Oh SNAP!

(The following is a blog from Brandon)

Most of you already know some of this, but for the rest that don't know at all, or know all of the details of what has happened, here it is: I Sprained my left ankle and broke my left foot's 5 metatarsal by falling about 5 feet onto a 2x4. Pretty cool huh? Yeah, right. Anyways, I've been laying around for roughly 2 weeks now. I've been trying to figure out how to type this up without it being extremely negative and depressing, so here we go; finally!

The same night that I fell, I went to a place here on our base, and got a shot of Tordal (some REALLY good stuff for pain; puts Morphine to shame) and they took 2 x-rays. One of the docs there, said that he was 90% sure that it wasn't fractured. He got a second opinion, and he too didn't think so. So, they wrapped me up in an ace bandage, iced it down, gave me more pain meds and some crutches, and sent me to bed. The next day I went to a medical place off of base, and they took about 6 x-rays. That was kind of a funky trip because the guy that drove me didn't have a civilian driver's license, but he had a military one... so needless to say we went like 5 miles an hour the whole time. Anyways, after that, we hoped back in the truck and hauled butt back to base. This time at 7 miles an hour; the guy gained a little confidence. Well, then I went back to our building and I laid around some more... until tomorrow.

The next day, the dudes at the medical place on base got an email with the results for the x-ray. At this point, my foot is officially declared as 'broken'. I have a 'Jones Fracture'. For all of you non-doctors or radiologists, this means that I broke my foot in a specific spot on my 5th Metatarsal.



As you can see from the diagram, I broke it in the 'green' area. I added the pink things to show where the ligaments are attached to that bone so that you can see how much this type of break really does suck. As you can see, if you break the diagrams bone on the green, the small piece that is broken off is still attached to it's own tendon. This makes the broken piece move around, making it a high possibility of disunion, that is, where the bones do not join back together. On top of that moving piece of bone, that specific area of the bone that is broken is supplied with less blood then the rest of that entire bone, making the healing time increase substantially.

Now, what do we do about this new development? Well, the med dudes here on base tried calling an Orthopedic surgeon to find out what their recommendation would be. Well, by the time the med dudes got a hold of, and got a response from, this Ortho guy, it had been 5 DAYS of me sitting on a bed, imagining all of the horrible things that are happening to my foot by not doing anything to it. Well, by the end of that INSANELY long amount of time, that just seemed to drag on and on and on and.... yeah, you get the idea. After that, they were told to put me in a boot! So, now I have this giant space agey type boot on. It is big, clumsy, and puts my foot into a position that tends to hurt – a NORMAL position. Fun huh? Well, anyways, now I've been sitting with that on my foot for a little over a week. Oooo, one other piece of funny info: This break is also dubbed the 'Dancer's Fracture' by some medical professionals, because that is the activity that most people are doing when they receive this fracture. However, that is usually a stress type fracture, while mine is an acute fracture from the sudden impact. But needless to say, after all of this is over, I probably won't be hitting the dance floor to hard!

OK, back on track. Now I get to have another appointment, with x-rays and the whole nine yards, 6 weeks from the time of break, which makes it roughly 4 weeks from now. I'm a little worried, probably because I've never broken a bone before and I don't know how long it takes, but I still have some significant swelling, and actually, a significant amount of pain. Once I have that appointment, however, they will determine what happens next. Do I stay in the boot? Am I healed? Do I need to have surgery? Well, to be honest, I'm not very optimistic about being healed. I mean, remember what I told you about this being a 'Jones Fracture' and the increased likely hood of disunion? Yeah, well, if they decide that I need to have surgery, they will more than likely insert a pin into my metatarsal, and then I will need to sit around until that heals. If that doesn't fix it for whatever reason, well, then they would have to do a bone graft, taking stuff from my hip, or possibly some kind of elbow location.... not sure where that one really is... anyways, yeah. Of course, if the bone DID heal, but it healed wrong, they'd have to re-break my bone, and who knows if they would insert the pin then, or see if it would heal on it's own. Of course, after surgery, if I get it, there would need to be rehab, for sure. There might be some rehab that I need to do anyways, but I haven't been told anything yet. This is all stuff I will learn once we are back in the states.

So with all that, it could affect the time in which I return home. Even if I don't end up needing surgery, I might have to stay at our de-mob (de-mobilization) station until my appointment, which could end up being after everyone arrives home. Which would suck, but if it means that I get proper care, then that is what must be done. Other than that, just trying to stay positive, and trust God that He knows what is coming, and that He will take care of Sarah and I as we move into the unknown. I also am praying that nothing gets overlooked, and everything gets taken care of properly and promptly.