Break a Leg

Or an ankle, or a foot. Maybe tear a tendon? All of the above?

Or maybe I should title this The Fun of Surgery in a 3rd World Country. Or maybe I need a cast, not a massage. Oh so many ways I could put it, its just so hard to pick one.

If you checked in a couple of times while I was in Honduras, then you know that I broke my foot while down there. While saying I broke my foot is the truth, it doesn't even halfway explain it.

It started on a Monday, and Andre went to seperate the baby cows from the momma cows so that we could head out to Tocoa. Well as he went through the different gates he forgot to close them behind him. Any guesses to what happened when the cows came to the last pasture? (the 1st gate that Andre had to go through) Yup, they kept on coming and were heading for the road. Jordan, seeing what was happening, ran to shut the big gate at the front of our driveway so that the cows wouldn't go out in the road. I ran out to 'herd' the cows back into the pasture so that she would be able to get the main gate shut without the cows right there. Well while I was going to the side of the house, I slipped on a tiny itty bitty hill. Seriously, the difference between the highest part and the lowest part of this area was no more than 3 inches, if that. And it wasn't a sudden three inch drop either. But somehow I slipped on it (my flip flops no longer had any tread on the bottom - so they were slick) and even though I was falling backwards on my butt, somehow my right foot got caught up under my leg, and I felt a snap.

Let me tell you how I screamed. And screamed. Oh yeah, did I mention, I screamed. Now that I think back to it, I have to laugh, because it really didn't hurt as bad as I thought it did in that moment. It was more I had never broken any bone like that, and I was shocked and scared and trying to figure out how I was going to get up, LOL. When I calmed down after a few minutes, I looked at my foot and KNEW that my ankle was broken. I mean I lifted up my leg, and the ankle just flopped.

Lale, who at the time I fell was cleaning out the pig area, had come running and wanted to to stand up. I hadn't broken anything. I just dislocated something - my ankle, my foot, who knows. I had some not so nice words to say to him because it was obvious that my ankle was broken. I mean looked how it flopped. I showed him that, and he, you know Dr. Lale, started to touch my leg amid my screaming DONT TOUCH ME ITS BROKEN, and told me that my ankle wasn't broken, it was my shin bone. Um, whatever. Just take me to the doctor dag nabbit.

So he yelled to Jordan to get the little ones ready to go, (I had already packed up a bag with everything in it - she just had to get clean clothes on the little ones) and Andre tried to help me. Poor Andre, he asked me if he could help me, and I told him to just leave me alone. I wasn't mad at him or anything, I just didn't want anyone to touch me, I was scared it would hurt. I sent Andre to bring me the crutches* we had so that I could somehow get out to the front of the house to get in the truck.

That was a fun time - getting from the back yard to the front of the house, then getting in the truck. Lets just say it took me almost an hour, and I had to crawl, not just on hands and knees, but also belly crawl, LOL. There was also lots of not so nice words, because really, when you are used to two legs, and then all of a sudden you can't use one, and it hurts like you can't believe (because by then it had begun to really hurt) and you have to stand up. Well its hard to figure out how to stand up with just one leg. And even harder when you have a worried husband behind you trying to help, which only makes it that much worse. Fun times.

When I finally got into the truck, we headed to Tocoa to an x-ray place. Can we say that Honduras is NOT handicapped accesible. Thank God I have no shame, and I have no problem crawling in public, LOL. The X-ray place was set back from the road about 20ish feet, but there was a "step" to get onto there property. Only it wasn't really a step. It was more of a 2.5 foot/3 foot high hill of dirt/grass. It sort of dropped off where it met the road. No slope, no real steps, nothing. Lale was telling me to jump. Um yeah ok. I crawled. Then I went across the grass to the front door where there was another 2.5 foot step up onto the porch. I made Lale get some of the rocks from around there and make a ghetto step. (The entire time the kids are right there with us, offering there suggestions on how I can get up the steps and what not too.)

After all of that, I finally get up on the x-ray table, get my x-rays done, (420L/$23) and am told that my ankle isn't broken. Its just dislocated, and I just need it to be massaged. I know enough to know that they are on crack. I told Lale that no one was going to touch my foot and that I was going to get a cast on it somehow. They gave him the name of a orthopedic (I think he was an orthopedic) and told us to go there. So we went to drop off the kids at my inlaws, and told my father in law where we were going. My father in law said no, that doctor is an idiot, and to not go there. It would be better to take me to Hospital Del Aguan. They have a great doctor there for problems like mine.

So off to the hospital we go. The hospital is only 5 minutes, at most, from my in-laws house. Yet it took us almost an hour to get there. Everyone we asked knew how to get there, and told us how to get there, yet the directions never were correct, LOL. The best part was when we got to the intersection right next to the hospital, there was a sign on one side of the road that said Hospital Del Aguan this way (pointing to the right) and another sign that said Hospital Del Aguan this way (pointing to the left). Oh how I wish I had my camera.

We finally find the hospital (it was on the left) and go in. As soon as we are seen by the doctor, he said yup its broken, but we will get an x-ray to see how bad off. Lale jumped in and said we already got an x-ray and it showed that it wasnt broken. So the doctor said lets do this - go and get an x-ray here and I will show you something. We got the x-ray, (120L$7) and he puts the new ones, as well as the old ones up on the light machine and says see the difference in quality here. Don't ever go to those places for an x-ray, LOL. The new x-rays showed that my ankle was broken on both sides, and my tendon was torn in half. The good news was that it was fixable, the bad news was that I needed an operation. I had to have pins put in my ankle. And the operation would cost approxamently 30,000L/$1588. Which isnt to to much when you think about it (I mean here in MD the same operation would cost WELL above $1500), but when you are living on $1000 or less a month, its a stretch. But we went ahead and made an appointment for Friday morning for the surgery, and we figured we would somehow come up with the money for the surgery.

... to be continued (next post - its surgery day)

*Funny story about those crutches. When Lale was packing stuff up into the car, we came across these crutches and I said to him, why dont you take them with you, maybe someone there may need them. LMAO - and look who it was that needed them. Me.