broken.

{ July 11, 2010 @ 3:23 pm } · { Uncategorized }

matt's sweet and fashionable splint he made me- got great compliments in dakar on the utility and aesthetics

matt and amanda fixing me up to get in the car

So some might be wondering what this frequent internet access and blogging has been all about.  Well, I wish I could say it was because Nafadji got wired. But in truth, it is because I am broken, on lots of painkillers, and in Washington, DC.

David, Meera and I were biking to the pool like three biddies on Monday to relax after a rough day of drinking and eating roasted pig for July 4th the night before (I know, our lives our hard).  As I came to a stop, I had a bad dismount and the bike fell on my ankle and I heard a pop.  Then I was on the floor.  Matt, our Peace Corps Volunteer leader came to the rescue like superman and pulled out all the stops to attempt to get me to the hospital for an x-ray, but the machines in Kedougou did not work

matt's sweet and fashionable splint he made me- got great compliments in dakar on the unility and aesthetics

.  So he brought me back to the Kedougou regional house, gave me an absurd amount of Advil and fashioned me a splint out of bamboo sticks and some very fashionable pieces of fabric.  It looked funny but got many compliments from those at the med office in Dakar.  The Medical officers in Dakar told me I should make my way up there because even if I could get x-rays closer to where I was in Tamba, they would not be able to treat me there so I should get to Dakar.  I took a four hour carried to Tamba to spend the night there with my wonderful friends who carried me like a princess to the toilet and brought me ice cream.  Then the next day, I spent another eight painful hours in the car and made it to Dakar.

I went straight to the fancy private clinic to get x-rays with Rudolpho, the medical officer from El Salvador who was helping out in Senegal and knows Elena from New Jersey! Small World.  Anyways, the waiting room was filled with French soldiers wearing very short shorts and who had broken their noses. Likely not on the job.  After the x-rays, a French doctor came out and asked me if my ankle hurt and I was like “uhhhh ouiii (duh)” and he was like oh ya that is because you have a double fracture in your ankle.  No big deal we can operate.  Then I began to cry in front of these soldiers wearing the short shorts.

So the Peace Corps generally does not let volunteers have operations in their countries of service unless it is an emergency so it began to look more and more like I was going to have to go to DC to have surgery on the ankle.  Before I got on a plane for 8 hours though, they wanted to reduce the fracture which meant being put under anesthesia for about 15 minutes while a Belgian doctor pulled on something to make it align better so my foot was not just hangin around there.

That night, I headed (First class, woot) to DC, being pushed around in the wheelchair by a very nice man in the airport who went and got me a lot of snacks because the first class lounge was only accessible by many stairs.  And then the airplane did not have the sky walk thing to get to it so I had to be carried up by two more Senegalese men.  Then I promptly fell asleep from the painkillers and exhaustion I had experienced from the day.  It was difficult to enjoy the amazing food on the plane which was sad because there was fruit, and cereal and yogurt and all I wanted was my fellow PC volunteers there to enjoy it with me.  It was depressing.

I was met in the airport by my worried mother and a nurse who works for the Peace Corps and headed to the hotel in Arlington where apparently many volunteers stay because many volunteers get medivacced.  I went to the doctor on Friday, thinking I would not get surgery until Monday but he thought “lets just get this over with” and I agreed, so I had surgery on Friday afternoon; spent two miserable days with fevers and nausea in the hospital (again, less ability to enjoy American food goodness).  The surgery went well, except the doctor did say that my bones were “soft” I.e. I get no calcium. What a surprise….

So now it looks like ill spend a couple of weeks immobile or hobbling around in a wheelchair/crutches, and then ill get a boot and then in Senegal a little bit after that.  The exact timeline is unclear but just know that I will be back in Senegal with a vengeance and ready to kick some ass! If I have anything to do with it!