As I was running, I thought to myself “now be careful Jen, the leaves could be covering rocks,” and the next thing I knew I was tumbling down the trail. I never actually felt my ankle roll, and I wasn’t entirely positive what I stepped on, but I felt a snapping (which I thought was my bone breaking) and the pain was unbearable. I was alone with Rudy and I screamed for help to no avail, so I had to make my way nearly a kilometer to a nearby parking lot where I was hoping people would be to help me. By the time I could see the parking lot in the distance, the adrenaline dissipated and I collapsed screaming for someone to come help me. A lovely couple rushed over, got Rudy on a leash, called Ben, and held my leg up in the air until Ben arrived.
We went to the Cochrane Urgent Care; my mom was on her way home from the cabin by then and met us there. I got x-rays and the doctor’s response was “good News, nothing is broken. It must be a bad sprain.” He put me in a back slab and crutches instructing me to start walking in a week. Little did we know I would have been better off to have broken my ankle, even shattered my ankle… because if I had I would have healed up long ago and not spent my vacation in Mexico in January on crutches. I knew something was wrong; I’ve sprained both my ankles many times, this was different.
This started an endless parade of medical practitioners, tests, and treatment plans; 3 x-rays, a bone scan, an MRI, the MRI re-read, crutches, an air cast, a lot of pain medicine, my family doctor, 2 podiatrists, a podiatrist online in the US, 2 physio therapists, 1 sports medicine doctor, 1 ortho consult, 1 podiatric surgeon... and now they at least think they know what’s going on, but no one has ever seen it before or knows what to do about it. I messed up my spring ligament complex... a very small but very important ligament that attaches your foot to your ankle... along with a couple other ligament issues in my ankle. This has made my ankle/midfoot so unstable that my arch has collapsed. A very uncommon injury which was missed on the first MRI read, and most medical practitioners have never dealt with one before. I am headed for an ultrasound on Monday to re-evaluate the ligament and see what the next steps are, or who I get passed to next. I honestly feel like I’m just playing musical chairs with doctors.
It’s nearly been 5 months, I am still in a lot of pain, and not able to train at all, let alone walk very much. I have accepted the fact that I am not going to be able to do the Ironman in Mont Tremblant nor the Calgary Marathon, which was definitely a tough pill to swallow. However, this has allowed me to focus more on studying for my CFA level II, which has needed my extra time and concentration. Perhaps God was just trying to help me realize that I shouldn’t train for the Ironman while I do my CFA… So i'm seizing the extra time and using it to study, and spend time with my amazing Husband. Let’s hope I pass this Level II in June! In the mean time... this will be me:
