Old ladies shouldn't rollerskate

On Saturday, 11/29 we all went to Samantha's 8th birthday party at Skateland. Ryan put on some skates and was happy skating around on the carpet. Shawn and Joe (the smart ones) thought it would be better just to watch the festivities. We made it about halfway through the party when I decided to go skate with my brother. Greg and I used to rollerskate every weekend. And were quite good. But that that was a long time ago. A long time ago. 20 years as Joe reminded me.

Anyway, after a few times around the rink, I lost my balance. And started to fall. If only I can make it to the wall and catch myself, I thought. But it was too late, I sort of did a split and my left leg bent under. I landed on my left knee, I heard a loud pop and while it didn't really hurt, I knew I wasn't going to be able to walk. Poor Ryan was very upset about my injury. It took a while for us to calm him down and explain that I was ok, just needed to go have my knee looked at. Again, I wasn't in much pain, but couldn't put any weight on my left leg or straighten the knee. As long as I kept the leg bent I was golden!

I won't go into details on the spectacle I created trying to get out of there and to the emergency room. But I'm sure it's safe to say the Skateland patrons will be talking about me for a long while to come. Oh and as an added bonus my entire family was there to see it happen. My parents, brother, SIL... SILs parents. EVERYONE!!

I think it took everything the ER people had not to laugh at me as I told my "I fell rollerskating" story over and over again. The x-ray at the ER confirmed a break and they referred me to an orthopedist. Said that usually, with a break like I had, the ACL tears and brings the bone with it. Great! And then they told me the good news. They were going to have to straighten my leg to get it in a brace. That, my friends, was painful!!

Thankfully, Greg and Kim took the boys home with them for the night. I'm told that at some point during the evening Shawn got upset about me. When I asked him why he said it was because he thought I was dead, which I find fairly amusing since he saw me hobble out of Skateland. Shawn also told me that Aunt Kim threatened to tickle him and that made him stop crying. So glad to know that tickling by Aunt Kim fixes a dead mommy. ;)

Went to the orthopedist on Tuesday who said by some luck, it didn't feel like the ACL tore and as long as the broken bone was close enough to the rest of the tibia, I wouldn't need surgery. THANK GOODNESS!!!! He said that only happens to 1 or 2 out of 100 cases he sees. Yeah, I'm a freak. I did have an MRI to confirm and will assume that no news is good news on that. I go back to the ortho on 12/11. He said at least two weeks off of work, 6 weeks on crutches and then some PT. Probably the best news I could have gotten under the circumstances.

The best part though was on Sunday when Shawn came up to me very seriously and told me that 33 year olds shouldn't rollerskate. Now you tell me Shawny. Where were you on Saturday???

I'm not sure how I'm going to get around once I go back to work, but I'll figure that out as it gets closer. My dad has very nicely offered to drive me if I need him. Thanks Dad!

Anyway, happy birthday Samantha! I for one will never forget your 8th birthday party!! And I'm not even going to ask you to return your gifts to me ;)