was used to sedate me while my ankle was set and splinted caused hallucinations that are difficult to describe; like many pastel colors that slowly moved, intersecting with each other. The intersects were where I believed truth and reality could be regained but I was unable to reach them, and it felt as though I would never reconnect with real life. A very frightening kind of twilight zone!
I did finally come around and I don't suppose it was as long as it seemed. I looked down at my foot and discovered it was now in its correct position and swaddled in a very thick, cotton lined splint. It was now close to 4 pm and I remembered thinking I had not peed all day and didn't need to now either. Huh. Strange what I think about. I was discharged after 4 pm, and Rachel helped me fumble my way into the back seat of her car. She and I were trying to find our way out of the hospital complex when a discharge nurse called us back to pick up the crutches she was supposed to have give me. Then we headed to Walmart where Rachel got my RX for pain control filled as well as purchasing a couple of pillows for my comfort as we set out on the hour plus drive home. My discharge instructions were to see a surgeon in my town within 48 hours. I would not heal well without surgery. In addition to the dislocation I had three broken bones in my ankle: the fibula, the medial malleolus, and the posterior malleolus. Prior to this I had never given my malleouses much thought. I was thinking about them now!
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