To walk or not to walk

[written 2/18]I am currently resting comfortably in my hospital bed looking out at the Lantern Day Festival fireworks awaiting a visit from my doctor to tell me more about the surgery I will have tomorrow. It has been a whirlwind kind of week. Let me see if I can remember all that has happened.

Monday night, Valentine's Day, Devin and I were getting ready to go over to a friend’s house for their one year old's birthday party. It had snowed the day before but most of it was melted by then. We got on our bikes and I didn't really think much about the snow since I had ridden several other times that week in the snow. So I pushed off and was just rounding the corner and my bike skid across some of the very slippery tiles they use for decoration here and hit a small pile of snow and stopped. However, with my momentum, I did not and my bike fell over on top of my right leg. I swear this all seemed to happen in slow motion, but I couldn't get my leg out in time. I knew that something was wrong right away but not sure about anything except that my leg hurt. Devin who was wisely walking his bicycle in the icy parts ran over. The tears came pretty quickly as well as the shock. A few of our neighbors stopped to ask if we needed help but we told them we were fine and lived on the first floor. With much effort and a little panic from me, Devin got me into our house and on the couch. We are so grateful to be living on the first floor! (Though we do have 3 steps to get into our apartment which I will need to master on my crutches.)

Devin did a quick Boy Scout examination of my leg and we both felt that it was just sprained. So on went the frozen peas and we watched a movie to distract and get me through the pain. Our friends were so thoughtful and told Devin to come over and get some pizza from their son’s birthday party we were supposed to be at that night. So Devin went over and brought back dinner and two red roses. It ended up being quite romantic really :)

The next day things seemed a little better so I stayed in bed with my foot up and iced it and thought I was on my way to recovery. We should have known something was really wrong when every attempt I made to put any weight on it shot pain up my leg. It was an uneventful day, for me at least! Devin got to roll me around the apartment in our office ‘wheelie’ chair and make sure I had everything I needed.

On Wednesday morning one of our friends who is a PT came by with some crutches (which are very cheap in China, who knew?) and she also felt that it was a muscle sprain. Then Sarah, the owner of the bookstore and our good friend, came over and in a very mother-like way suggested that I go to the hospital and get x-rays done "just in case" there was a fracture. We are so grateful to our 'China Mom' for looking out for us. :)

The hospital was a little overwhelming for both of us. You pay upfront for your treatment, which isn't too expensive thankfully. Because Sarah knew where to take us we were able to get an x-ray pretty quickly. They took four pictures. I sat on a table in a very hot room and the man would position my leg as needed then walk out slamming the door behind him. After the second one the man came back in and pointed to my foot and said in very heavily accented English "okay" and then pointed to my lower leg and said "broken".

When I exited the room I wasn't really sure what had happened and everyone was reluctant to explain to me. Then we went to wait for the doctor. He explained that my fibula (the little leg bone) was fractured and unfortunately the way it happened caused my ankle joints to become unstable, which meant there would need to be surgery, a pin in my ankle and a plate and screws along the bone as well as several months’ recovery.

We didn't really know how to take the news. When we got home that night I said to Devin, "This morning my ankle was sprained, now it's broken. What happened?!"

The following day we made an appointment at an international hospital in Beijing. The doctor confirmed what we had heard in Tianjin. I asked him if there were any other options beside the surgery to which he answered, “Well, you can choose to not walk.” So we decided to go ahead with the surgery! They checked us into the hospital shortly after my appointment. The room is quite large and has a sofa bed so that Devin can stay with me. Which brings me up to the present - Devin just got back from finding us some dinner - so time to go. This has definitely been a whirlwind week of decisions and new experiences!