Paul Gupta's Blog An online public repository of meditations, speculation, reflections and thought.

My Ankle

On scene at 20:55. I'm told to grab the blue aide bag and bring it into the house. I grab the bag, step out of the ambulance, and then promptly twist my ankle on the sidewalk and all of my goes slamming into the ground with all of my weight going through my now inverted foot. My glasses fly off my face, and my crew stops and asks me if I'm alright. Also, a bystander(who turns out to be family of the patient.) asks me if I'm alright. What a goof. Tripping over myself like that.

I insist that I'm fine to my crew, and try to encourage them go on ahead and I'll stay with the rig. They leave, and then I grab my glasses off the ground and put them on, then hand off the aide bag and go into the rig. I try to self-diagnose my ankle, see if I'm just stunned or if I'm actually hurt. I end up determining that this is just like the other times that I've sprained my foot, and go walking into the townhouse to see if there's anything I can do to help.

I run a few more calls after this guy, who we end up transporting to the hospital. When we get there and I get into the EMS room I strip off my boot and check my ankle, it's sore but not super swollen. I just lace up my boot and keep going.

At around 0100 I went to sleep, my ankle in much more pain than it was in before, and I was considering requesting off the ambulance for the rest of the night. We didn't get any more calls, and I sleep soundly until around 0845 when I wake up. It's definitely swollen at this point. I hobble down to the station's lowest level and ask one of the medics if he has a free moment to look at it. I'm not sure why, but I guess I figured it couldn't hurt anything but my image.

Another medic saw me hobbling along and asked me if I was the same kid who cut his forehead a few weeks ago. (I am!) Yay, I'm being recognized by people! (All I have to do is hurt myself!)

It's just one thing after the other isn't it?

Anyway, I went to my doctor today. Apparently it's a second degree ankle sprain.

I'm laid up for the rest of the day, waking up early for an X-Ray (pardon, radiograph!) of my ankle to check for any possible fracture. Then work, which...will be interesting, as standing is a bit of an issue. I can do it, but it hurts.

I'm...in a bit of pain. My ankle is purple. Not looking forward to work.