Someone who knew my dear friend Hellene who just passed away in May of 2021 and I just connected on FB because I noticed she was mutual friends with my cousin Cheri! Lisa sent me these treasured photos yesterday and wow is it fun to see Cheri as a little girl!
On May 12, 2021, I was happily skiing in Winter Park, Colorado with my daughter Annabelle. We decided to go skiing that day since one of my kids always skis with me on Mother’s Day, but the weather was not good on Mother’s Day, so we postponed our ski day together to Wednesday, May 12. That date would have also been my mother’s 99th birthday, so we also wanted to spend a fun day together in her honor.
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| Annabelle and Jo Ann before I broke my ankle in Winter Park |
We picked Winter Park since the prices had lowered and we’d never skied there before. We did not know though that only one lift was open and only blue runs were open, but we had a great time that day anyway…until…
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| Telemark Skiing before I broke my ankle |
At 2:30-45, after a short break, I decided to switch from my alpine skis to my Telemark skis. I’d done that a week before at Loveland Ski Area when Annabelle and I skied together on my birthday, May 7. It had been so much fun to Tele ski and I wanted to do it again. We went up the lift and we were going to make our final descent on Corona Way (I should have known…)….
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| Skiing down Corona Way in Winter Park, Colorado before I broke my ankle - I should have known! |
However…this time, the snow was kind of sticky and the blue run was harder than the green run I had Tele skied on in Loveland, but….that didn’t stop me from trying.
Well…I guess I should not have tried, because I fell (which does happen while skiing); this time I just fell to my left, but the right ski and foot turned around 360 degrees and I felt the foot snap! I didn’t want to believe I was really hurt, so like any good ice skater, I got up and kept skiing. There was pain though, but I was determined to ski to our car.
That didn’t happen. The pain grew worse when I received a phone call from my husband about a broken dishwasher and had to stop skiing. Once I finished the call, I tried to keep skiing, but the pain just grew worse, so Annabelle called the ski patrol and we pulled to the side and I got my boot and ski off somehow.
The ski patrol took me down the mountain in one of their sleds and Annabelle got to go down on a snowmobile. Once we were close to the car, the ski patrolman carried me to the car.
Of course Annabelle drove back to the Denver area. I took some ibuprofen that relieved some of the pain and swelling. We noticed the foot was very swollen, so we decided to go to Urgent Care in Castle Rock.
Annabelle got me a wheelchair at the Urgent Care since walking was now impossible. It didn’t take long to find out after an X-ray that I’d broken my fibula and that there was something minor going on with the tibia. I was given crutches and a boot and was told it would take six weeks to heal.
The next day, we followed up with an orthopedic surgeon in Colorado Springs, Dr. Connor. He said the same thing that the PA in Castle Rock had said and made appointments for me to follow up at the three week and six week points.
I am one of the fortunate ones since my husband was able to take time off from work due to the family care medical leave act and also my daughter Annabelle stayed a couple weeks longer in Colorado to help out.
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| First time using the knee scooter on a bike path 5/14/2021 |
We also were lucky since due to previous medical conditions in our family we already owned a knee scooter, so I didn’t really use the crutches much. We also had a wheelchair, bath seat, and walkers!
I learned how to transition from the knee scooter to wheelchair in the bathroom and onto the bath seat, so I could shower on my own every day. The bedroom was upstairs so either Annabelle or Dan carried the knee scooter up and down the stairs for me every day.
Going up and down the stairs was a challenge, but I found I could “shoot-the-duck” down…that’s a skating move where one leg kicks out in front and it came in handy. Getting up was more difficult, but I found it I just sat on carpeted stairs I could pull myself up.
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| Shoot the Ducking Down the Stairs |
Now the stairs to the car in the garage were not clean so I didn’t want to sit on my rear to go up and down, so we bought an iWalk, which was like a peg leg that strapped to my bent knee. I was able to get up that way and as time went on I could get down with my protective air boot cast on and hop to the car while holding on to the doors and handles.
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| iWalk helped getting up stairs |
We learned the knee scooter folded up which made it possible to take everywhere. I bought a pad that gave my knee more comfort and also a basket. Both of those purchases turned out to be essential.
One day Dan and I went to a local park and I scootered the entire walking path. I discovered that going up and down even small inclines with the knee scooter was not that easy though, but I still had fun.
I had planned a two week trip to California which I thought I would have to cancel, but with Dan’s help I was able to go. I wanted to go even though I knew it would be difficult since my 92 year old father needed to see my sister. They had not seen one another since before the pandemic and I felt it was essential.
It was SO HARD traveling through the Denver airport with the knee scooter, but I was determined to get some exercise and I also did not want to rely on one of the people there that pushes wheelchairs. I wanted my freedom in the airport. Getting on the plane was not too bad, but it meant no trips to the restroom even though I took the crutches on the plane…getting off was much harder, but with help of a wheelchair we got off the ramp and to my knee walker.
My husband Dan was recovering from his second hip replacement, so he had a walker at the airport and my dad is 92, but physically fit, so we were quite a threesome!
Since my brother in law’s car was not big enough for me and the knee scooter, Dan and Mike had to go get the car we leave in Long Beach and return to the airport to get me and my dad.
Our family’s condo in Long Beach is not that big, but I could maneuver with the knee scooter into the bathroom and to the bedroom and into the kitchen and living room. We were away from May 20–27, which was close enough to when I was injured that I found myself more exhausted than usual, but I still managed to knee scooter on the beach bike path with my friend Rhonda and at El Dorado Regional Park’s bike path with my husband Dan and go kayaking! (Kayaking was made possible with my friend Bernadette’s help and my husband Dan’s help.)
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| Working Out on my nephew’s rowing machine in Long Beach |
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| Knee Scootering at El Dorado Park |
Being able to do all those things really gave me a boost!
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| Knee Scootering with my friend Rhonda on the beach bike path |
Flying back to Colorado was similar to flying to Long Beach, but this time the Long Beach Airport was much smaller, so getting through the airport with my dad was easier. On the plane, both coming and going, I rested and elevated my right foot in my husband Dan’s lap which helped. In Denver, as we moved through the airport, I had Dan’s help.
When we returned to Colorado we made it in time to see my daughter Annabelle and her boyfriend Ben and Ben’s parents. All of us had a great time together over the Memorial Day holiday weekend and I even got to play some ping pong while “standing” with the knee scooter’s help and went on a short walk. We also went to the lake together and I got to kayak again. Of course, Ben and Annabelle had to do all the work since all I really could do was use the knee scooter to get to the shore and use the crutches to get in the kayak…but…wow…was kayaking fun!
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| Kayaking at Monument Lake with Ben’s family and my daughter Annabelle |
After Ben and his family left, Annabelle and I went to the YMCA and I “worked out” on the machines there. My husband Dan, who just had his second hip replaced, worked out there with us on another day and also Annabelle and I went back to the lake so I could kayak again. We also gave a try at a scooter Dan has that has a seat.
After I saw my doctor at the three week mark and another X-ray was taken, I was told that I was allowed to put a little weight on the boot combined with crutches, but was recommended to just keep using the knee scooter and only do that a bit.
I couldn’t really do the partial weight with crutches thing right away, but a week later, all of a sudden I found that I could actually get up and down stairs and even walk across a room! That happened on another a road trip we took to Wichita to see my two older kids who were traveling and performing with Disney On Ice in Wichita.
I learned that Wichita had indoor roller skating rinks, so I was determined to go roller skating by using one skate on my good foot and using the knee scooter with the other. The thing is that the first roller rink I called Roller City in Wichita told me that they didn’t think their insurance allowed it. I was so sad, but then my daughter Rebekah invited me to go to a outdoor skate park with aggressive skaters from the ice show which made up for the disappointment Roller City caused.
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| Skate Park with the famous aggressive skater Cameron Card |
What even made the experience at the outdoor skate park the best ever was that one of the skaters I got to skate with was the well-known aggressive inline skater Cameron Card. He was so encouraging and was delighted that I wanted to join the group with my one inline skate and knee scooter! He even borrowed my knee scooter and did tricks with it!
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| Skate Park in Wichita |
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| Skating with my kids Joel and Rebekah at the Skate Park |
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| “Look Ma…No Leg!” |
The next day in Wichita we rented kayaks and I had a totally awesome time kayaking in the Little Arkansas River. It was a bit more difficult to get me into the rental kayaks since the ground sloped, but with Rebekah and Joel’s help I made it back to the knee scooter after kayaking.
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| Kayaking the Little Arkansas River in Wichita |
We also skated together on the riverfront near the downtown area of Wichita.
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| Skating on the Riverwalk in Wichita |
On Friday, June 11, our last full day in Wichita, I decided I really wanted to roller skate in an indoor rink, and when Carousel Skate Center in Wichita called me and told me they would be delighted to have me, my husband Dan dropped me off and I just skated and skated! My son Joel joined me between rehearsals and his performance call.
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| Skating at Carousel Skate Center |
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| My son Joel and I skating together |
That evening, we saw the show and it was actually quite nice to sit in the disabled seating area since we had the entire area to ourselves and had a great view!
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| Handicapped Seating at Disney On Ice |
Before we left Wichita on June 12, I tried to help with the packing in the morning and did a lot of walking with the boot on with no assistance from the crutches or walker. That turned out to not be a good idea, since all of a sudden I could not do it. It was like my ankle just gave out. I guess I overused my ankle that day, so on the trip home and during the days that followed, I tried to stay off of it completely.
On Thursday 6/17, we met our friends Maureen and Jim and Larisa and Larry at the lake and I kayaked again. Thanks to Larry, we got settled at the shore and got the kayaks inflated. Once I got in the kayak, I just kept kayaking and visited with our friends while sitting in the kayak near the shore.
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| Kayaking with Larry |
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| Kayaking felt like a victory with a broken ankle |
Finally, the final X-ray and doctor’s appointment came on Monday, June 21. To my delight, Dr. Connor told me that my ankle break was no longer broken and I was healed. He told me I could now walk without the boot or with the knee scooter’s help. I did use the knee scooter to get back to the waiting room and then tried a bit of walking while I waited for my husband. It didn’t feel easy, but I knew I could do it! I was glad I brought my right shoe with me!
I think I used the knee scooter to get to the car, but instead of going straight home, we decided to go to a coffee house and I walked out of the car and into the coffee house! After we ate and drank, we took our regular scooters out of the car and scootered with our dog on the bike path! Wow…that was fun…I remembered using the knee scooter on that very path with my daughter Annabelle only a couple days after I broke my ankle. Using the real scooter was way easier!
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| Back to regular scootering with my husband and dog |
The next day I was determined to “go back to normal,” so I decided I would go ice skating! For me ice skating is “like walking” so I was determined to try At first it was a bit scary, but in just a minute I was skating as usual. Doing turns was still hard, but I could skate! I switched to my ice hockey skates and enjoyed gliding on one foot on my former broken ankle!
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| Skating on one foot on my former broken ankle |
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| Back on the ice! |
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| Victory! No more broken ankle! |
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| Kayaking with my guy |
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| Biking with my guy! |
