by Tamar » Thu Dec 04, 2008 5:52 pm
It was an embarassingly stupid slip on a bit of ice about half an hour into what should have been a glorious sunny day's walking. We were heading up a valley and my foot just slipped on an icy rock. I squawked and sat myself down, and unlaced the top of the boot which was suddenly feeling excruciating tight. I hoped it was just a sprain, but after a few minutes the pain was not abating and when I tentatively moved my leg my foot flopped sideways and I could feel the bones moving around just above my ankle...so I asked Keith to call mountain rescue and got myself comfy on a couple of bits of carry-mat with a space blanket over me and some rucksacks supporting my foot. Luckily there was an RAF helicopter out on manouevres and they were delighted to have something exciting & heroic to do so came and picked me up.
For the medically minded among you it's called a bi-malleolar fracture...which is basically snapping off both the bony bits that extend from the bottom of the tibia and fibula and overlap the side of the ankle joint to provide lateral stability. As I snapped them both and the fracture had dislocated slightly the docs had to wrench my ankle straight again (which was about as much fun as it sounds) and plaster me up until I went into surgery later that evening when they fine-tuned the realignment of the bones under X-ray and plated and screwed everything back into place.
Not sure when I'll be back on the bike - certainly not until well into January. Should all heal up OK though.