Sprain

06 Aug 2008

So this past weekend we went camping, which was pretty amazing. It felt great to get away from it all for a few days. Hang out by the campfire. Eat some simple food. Read while sitting out in the sunshine. Getting back to nature as they say.

There were of course some hiccups, as there always are when Holly and I do anything. To start it off we forgot our camping mattresses; so we ended up sleeping on the ground. These provincial parks out here provide a gravel patch for you to pitch your tent on. Gravel, of course is made up of rocks. Rocks, well, rocks aren’t that comfortable to sleep on. There was lots of tossing, turning and aching muscles to go around.

On the only full day we spent there, Sunday, we were going to go to the beach. We were ready to head down bright and early, but the friends we were there with weren’t ready to go until early afternoon. We drove down to the day use area, and found that there was nowhere left to park. So we headed back to the campground, and decided to do the 1km hike to the camping spot. It was quite a steep decline, but there were stairs. Unfortunately these stairs were wooden frames filled with gravel (lots, and lots of gravel at these parks). My right foot went down and slipped on a rock and shot in under me. I lost my balance and went tumbling down the steps. Thankfully I managed to stop myself after only three or four steps. However in the process I scraped up my left knee very badly, and sprained my right ankle really well.

Now, I can’t really complain to much about the whole thing. Other than feeling like a bump on a log for most of the weekend, and still now as it slowly heals, it hasn’t been that bad. That, and the fact that I’m 28 and this is the only sprain I can remember ever having. My foot still looks a little ghastly, what with all of the bruising, but I understand this is fairly normal. I can walk at about 75% efficiency when I have my ankle brace on.

Holly has been doing a superb job taking care of me these past couple of days as I am unlearning some of my default behaviours. Little things like I apparently always put my pants on starting with the left leg and then cram the right leg in. Well, I found out the hard way, that doing that really hurts my right ankle when it is sprained. So I’m learning to do that the other way. It is quite an educational experience to see the things that I normally take for granted. Like, oh, I don’t know; the ability to stand comfortably. Driving is a little more adventurous too with a sprained right ankle.

I look forward to having a fully healed ankle. Hopefully it will be stable by the weekend.