The past few weeks ended up taking quite a turn and drastically changed what I had envisioned as the end of the semester. During a rugby game on November 1st I rolled my ankle as I got tackled. Everyone else was convinced I had a sprained ankle and even I was too, but still wanting to be cautious I went over to the hospital to get some X-Rays done. What I figured would be a maximum 1 to 1 1/2 hour trip to the hospital turned into a 4 hour adventure and one of the spookiest moments I think I have ever had. I was told I sprained my ankle but I fractured my fibula. Your fibula is one of two main bones in your calf. The tibia is the larger shinbone that runs down the middle of your calf while the fibula is the smaller bone that runs on the outside of your calf. Apparently what occurred was when my ankle rolled in as I got tackled, it not only sprained my ankle but caused two cracks to happen in the lower part of my fibula in my ankle joint.You can easily say I was shocked and for it being my first big injury in my almost 21 years of living, I was dumbfounded. At first I had to rock a lovely chunk of a splint for a week before I got my now prettier purple cast.
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Now for someone like me, who has never once in her life needed crutches or gotten seriously hurt, the past 2 - 3 weeks have been a learning curve. It has been a challenging and interesting adjustment to life no longer on both feet. Even then I can tell you the amount I have learned in that time is unreal.
For starters, friends are the best people in the entire world. I say "I'm sorry!" far to much and I don't think I will ever be able to cover how grateful I am for them in the millions of ways they have helped me out.
Second, I live out of my backpack because it is really the only way I can carry anything around. Even if it is a small trip I usually take it to just make things easier.
Third, once you loose a little bit of independence you learn to appreciate it. For the record also I fractured the fibula in my right leg so I can't drive. I do not have a car on campus but I apologize to my family ahead of time when I come home because I might need to be shuttled around a bit! The smallest things become way more difficult on crutches and you learn to work around them.
Fourth, I can actually walk a little! I was given this oh so pretty shoe that I get to wear over my cast to work on walking. It cracks me up because I know for a fact my 92 year old Nana has the exact same one. Thankfully I have friends who motivate me to not be scared and try walking on it one step at a time. Today I was able to make it almost 10 steps without any crutches (doesn't sound like a lot but I'm getting there!).
Fifth, as scary as this whole injury sounds, don't let it discourage you from wanting to play sports. Everyone gets hurt, people get hurt tripping and bumping into things on a regular basis. I can tell you regardless of this I already plan to run a 10 mile race hopefully this summer and eventually plan to run a half marathon. Believe me I can understand but athletes and non athletes all get injuries!
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| I add a fuzzy sock for a little extra style |
Last but certainly not least, Saint Mike's is by far the best campus to be at with a cracked bone. I can't imagine going to a big school and just being a number among the crowd with this cast and crutches. I cannot tell you the endless amounts of examples I can share on how helpful and kind people have been the past few weeks. Every time I walk into Alliot to get food I at least have more than 1 person offer to help me carry my plate and I rarely walk past a door without someone offering to hold it open for me. The funny thing to is even if I wasn't on crutches, people do that anyway! Just being on crutches I have recognized it and learned to appreciate it more! The Saint Mike's community is full of great people and I don't think I would be able to get around as much if I was somewhere else.
Even though I have my frustrated moments of not being totally independent, not being able to drive and realizing how much of a ski season I don't have this year, bones heal and I will be back to normal as soon as I can be! Until then I will be hobbling around, using my Nana's wheelchair to hopefully cut the lines for Christmas shopping and having my injury make watching all the Netflix I can a bit more socially acceptable. A cracked bone isn't going to stop me from walking onto that plane at the end of January to make it for my 4 month adventure to Spain, I can promise you that!
Facebook: Candice Kalil
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