Ever Seen a Pregnant Woman on Crutches??

WARNING:  Long sob story, with some excess of wallowing... :)

So yesterday, I walked (obviously excessively powerfully) by my couch, and stubbed my toe.  I collapsed on the couch in pain, and after it really sunk in (the full strength of pain was a tiny bit delayed), I realised it was really bad - like, worse than any other stubbed toe pain I'd had.  I looked at my little toe, and was nearly sick - it was sticking out at a disgusting angle, away from my foot!  Ew!!!

Fortunately I had my phone in my hand, so I called James (in hysterics, a little bit) and I do not remember the exact wording, but the fact that he was in the driveway and bounding up the stairs maybe 30 seconds later (what a blessing that he works down the road!! - I found out later that he hadn't even told anyone that he was leaving! He'd just dropped his work and left!  His boss called later that afternoon to see what was going on :p) might give some indication that I was fairly urgent (and possibly a little demanding) about it.  As I was hanging up from James, Mum was calling (she's got that intuition thing down).  I blubbered that I'd broken or dislocated my toe, and she offered to come over to look after the girls.  I hysterically yelled "Can you be here in 2 MINUTES?!" and she calmly said "No, but I'll be there in 15" (which is about how long it takes to get here).  She also mentioned that if it were dislocated, James could probably just 'pop it back in', to which I may have screamed something about real doctors and painkillers, and "NO!!!".

Poor Maggie, who I'd put to bed only a moment before, timidly appeared at the doorway of my room (where I'd hopped and collapsed dramatically on the chest at the bottom of our bed to try to get dressed) and said "Are you okay Mummy?!".  Oh dear.  Try and hold it together, Abby!  I managed to smile and only sob a little bit, and say "Yes honey, I just hurt my toe a little bit" before bursting into tears and saying "Can I have a hug?!".  Poor little girl!  She was happy to give me a hug, sure that it would cure me I think, and then I pulled it together a little and managed to smile and send her back to bed, before hopelessly bursting into tears again.  When James then bounded through the door, after I'd stopped hyperventilating and pointing emphatically at my toe (which I really couldn't look at again - ugh!!), I asked him to please go to his possibly traumatised daughter and make sure she was okay!  But when he went to her room and started to talk to her about what had happened, she was busily reading a book, and didn't seem to mind anything at all, other than asking him what was happening on the next page.  I guess I was the traumatised one :p  Mum came over, I think exactly 15 minutes after she called, and James carried me downstairs and into the car.  It is extremely difficult to hop, when you're 29 weeks pregnant.  And I'm not sure that it's safe.

When we got to the hospital, he parked where you're not supposed to (not afraid to defy parking rules in light of a wife's sore toe - my hero ;)) and carried me into emergency.  I was painfully embarrassed  but I wasn't having a great deal of success with my attempted at hopping again :p  When we finally got in for the x-ray (they covered baby boy in my belly with 2 of the iron aprons and assured me it was 100% safe before asking if I was sure I wanted to proceed since I was pregnant lol) and then into the plaster room (after a wait long enough to allow me to imagine the awful pain of re-setting my almost certainly dislocated toe many times over and enough to make me shake all over), the doctor said "You've actually broken your toe".  Oh.  Did that mean they didn't need to re-set it??  Of course they did - it had snapped right through at a funny angle and was sticking out - they needed to put it back in place to heal properly  :(  After warning me that they would hurt a LOT, she then gave me 2 giant, painful, horrible awful needles, right into the bone, on either side of my little pinky toe.  The doctor was right.  It hurt, a LOT.  I cried out and sobbed into James!  I was so embarrassed, but I couldn't help it!  And James even seemed to think it was justified, because they were huge, and the doctor seemed to think they were going to half kill me with the pain, and can I use the 'pregnant' thing??  Anyway, thank goodness she'd let me bring him in! :)  And then the anaesthetic (okay, there was a GREAT reason to put me through those needles, shudder) set in, and she fiddled with putting my toe back into place while I was mercifully without feeling in my foot.  Hooray for anaesthetic!!! :)  I was soooo grateful not to feel it, I can't even tell you!  It was like when I got the epidural when I was in labour with Maggie, and suddenly the world was a happy place again :)

So they strapped said snapped little toe next to it's closest relative, and gave me a lovely set of crutches, to use for the next 6 weeks (that's right - until I'm 35 weeks pregnant! - 1 week before Christmas!), or until the pain goes away and I can walk again.

Because I weigh a lot right now, and I'm unbalanced and awkward, it's actually really, really difficult to use the crutches.  They kill my arms, and my left leg - the one I can walk on - is dying!  I don't want to go anywhere!!  It was pretty hard making it up the stairs when we got home yesterday afternoon, and that was before the pain had come back!  Which it has now.  But I know the worst is behind me, and hopefully I NEVER have to get those needles again!!

(sigh) Okay, sob story over, somewhat inconvenient 6 weeks to begin!! :)  It's hard to do anything right now, as cooking requires standing up and using your hands, and looking after or lifting the girls has become ridiculously hard/awkward, but I guess I'll get the hang of it, and hopefully it heals quickly and nicely.

Oh for the sake of one little toe!!!

:p

xo