I Broke My Leg and Didn't Know It

This is not my x-ray but this is similar to my break, though mine looks a little more clean than this. The break is a little higher on the bone but you get the idea.

Yeah so I lied when I wrote this post. I claimed to have never broken a bone but after a 44 year streak, I finally did it. When I fell 3 weeks ago, I apparently broke my fibula on my left leg. I didn’t know because I didn’t go to the doctor until today. When I fell, I heard a pop. But when Savannah had a nasty fall a couple of years ago, she also heard a pop. She went to the doctor immediately and she “just” had a nasty ankle sprain. She couldn’t even bear weight on her injured foot. When I fell I injured several parts of my lower leg. My ankle hurt and at one point I thought I tore my achilles tendon. I hurt in so many places, it was hard to tell exactly what all the issues were. So why did I wait until today to go to the doctor?

I want to clarify that I am pro-modern medicine, and as a Type 1 diabetic, I am alive because of it. But I waited because, even though it was pretty painful, I could bear weight on my leg. This automatically ruled out breaking anything, or so I thought. Because again, when Savannah fell, she could not bear weight and she had a sprain. So I took the wait and see approach. We elevated my foot right away and put comfrey leaves on it. I’ve been taking it easy. What made me decide to go to the doctor after three weeks, was that my ankle was better but the side of my calf was still really tender. I just thought it was sore from the fall, but it just wasn’t getting any better. I kept going back & forth about going to the doctor because I could walk. It’s like going to the doctor when you have a virus, there’s not a ton they can do.

But I started doing research and realized that you have 3 bones in your leg and you could break one, the fibula, and still be able to walk. Curiosity got the best of me and off to the doctor I went. Sure enough I broke my fibula. It is not a weight bearing bone which is why you can walk if it’s broken. The PA told me there was nothing to be done but wait and heal. She said I could wear a walking boot if I wanted to for comfort. So to be honest, I’m not better off than I was. Now, I just know I actually broke a bone.

Birdie on an epic road trip we took for my 40th birthday when we visited 13 national parks.

We actually initially went into town to pick up our van, Birdie. She is a 1996 3500 GMC cargo van that we converted into a camper van. We love this van and she has taken us from New Jersey to Terlingua, TX to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. We have been on many adventures in this van, and have used her to haul more wood than a pick up truck could dream. Even being so old she’s in remarkably good shape because she has only had one owner, the state of Georgia. We’ve had to replace some things, and when I broke down on a very busy interstate in the middle of the city while Savannah was at home in Texas, I did not feel so lovingly toward her. The van just needed a new fuel pump which Savannah swapped out herself.

We took the van to the mechanic to see if she was in good shape this week. We wanted to know because we are weighing our options on whether or not we’ll sell the van or keep it. The only thing wrong with the van was that it needed new front brakes & rotors which cost a big chunk of money. But other than that, it’s in excellent condition. So this could be the perfect opportunity to sell it. We would be able to tell a potential buyer that she’s received a clean bill of health. We could certainly use the money, but selling a car on Facebook Marketplace is a nightmare. And, if we need to skedaddle outta here, the van would be the vehicle we would want to take.

We also know that if we sold the van, it is unlikely we’d be able to buy another camper van in the foreseeable future. But we haven’t been camping in it that much since we’ve lived here. It’s funny- when we lived in the city, we used to want to go camping all the time. We could not get enough of it. But now that we live out in the country and living off grid, our desire to go camping has gone. Lastly, my step-dad gave me a pick up truck a couple of months ago. It’s nothing fancy but it works. It feels silly to have 3 cars for 2 people even though they all serve different purposes. It’s a lot to consider.

While in town, we also took my 2011 Honda CRV (our '“newest” car- it’s actually the car I’ve had the longest but newest model year) to get an oil change and did laundry at the laundromat. We have a small washing machine & dryer at the house but the water pump that pumps water into the washing machine is broken. We’ve got the replacement but we just need to install it. Our washing machine is small and you really need to do laundry more often than we do because it will take days to do laundry with our current set up. The washing machine & dryer are also in another building on our property which makes it a touch more challenging to stay on top of it. So when the laundry builds up, we will often go to the laundromat. It’s nice to be able to get it all done pretty quickly, but it’s expensive! The big project I was talking about yesterday will help solve our laundry problem.

Now you’re all caught up on what’s going on in our little corner of the world. We hope you are well and as always, thank you for reading!

-Casey