The True Story

Yes, it's true. Our perfect vacation ended on a not-so-perfect note. Here's what I wrote a friend:

We had a wonderful 2 weeks in Maui! It was a great vacation.

Until we decided to do a snorkeling cruise to Lanai on our last day. We'd had several days of beautiful, calm weather and of course that day, Thursday March 12th, we woke up to wind and a little rain. We headed out anyway and once we arrived at Lanai we were in a little cove and it was calm and nice. We had a good time, saw some beautiful fish. Then we headed back across the channel to Maui, to a second snorkel spot. The wind had kicked up and the water was sooo rough. The crew said it was the roughest crossing this season and if they'd known how bad it was going to be, we wouldn't have gone to Lanai to begin with.

Pretty much everyone was either hanging on the back puking, or hanging on up front riding/surfing. There were 8-10 foot swells. I was up front and having fun. I never felt unsafe, the catamaran was very stable. But we hit a double wave and I went up and the boat went down, then the second wave pushed the boat up and I didn't have my feet replanted from the first wave and I fell on the inside of my right ankle. I heard/felt a pop and I knew it was broken. The crew helped me to sit (in the midst of all the bucking and hanging on - major thanks to them) and gave me ice packs. 4 Advil and a couple of Mai Tais later, I could walk enough to hobble off the boat.

We went to the hospital in Wailuku. Since I could walk, I thought maybe it wasn't broken, but I was right in my first impression. The tendons stretched and when they snapped back into place, they broke off the tips of the bones on both the inside and outside of the ankle. The Maui ER doctor gave me a splint and a rx for Percocet. We had a red eye flight Friday night that was awful, crowded and lots of turbulence, so we didn't sleep much. They did move us to economy+ so we had a few more inches of leg room and I was able to put my foot up on David's lap for part of the time. We stayed in Altadena with friends Saturday and drove home Sunday.

I saw the orthopedist here on Tuesday and she did more xrays and says I don't need surgery (yea!). But it was still too swollen for a cast, so I have another splint and will return on Tuesday, hopefully for a walking cast. It's feeling much better.

Probably too much better, because I'm starting to put weight on it (a big no-no, so tell me to STOP that right now!) instead of using only the crutches. David said yesterday my color was back and I look better, too. The biggest hassle I think will be no driving. Today is David's first day back to work and so far it's been fine.

Next up: What I'm learning from this.

Currently reading: Love Mercy by Earlene Fowler

Last movie: Still don't remember... David watched Flash of Genius on the plane to Maui.

Praying for: Amber, Katie, Joyce, Will, Liam Neeson and family.