Broken

When I decided to write a blog, it was my intention to post something almost every day. I knew there would be exceptions, like if we had a birthday or holiday. I did not intend to skip an entire month of posting!!! You've heard the phrases, "Life is what happens while you're making plans" or "life happens" or "if you want to make God laugh, tell him YOUR plans".
Anyway, about 5 weeks ago, I went downstairs for a midnight snack. I was standing with my back to the open fridge door, cutting off a hunk o' cheese and the next thing I know, I woke up lying IN my refrigerator. Yes, IN the fridge!!
I have no idea how I got there or how long I had been lying in my refrigerator. I can't remember the placement of my body or what position my legs were in when I woke up. The only thing I knew and remember is that I was in EXCRUCIATING pain in my right leg. Specifically near the ankle and the knee. This next part is a bit fuzzy too but I started yelling for my daughter. She and the rest of my family were asleep upstairs. When everyone came downstairs, I managed to roll onto my back and tell them I thought I had broken my leg. Well, apparently you only had to look at my leg to know it was broken. The bone above my ankle had not come through the skin but was making a lump beneath the skin that was large enough to leave no doubt that my leg was broken. As far as my knee pain, everyone figured it was sprained or I had landed on it when I fell so maybe it was bruised.
I remember my Mom telling my daughter to call an ambulance. Well, I don't believe in calling 911 unless you're bleeding or dying so I said. "No. Now, just give me a minute. It won't hurt so bad in a minute. Just give me a minute." Of course, I couldn't see the bone protrusion and nobody was telling me there was a bone protrusion. Then there was some back and forth conversation that was just a blur and finally an ambulance was called. I remember hearing my daughter telling the operator "My Mom has broken her leg". I was not happy with her for telling the 911 operator that I broke my leg when maybe it was just a sprain or something stupid like that. I CAN tell you this, I have had 2 natural child births and I have NEVER experienced pain as severe as this!!!
When the EMTs arrived, they were more concerned with the fact that I had passed out than the fact that the pain in my leg was a freakin' 15 on a scale of 1-10. There was one young girl at my head checking for bumps or pain on my head and a young man knelt next to me trying to lean past the refrigerator door to talk to me and assess my neck for injury. He kept trying to figure out a way past the stupid refrigerator door but it was stuck above my shoulder and would not budge without me moving. I offered several times to try to move out of the way, being the polite hostess that I am, but each time I offered, all three EMTs would say, in unison, "NO!!! Don't move!!"
When they finally slid me past the fridge door onto the backboard, they carried me down the stairs to the ambulance. I remember yelling at the one of the women, "Your boob is touching my ankle! Get your boob off of my ankle!" Not something you hear or say everyday. ha ha!
The poor xray tech at the hospital couldn't get any good pictures because every time he tried to position my leg, I screamed. I spent 2 days in the cardiac ward before they sent me home. They referred me to another doctor at a different hospital to have surgery.
I STILL had a broken leg, the most extreme pain I have ever felt and no cast!! IN fact, it was broken in TWO places and both were spiral fractures. But the hospital wouldn't DO anything about my leg because I don't have medical insurance. They did however send me a bill for $24,000!!! They never did find out why I passed out. Thank you Kaiser! For nothing!!!
A couple days later I had surgery. A metal bar was drilled down, from my knee, the entire length of the tibia (shin bone) and a metal plate was secured with screws at my ankle to hold the foot to the leg.
I was surprised to learn that the fibula, the other leg bone that was broken up near the knee, doesn't need any repair. It doesn't support your weight and pretty much doesn't matter. "It will heal on it's own and even if it doesn't, it won't matter.", the doctor told me.
So, long story longer, it's been 5 1/2 weeks since I broke my leg in two places. 4 weeks since I had surgery and about $75,000 in doctor, hospital, xray, ambulance, anesthesia, and surgical supply bills. I'm stuck in bed and bored to tears. I'm hurting much less but still hurting and I can't stand for more than a few minutes without my leg starting to really ache.
Christmas shopping was all online this year. And I found out that Amazon.com is the ONLY online retailer that ACTUALLY ships for free to my state. They all say they ship free if you spend a certain dollar amount but I tried many of them and once I got to the check out, I discovered that they were going to charge me an arm and a leg for shipping. So, I kept going back to Amazon. If my order is at least $25, they ship for FREE!!!! Thank you Amazon for helping me out with my Christmas shopping this year. (This is not an advertisement. I don't know anybody at Amazon and they aren't giving me anything for writing about them. 10-4, over and out)
But, I have been inspired to help others by writing a "things to do when you're stuck in bed" post. So stay tuned!!!
Thank you all for your continued support and prayers.
Auntie
You can always contact me at askauntieann@gmail.com
I'm sorry if you have written and I haven't gotten back to you yet. I'm just now getting back into the swing of things.