In the beginning...

I broke my ankle memorial day weekend on Saturday May 29, 2010.
It was a beautiful clear night, a lot of friends and family came over to celebrate a belated birthday/housewarming party.

I started this blog because, well, because I've frankly got the time and my cat is sick of answering my questions about what pajamas I should wear today. I also want to document the progress I make and activities I'm able to do from couch and eventually back onto my skateboard. Did I not mention that yet? I did this on (mostly off) my skateboard on the half pipe here at my house.

My life partner Chris and I were messing around (skateboarding, too many people around for what you're thinking) on the ramp all night without pads. We had been working on frontside airs the last couple of weeks and had been getting closer and closer.
It was about 8pm, my guests were all enjoying (or pretending to) the evening air, beers and each other. Now was the perfect time to be a bad host and ignore them for a bit of skateboarding. Chris and I strapped on (easy now) our pads and took turns dropping in and trying our frontside airs. Long story short, the last one I tried was probably the closest I ever got...I'll always remember it. But mostly I'll remember the popping sound, the way my ankle flopped from side to side. Then my girlfriend Sara worriedly (but with a "this was inevitable" look) hovering over me, Chris handing me a beer and our buddy Buckner poking me with his foot like I was a dead hooker. I'm not a hooker. Any more.

Then next few hours and realizations went pretty quickly. My initial thought was "I broke my ankle" then I tried to convince myself it was a bad sprain. After 2 hours I knew better and was convinced by friends and Sara to go to the ER. I was seen almost right away and the news was bad (as you already know). I was told by the dreamy Dr. Tony that it was in fact broken. I then had to wait 3 more days to go to the bone doctor (my high school nick name) due to the holiday.
Her analysis was that I needed surgery because my bone (I know, I know) had shifted and I needed some screws (again, I KNOW).

After another 3 days of waiting and not healing (VERY frustrating) I had surgery on Saturday June 5, 2010. It was a 2 hour procedure. I was told that I now had 8 screws and a plate in my ankle. Holy. Crap. Not what I expected. I thought it was gonna be 3 or 4 screws, even that seems like a lot at my age. Thank yew! Thank yew!
So here I am, almost 2 weeks later. I've watched the entire Avatar: The Last Airbender series (I hope the movie doesn't suck). My insides have been backed up. I've been nauseated, puking and a bit depressed. But I've also been inspired to get off my ass as soon as I can so I can get back on my skateboard. I've been very lucky to have the friends and family I've wound up with. From visits, texts to yard work, meals and groceries being donated to me.

The next few months are still gonna suck. I've got physical therapy and possibly some setbacks to look forward to. But I've also got some fishing, world cup watching, and not walking with crutches to look forward to.

Hopefully in a few months I'll be posting pictures of me skateboarding again. This is mostly for my own documentation so I can remember how crappy this was in the beginning. So if you don't like long blog posts or double entendres, you can go work on your own short post.
(Full disclosure: totally didn't land the one in the picture either).