My broken fibula

My broken fibula

During our tour of Chiapas, while in San Cristobal, I had a touch of diarrhea. One night, in a strange hotel room, where it was too cold, and where I didn't turn on any light because I didn't want to wake Victor, I got up to go to the bathroom, and apparently fell down.

The next thing I remember is coming to in the hospital hours later! According to Victor, I was non-responsive after I fell. I don't know if I was knocked out from the fall or from pain, or just went back to sleep, or what. With help from the hotel staff, Victor called an ambulance and got me to a hospital.

The hospital said I had no apparent head injury, but my blood tests showed a bit of salmonella, which probably explains the diarrhea.

I felt fine except for a sore lower right leg. (Since I had been out nearly the whole time, no one even knew my leg hurt, and the hospital never looked at it.) Victor said that my leg was in a very awkward position when he found me. I found that I could stand and walk. I figured it was some sort of sprain.

For the remaining days in Chiapas and then back in Yucatán, I couldn't walk more than ten minutes without stopping to sit down and massaging my shin. After holding up our tour group that way one day, I gave up most walking for the rest of the time in Chiapas.

Back in L.A., whenever it was warm enough, I tried to return to a reduced version of my exercise walks. My leg started to feel a bit better, but a week later, I was concerned because it was still damn sore. I decided to get it looked at, and found that I had broken my fibula! I haven't had a broken bone since I broke my collarbone when I was a toddler. (Hmmm. That was (apparently) also falling out of bed. Maybe I should never leave my bed!)

The radiologist who looked at the X-rays (the image above) wrote, "There is some periosteal suggesting healing." The orthopedic surgeon said that because of the healing that was underway and since I had been walking for two weeks since the injury, I didn't need crutches or a cast (whew!). He said I should stop whenever I felt pain, and we made a follow-up appointment in six weeks. That was this past week, and new X-rays showed more new bone growth, and the doctor said I was doing fine and didn't need to come in again.

I'm pretty much back to normal now, including my hiking. And just in time for warmer weather, too.