Links

Wednesday, October 02, 2019

On this Day

It was on this day in 1973, or 46 years ago, that I suffered the worst injury of my life and one that literally took months for me to recover from.

I was a young child playing pickup football across the street from where I lived on a muddy Intramural Field where Mountainview Regional Rehabilitaion Hospital now sits. It was rainy, but no matter, I was full of energy and found some guys to play football with.

I wasn't hit or anything like that, my left leg slipped out from under me and I ended up doing a perfect split. Although I was young and flexible, it wasn't a good type of split. I ended up with a green stick fracture on my left Femur. The bone broke up and smashed in together somehow and it was a much worse than it sounds.

The recovery process included me having surgery and a pin drilled through my leg so they could but me in Traction. That was a month long stay in the hospital with a leg looking like Frankenstein. After a month of that I was put into a body cast which was the left leg all the way up to my chest and the right leg all the way down to my knee. To say I spent the next six weeks immobile was an understatement. I come out of the body cast and for the next two weeks my leg locks up with 0 mobility and bent at a 45° angle. Then it was back into traction (although no pin needed drilled this time) to straighten my leg out and that took two weeks. After that I went back into a straight leg cast for two weeks and was told to work it for a couple of weeks which was pretty much the end of the recovery.

I was out of school, with a private tutor, for a total of about 18 consecutive weeks. I left school in early October and didn't return until some time after the Holidays and new year and well into February.

Grandma Hall was with me every day and was the best caretaker anyone could ever ask for. Except for when she put milk of magnesia into my milk and told me the old milk company went out of business and this was how milk tasted now. She lied to me to get me to poop. She did love me.

Have yourselves a great day.

Hi ho hi ho

No comments: