Unbroken

The X-rays from when I first broke my ankle ankle with all the metal they put in

Back in January 2015, I broke my ankle quite badly, I blogged about it here.

The experience of losing my mobility for nearly six months was pretty hideous, and eye opening. I had a real incite of what people with disabilities experience and it wasn't great.

Since I have been healed, I have managed to achieve more than I thought, tap dancing being my biggest achievement. Especially as I asked the surgeon as a joke,

'Will I be able to tap dance again'

He very sternly said,

'No'.

Up until that point I hadn't thought about tap dancing that much as I gave it up before I was 20. But being told no, so abruptly, made me want to do it, more than I had ever wanted to.

So, when I was laid up for months and months religiously doing my physio, even though it really hurt, I was just thinking about grumpy surgeon saying no.

And when the opportunity came out of the blue to tap dance, I was first in the queue saying yes.

But to a certain extent the surgeon was right. I didn't have the flexibility in my ankle and the taps on the left side weren't as good as the right.

I had been getting pains from the metal in my ankle contracting and expanding in the heat and the cold. Sometimes, it was waking me up at night.

I had turned into one of those people who could 'feel' changes in the weather.

So even though I was loathe to be off my feet again, I just thought, if I can reduce some of the pain and get some of the flexibility back, it would be worth having the metal removed.

At the beginning of the summer I got a referral from my GP to the orthopaedic clinic and spoke to a consultant there. I was ready to tell a massive tale of pain and lack of mobility, but with my opening gambit of 'I want the metal taken out of my ankle', the consultant was all, 'OK then'.

So the process began, by October I had a date for the surgery. It had worked out brilliantly, I had managed to dance in the dance show I had committed to, and dance the tapathon. The surgery was the day after the tapathon on the 20th November.

As usual, they had to draw an arrow on my leg to avoid confusion (I fear for a surgeon who doesn't know their left from their right, but OK).

I went in the morning and I was home by teatime, just.

There had been some issues getting my now extremely swollen ankle into an air boot, but with the help of a lovely physiotherapist, who I literally begged to help me get home that night, I managed to squeeze it in.

The first couple of days were pretty grim, painful and uncomfortable.

When I saw how the surgeon had stapled up my ankle I was a little shocked.

As one of my friends said, 'just add rosemary and garlic'

I was also thinking, that when the consultant had said you'll be back on your feet in a week, he may have been exagerating.

However, over the last couple of days I have seen a vast improvement, and today, a week later, I got in the car and could drive again. Not far and not for long, but I was back on my feet. Whoop.

Me today.

 So, hopefully I will be back tap dancing before Christmas. Exciting.

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