Sticks, Stones, & Ice?

You've heard the phrase with the first two words... but ice? Well, ice didn't exactly leverage the striking blow. After playing hockey since my early childhood, the game finally got back at me.

Viva Weasels!

Tuesday night, while playing in my weekly league game, I broke my fibula while defending the crease. It happened in an instant. While trying to lunge forward after the puck, then turning around to skate backwards, I caught the front edge with my left skate and hyper-extended it inwards (imagine your left foot rotated 90-deg clockwise, viewed from above. Gross!). I knew immediately it went too far, and the pain brought me to my knees and elbows, unable to leave the ice under my own power. Felt kind of weird to get the sticks-ice-tapping cheers from everybody when I finally stood up with the assistance of my team mates. At first I thought I could rest it up for a couple of shifts and get back in there. By the end of the 2nd period, it was obvious otherwise.

Ouch (please imagine a fracture)

Despite some pretty severe pain, I hobbled off to the locker room. A very nice player in the game after ours gave me a chemical ice pack, which was a life saver once I managed to extract my foot from my boot. It must have been amusing to watch me carry my hockey bag out the parking lot while bouncing on one foot (the bag acted as a wonderful counterweight, and stick upside-down a nice crutch). Fortunately I was able to drive home. At this point I didn't know I had fractured anything, and the pain had gone down a lot thanks to that ice pack, so I decided it wasn't urgent enough for the ER.

The next morning I got right in to urgent care for a quick X-ray scan, which confirmed the fracture. The good news is, it's the smaller bone and initial diagnosis suggests surgery is not required. However, walking around (ahem, hobbling w/ crutches) has neither been amusing nor convenient. Despite this ending my hockey and snowboarding seasons, and dealing with a cast for 4-6 weeks, I'm thankful that it was not worse.

Load Bearing: Crutches.
Non-Load Bearing: Human Leg.
Unfashionable: Rolled-Up Jeans.

But from now on, I'm forever aiming that peripheral vision on the ice. It's just sitting there, waiting, until you least expect it...