Ouch

Saturday was a beautiful day here! R thought it might be the last good Saturday before Christmas, so he put up the Christmas lights. Up and down, on and off the roof all day, a lot steeper roof than he was used to. He was a little nervous and as we watched our other neighbors doing the same, we all discussed back and forth how crazy they were and that some one was going to get hurt.


On his last, seriously, LAST trip up the ladder, to set the timers, the ladder decided it had been used and abused enough in one day, and decided to put it self down, with Richard still on it. I had been sitting out on the porch with the baby, and watched him climb up, and warned him the ladder didn't look very good. It's one of those adjustable ladders, and he was using it as an extension ladder. He had it sitting on the sidewalk, propped up against the house at about a 45* angle. I got up and put my foot on it. As we discussed the worse thing that could happen, I decided I wouldn't be any good because I had the baby, so I went inside. Nice caring wife, I know.


Honestly, not 3 minutes later I hear this "thud, thud, thud......ow....ow....ahhh....Crap..(I think there were a few swear words, but he says no)...oww....Katie....KATIE" I laid the baby on the floor and went running out to find him face down in the flower bed laying on top of the ladder.


The first thing he said was "It's broken."
Me: "What's broken"
Him: "I broke my leg"
Me: " What did you DO"
(Yes I realize that's pretty obvious)
Me: "I TOLD you it wasn't safe"
Him: "OHHHHH it hurts!"


Alright, I decided I should help him and not lecture him. So we carefully rolled him over. His leg, which slipped through the wrung was kind of bent like a "Z". Thankfully, we had a fairly large rock right sitting right next to him, which now that I type that, thankfully he didn't land on that fairly large rock! I looked at his non-hurt leg (because I wasn't ready to see bone, or blood, or a dangling ankle) His non hurt leg was pretty scraped up. His face had a big scratch on it, and his left hand and wrist were pretty scraped up. After a few deep breaths, we pulled up his pant leg, and thankfully no bones were sticking out, and it wasn't dangling...and no blood, but he was in a ton of pain.


I ran inside, told M to wake up B, loaded the baby, and got R in the car. Took the kids over to the neighbors and we were off to instacare. They did an x-ray, assured us it wasn't broken, but said he messed it up pretty good....do the best to stay comfortable, whether that's with a boot or crutches or wrapping it, whatever felt best. Gotta love instacare!


Sunday he kept it elevated, Monday it was a lovely shade of purple and about 4x's it's normal size. He called around and got an appointment with an Orthopedic Dr. Tuesday, he went to a meeting with our friend who has in-laws that are podiatrists, so on lunch, they ran to the office for an ultrasound because there was a new popping on the outer ankle. He confirmed there was tissue damage and that and MRI would help figure out where.




Today, he went to the orthopedic Dr. and was told he ruptured the Peroneal Retinaculum (the back tendon). He put him in a cast and told him to stay completely off of it for 4 weeks! Poor guy! After that it's rehab, with a chance of surgery!


The more I think about it the more scared I get. He was so lucky that he didn't get hurt more. He could of hit is head, or broke arms and legs....who knows. I am just grateful he only did what he did, and that for the most part, he can still function. I just wish he'd take it a little easier! Hope you get better soon Zhuck!
The good news, we're out of training for a triathlathon for awhile now...ahh shucks!