OUCH!….and WOW!!!

We went to the fireworks last night. Wednesday night was Canada, last night was the US. Sadly, I think the US actually had a better display than we did. I imagine China will go all out this coming Wednesday…..though I’m not sure I’m game to go downtown again…

We had decided to make an afternoon of it all and wanted to do some shopping. We parked in Pacific Centre Mall and wandered along Granville, then back up and all the way down Robson and then Denman. We stopped at the Dover Pub for dinner and a couple of pints before heading to stake out our little bit of hill before it got too crowded. We plunked ourselves in front of another couple who had cameras all set up on tripods and discovered that they were on a photography class field trip. We set up the cameras and, armed with a “How To” from our photography class instructor…we settled in to take a bunch of photos. We fiddled, and shot, and “ooh”ed and “ah”ed. It was great fun, and it had been a couple of years since we had gone to see the show.

After it was all over, we packed up, looked around at how quickly the beach had cleared out and started up the grass. No more than about 20 feet along I looked up at the police helicopter….and promptly stepped off a 4″ curb…badly…..my right foot rolled outwards and I heard an audible snap-pop. I tried to compensate for the pain and loss of balance and keep myself upright, but then I rolled my right ankle too…not as badly…but there was still another audible snap. Down I went…crashing to the pavement…..Horified, Kirk was sure I had broken something. I dragged myself back to the curb and sat there in excruciating pain…and the only two things that went through my head were “Shit, I hope my camera is OK” and “How the hell am I going to get back to the car, I can’t walk”.

I went through those lovely various stages that precede fainting….I heated up, then went clammy…quickly stripped my jacket to try and cool down…..then my ears started to roar and a wave of nausea swept over me…..head down between my knees to try and get it to pass…..focus…focus….

Eventually I let Kirk call the first aid attendants over when I realized that I truly was not going to be able to walk…..and certainly not as far as we had to go…. Four young St. John Ambulance attendants started going over my ankles and icing me…joking that they usually wanted to see the good ankle to compare….bad job that I’d nailed both! “If you’re going to do something….go all the way” I quipped. It’s odd, when I was a kid I cried when I hurt myself…now I laugh….and generally that means it’s really bad….

While we tried to figure out transportation, they came back and said that the stretcher was in use elsewhere….”No, no, that’s OK…no stretcher please….”

Finally, with no other option since there were no cabs or buses running nearby…Kirk hoofed it to the mall to get the car while I waited. The St. John Ambulance crew stayed with me, and eventually managed to help me get to a chair. The majority of them packed up and left, but one vehicle and crew stayed with me until Kirk came back. They wrapped both ankles, gave me ice and water, and chatted with me.

What amazed me was the fact that two of them were young and worked at Playland, one in the candy floss booth and another cooking in a kiosk…neither good paying jobs I would imagine…yet here they were, volunteering to help injured people. I suppose they were grateful that I was neither drunk nor belligerent as could be expected on a Saturday night at the fireworks. But I was so impressed with them. There are a lot of people out there, particularly young people, who wouldn’t ever help you out …yet here were these ones. Fantastic and kudos to them all.

Eventually Kirk made it back and I was helped into the car. Some painkillers, an ice pack and a glass of wine to dull the pain and I finally got to sleep around 2 am. When I woke up today, the ankles weren’t quite as bad as I had expected them to be. The right now was aching, but really felt more like a pulled muscle. The left one…well…that wasn’t so great. A good sized bump on the side of the ankle and some pretty good pain. Obviously not about to make the planned field trip to walk around Queen Elizabeth Park and the Bloedel Conservatory. That was disappointing. But I had to try and get things functional enough to make it to Victoria for the evening…I have a meeting tomorrow….I think I’ll just find a chair and stay in it…..

Hopefully tomorrow they will improve….but the bottom line is….how darned klutzy does one need to be to take out not one, but both ankles in one fell swoop?!

At least after tomorrow I can work at home and just keep off them both as much as possible….