Jacob's Amazing Ankle

Well, since I was feeling like we had a serious 3 month long void of blogworthy things going on in our life, Jacob decided to help me out this last week! He's so sweet.

Now, I can only tell you what happened from my perspective, so I'll go wake Jacob up in a few and let him add his thoughts when I'm done.

Last Thursday, I got a call from one of our wonderful home teachers reminding me to let Jacob know that the ward basketball game was at 9 that night. When he got home, we decided that I'd drop him off, run to the grocery store and pick up the few things we needed, and then be back to pick him up around 10. Perfect. Well, as I was at the grocery store, searching for the salad I had a coupon for, I got a call from a number I didn't know. When I answered I heard:

"Hi." (it was my husband.)
"Hi. What's up?" (a little confused since it was only 9:40)
"um, wanna come to the hospital?"

So needless to say, I decided the salad wasn't that important, and I went to check out immediately. Ethan was kind enough to come to the ER and pick up my frozen stuffs and put them in the freezer while I attended to whatever the heck had happened to Jacob (honorable mention to Lacey, who was also willing to help me with my freezer dillema- thanks!). When I got to the ER, the attendant told me Jacob was in x-ray and to sit and wait. The two wives of fellow stake basketball players that had driven him to the hospital were waiting to tell me what happened. They said they were both kind of distracted when it happened, one reading, but when they heard a scream, they looked up and there was a big dogpile on top of Jacob. Right as they finished their story, and I finished thanking them, the attendant informed me that Jacob was not, in fact, in x-ray, but in room 18, which he proceeded to take me to (after saying, "oh, you're the wife of the guy in the wheelchair bleeding all over the place and screaming?" which he added after seeing my wide terrified eyes, "...just kidding" thanks dude.) Then I saw Jacob. Just sitting there in the hospital bed and smiling at me. Not bleeding. Not screaming. Just smiling. My heart rate started slowing a bit.

I learned that his ankle had been landed on by a guy trying to block his shot, when he yelled, the ref called a foul, and everyone came and gathered around him really fast (the dogpile), and that everyone was grossed out cause his bone was sticking out all funny (I didn't want to move the ice pack to see at that time... though I did see it later. and the rumors were true.) I also learned one more way in which Jacob is incredible. He was cool as a clam the whole time. Just chatting and making jokes with the doctor and nurses. I'm fairly sure I would not be that calm and collected if I was in that much pain. Anyway, our awesome home teachers showed up after the game was over, chatted for a while, and gave Jacob a blessing. On a side note, we have the best home teachers in the galaxy.

When the x-rays came back, it didn't look like there were any broken bones, which was great news. Not so great, but inevitable and fairly obvious news was that his ankle was dislocated. However, Jacob was able to breathe a sigh of relief when the doctor told us he would be "put under" while they popped his ankle back into place.

When the time came for the relocating of the ankle, a big machine was wheeled in, everyone put on lead vests, and they started giving Jacob the anesthesia. It was a quick working drug that was only going to put him under for a few minutes, and he'd be able to breathe on his own, etc. The doctor started asking him funny questions:

"What's your wife's name?"
"Elise"
"What's your other wife's name?"
"...Veronica"

"Is this like the time you were drunk and stoned"
"It's better"

etc.

Now that he was "under" they started pulling on his foot. He started moaning and tensed up his leg so much that they couldn't do it, so they kept giving him more and more drugs till his breathing was so shallow that they didn't dare give him any more. Needless to say, this was not the most pleasant thing in the world to watch. The worst, however came next. When they had hit max capacity on his anesthesia, they started pulling and twisting and yanking, strategically I'm sure, on his leg and foot. Jacob, started moaning, of course, and kept saying "honey, stop! ow ow ow, honey, stop!" (which is the most sad thing ever) till *POP* ... yeah, it was that loud. And they quick wrapped him up, and he quick started waking up. Waking up was the best and funniest part. They asked him more questions

"What's your wife's name?"
"Elise"
"What's your other wife's name?"
"Britney Spears... blah blah blah annulment" (the blah blah blahs were because he was slurring.)

"Is this like when you were drunk and stoned?"
"It's ...different"

When he was first waking up, he told the doctor someone was pulling on his leg, and it was his wife. And could he please make her leave the room before he told him about it? So the doctor stepped in front of me and said "you can tell me now." but apparently Jacob didn't have much to say about it. And he was a motormouth, and a slurry, loopy, incoherant motormouth at that. But a very happy, slurry, loopy, incoherant motormouth, and that was the important part. He professed his love for the nurse who put him to sleep. It was over, and it was wonderful.

They took another x-ray to make sure that any breaks hadn't showed up in the relocation process, and he looked good. We were discharged with prescriptions, and instructions to make a follow up appointment to see if Jacob will need surgery for torn ligaments or not. The whole process took 2 hrs 45 min, which is pretty good I think. We're now awaiting Tuesday when we find out what kind of shape his ligaments and tendons are in. Woo hoo! We're keeping our fingers crossed that they're just stretched and sore. And now, I'm going to go make banana bread, and get ready for church. But I'll leave you with some awesome pictures of Jacob's ankle! *cheer*



The first x-ray. You can see the tibia is not exactly where it's supposed to be...

especially when compared with:



The Second x-ray. Post relocation. The tibia is much happier now.




This is a little peek of the bruising on his heel and ankle 2 days after.