They Call Me Crutchy

"Milo you're in a cast again?! What gives?!" Yes...That has been me... the past two years...

Towards the end of my senior year of High School I had an unfortunate accident. Within the first couple of seconds of a rehearsal hip hop dance, I injured myself tumbling. It resulted in a completely dislocated ankle and fractured tibia and fibula.

The initial break was not painful, but I also had loads of adrenaline flowing through me I'm sure. I remember it all so well. I began tumbling a simple trick... scared of the hard floor... I bailed on my trick and rebounded too powerfully. Turning out too early on my landing, my ankle twisted creating a booming sound. I fell to the floor. When I tried to stand up, my leg didn't work and I fell back down. Confused, I looked down and that's when I saw my ankle just hanging from my leg. I grabbed it and shouted over the loud music for my dance teacher, calmly. I never cried until I thought about how being injured messed up the lines for the recital... and the recital was in two days.

BEWARE

GRAPHIC IMAGE AHEAD

I rode in an ambulence to the hospital, my mom in a car following closely behind. ~~Low key was always on my bucket list to ride in one of those, however I always pictured myself being on the helping side... not the helpless side!!!!~~ Anyways... my surgery included 8 pins and 2 steel plates. Lots of nice hardware.

That's the initial story.

6 months later I decided to get surgery again on the same ankle, but for the hardware taken out. I had talked to so many people within those previous months about their own experiences with ankle injuries/surgeries. Most advised me to do this second procedure.

Here. I. am. now. A week out of my second surgery. Doing well... improving everyday. Luckily, the recovery time for this one is only two weeks vs two months. Four days on crutches and the rest of the time in a cast and boot. I'll live.

I've learned a lot from this experience. Grown a lot. First off- I'm never tumbling again (this is actually my third bone break from tumbling). Second- Spending lots of time lazing around with family and true friends is a wonderful thing before your first semester of college. Third- There are plenty of things you can do besides TV to entertain yourself when you can't walk (don't worry Jon Snow, you know I still prefer to watch Game of Thrones than do a puzzle).

I could list many more lessons I've learned. But I think one of the biggest positives I took from this experience was the necessity of self reflection. Having a cast restricting my ability to do many of my favorite activities (like the 20,000 sports/clubs I did in High School) forced me to think about life and who I am... how I feel... how I act... just how I am. And... I was in a bad place the end of my senior year, emotionally. Having the time to reflect on what really mattered in my life, settle down, and reconsider who I trusted, what friendships I should value... it helped a lot. It lead me to where I am today, more confident, myself again, not paranoid, not sassy, not anxious every minute, surrounded by those who love me for me, more mature... I've learned to take time out of my week for writing in my journal to check up on myself. Writing of highs and lows in the weeks... it feels good to get it out and consistently be grounded with my values. I know it won't take another injury to find this good place again.

XOXO,

~M~

#injury #fibula #tibia #findingmyself #broken #healed