Fractured Ankles in Korea

[So as many of you know...I fractured my ankle.  Leave it to me to go to a foreign country and fracture my ankle.  I  am indeed accident prone but actually FRACTURING my ankle?  Who knew.]

So this past Friday was the going away party for Mr. Nick Kelly.  Right as the festivities got underway I took a casual hop off of the patio (about 2 feet off the ground) and fell.  True. It's not even a good story.  It lacks in imagination and it in no way impressive.  It takes a long time to explain how the 2 foot fall fractured my ankle so the general story told to the majority is that I fractured it  by playing soccer.  Now, playing soccer is believable and seeing as how I already play soccer, not so out of the realm of possibilities. I guess this will teach me to not take casual hops off of patios.

The process of actually figuring out it was fractured was complex to say the least.  I got to the ER on Saturday afternoon and was given a seat on an ancient hospital bed.  Think of an ER circa 1955.  Complete with dingy walls.  Mysterious brown smears.  Beds that have the pull up rails.  The whole picture.

My doctor finally gets to me and does the 1-2-look.  Now the 1-2-look to foreigners is a look that has been perfected by Koreans.  The first look is a once over of "Uh-oh.  Not Korean."  The second is a look of fear.  "They aren't Korean.  They won't speak Korean.  Shit."  No words are necessary to convey those messages. Trust me.  After getting over the initial surprise of me not being Korean, he begins the examination.  Now in Korea the "examination" consists of asking questions about diseases and grabbing the affected area as hard as humanly possible to ascertain my pain level.  Let's just say my pain level was high enough for the entire hospital to hear me scream.  In America doctors don't grab something that looks as swollen as a small melon. No.  Absolutely freaking not.

Well the rest is a long drawn out process so the short story is...after crazy amounts of xrays, CT scan and shots in the butt (you know how those Koreans like the shots in the butt) I was told that I had a radial linear fracture.  Sweet.  A fracture from falling 2 feet.

The cast goes on next week and will have to stay on for 3-4 weeks (if i'm lucky).  I have to play in a Mudfest tournament on July 17th (imagine ridiculous amounts of mud, wrestling, volleyball and obstacle courses) so let's hope it's off before then.

And here is the ankle the morning after in all it's glory...even though the picture just doesn't do it justice.

Here it is almost a week later.  Sexy, I know.