As the Christmas season nears, I’ve realized a few things: most of them being that family is really awesome. Also, that I really like to look as pale as possible in photos for some reason.

Anyway, I sprained my ankle on Tuesday. It was terrible and one of the most painful things ever and I thought it was broken and I’d have to amputate. I knew I was being a bit dramatic (who, ME?) and I especially felt bad because I’m the only female in my immediate family that doesn’t just look at some stairs wrong and end up with broken/torn things.

At first, my sister pointed and laughed (like any good sister), then came and helped me do the one-foot-hop into the house. I had managed to hold it together until then, when I just started crying. She apologized and brought me a couple mini-snickers.

As I mentioned before, I’m not used to needing help, so my pride was definitely tried (RHYME) as I had to ask for a glass of water, some ibuprofen, a pair of sweatpants instead of my snow-soaked leggings, and a pair of slippers. I don’t know what I thought they would do, but I was so surprised when they responded with “of courses” and “don’t worry, we’ll take care of its” and eagerly helped. Not only that, but since all the women in my family have back, knee, ankle, neck, etc.problems but me (and my dad was at work), my brother-in-law was chosen to help me back down our porch stairs to the car. He came and picked me right up, without hesitation, and carried me to the car. He also took me out for pancakes on Monday. He also teases me a lot. He’s the brother I never had!

On the way to the Urgent Care, the pain subsided, but my mom told me that sometimes sprains hurt worse than breaks. I said I thought it was fine, although now I couldn’t go running for a week or so.

A week? She laughed. If it’s broken or the ligaments are torn, try SIX weeks! I about fainted! The semester starts in only 3 weeks! I laid my chair back and was silent until we arrived.

The nurse said “sometimes sprains hurt worse than breaks,” then made me WALK by mySELF to the X-Ray. Then the other nurse was helping me move my foot on that little X-Ray table and I commented how glad I was that I shaved my legs, but I wish I’d have painted my toenails. But, I said, you probably don’t care about whether my legs are shaved. She laughed and said, “there are much worse things than unshaven legs. There was a time I didn’t think that.” She then burst into a fit of giggles. I was giggling too, but I don’t think about the same thing.

To ruin all the dramatic buildup, the doctor said my ankle’s just a bad sprain (he went “oooh” when he saw how much it had swelled. So did the nurse! Way to make me feel self-conscious!) and said, according to my x-rays, I have “excellent joint space” in my feet and I should be fine after a few days.

I felt kind of silly for making it a big deal, but the last time I hurt myself, I was like 4 years old. 15 years ago. I couldn’t comprehend for a while the feeling of something hurting and the hurt not going away after a couple minutes. I didn’t realize how lucky I am to be blessed with such a healthy, strong body. I also didn’t realize how lucky I am to be around people that are totally willing to help with my problems. Maybe I should utilize that more.

Obviously, this would’ve been much harder without the overwhelmingly loving help my family gave me and I am SO excited to be with everyone for Christmas this year!

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