MothersDayKankles

In 29, almost 30 years of life I had never broken a bone.  Until Mothers’ Day here in Guatemala (it was the Tuesday after in the U.S.)  when Whitney and I were watching some of the kids from the orphanage so that the mothers & nannies could enjoy the evening off for a party.  We were having a great time but the kids that hadn’t fell asleep were definitely getting restless so we decided that we should watch a movie and Lord willing, the kids would either enjoy the movie or fall asleep or both!  I went to go get the computer and it was really dark outside.  As I walked across a wooden walking bridge from where we were towards our house, I took the first step down the other side.  Except there wasn’t a step.  There was a perfect size 10 shoe gap between the bridge and the steps and you guessed it, my size 10s found it!  I fell and it hurt, really bad.  But like I said, I’ve never broken a bone until then so I can’t say that I knew it was broken at the time, but it was some of the worst pain I’ve ever experienced.  I called Whitney and she came running (thankfully not across the bridge where I fell) and then I was carried to a truck of some friends and hurried off to the hospital in Zacapa.  Hospitals in Guatemala are not like the U.S.  I didn’t have a wait to be seen but there also was no A/C.  I was given an IV then a shot then had some x-rays.  Then another shot & by that time the doctor was there to review my x-rays.  He walked into the “room” where I was waiting wearing shorts and a polo and informed us that I had a hairline fracture on my right ankle.  When I was getting the cast, my foot was held in the air by my toes so that it could get wrapped correctly and dry.  After it was dry and we were more or less ready to go, the doctor said I needed the cast for 4 weeks and then therapy after that for recovery and that I could leave once my IV was finished.  But this is Guatemala.  The nurse found out that Whitney was a nurse as well and said that we could go ahead and leave and just let the IV finish on the way home.  So we did exactly that.  Drove home with IV in tow.  

Fast forward 4 weeks.  After 4 brutally hot and sweaty weeks it was time to get rid of this cast.  I was done.  I didn’t care how it was going to get cut off but it was time.  I talked to the doctor at our hospital at Hope of Life and she approved of the cast coming off but didn’t have the tool to cut casts.  But this is Guatemala… I have tools, I have stuff that I KNOW I could cut that cast off with.  So I went home, grabbed my Fiskar’s tree limb trimmers and went back to the hospital.  With the doctor’s supervision, I cut off my own cast.  with tree trimmers.  why?  Because this is Guatemala.  Sometimes you don’t need all of the bells and whistles of the U.S.  Sometimes you don’t need to go back to the doctor and spend more money getting a cast off.  Sometimes you just do it yourself!

God has taught me a lot during this time with my cast.  I was totally dependent on other people for nearly everything.  I took walking for granted.  I had no idea how much work & how exhausting crutches were.  I couldn’t carry my own plate of food to the dinner table, I couldn’t carry a drink, I was just about useless.  But I’ve learned a lot during this time and I’m so thankful that it was just a hairline fracture and that I didn’t need my leg set, I didn’t need surgery, I didn’t need anything expensive!  God showed me how many friends that I have that He’s put in my life to get me through that difficult month.  God showed me what an incredible wife that I had.  From the second I told her I had fallen she was on the job.  She never quit.  She made me food, carried food, carried coffee, carried well just about everything that I couldn’t fit in a book bag to carry myself.  She helped wrap my foot so I could shower.  She gave me injections of weird NSAID pain medication that the doctor prescribed for my pain.  I cannot possibly tell you how much my wife did for me, how amazing she is, or how blessed I am to be her husband.

This is Guatemala.  No other place I’d rather be. Swollen kankle & all.