Marked for Life

Just after I turned sixteen I went camping with my family and I just HAD to chop wood… That was the worst decision that I have ever made. I wanted to show off to all the guys that were there with my family. I wanted to prove to them that I could be just like them.

So I asked my dad and he said no a few times, and the last time I asked he finally said yes. Unknown to me that last thing that my mom said to my dad was “ready for a trip to the hospital?” I was so excited to be allowed to chop wood… I was all ready to chop the wood and I had the axe in the air and then, I swung. I was waiting to hear the wood crack and hit the ground but…. nothing.  I heard nothing, no crack or the wood hit the ground. So I proceeded to look down the axe and saw that the blade was in my foot. All I saw when I looked down was blood and a little white thing in my foot. On my way to the hospital all I could do was pray that I would be okay. The entire ride there I was fine, but after that when I found out that I had to get needles that is when I lost my mind; I was ready to get out of the hospital. I was so mad that I had to get needles, they are my biggest fear. When the Doctor brought them out and showed my mom, I flipped and I kept trying to get off the table. My dad had to lay on top of me so that I couldn’t move and she could put them in. I was not impressed. I had to sit there for ten minutes waiting for the stuff to work, as I was sitting there crying I was also praying to God that I would be okay and that nothing too bad had happened to my foot.

During this beginning process I had to have so much hope.  I was hoping that I didn’t chop anything that was vital. When she finally took a good look at my foot she told the nurse to start to get some of the things for surgery ready just to be safe. I was so scared at this point she had to stop everything because I was crying so hard that I was moving too much to do anything. Once I settled down she took another look at my cut and thankfully I didn’t hit anything that was important. I was a millimetre away from my tendon and if it went half a centimetre deeper, it would have went through my foot. After that she was able to go ahead and start the first layer of stitches, they took ten minutes to get put in, then she had to put the outside stitches in these took a little bit longer. All together I had sixteen stitches. During this time I had to have courage and hope that I would be okay and still able to do my regular everyday things.  She told me that I had to have my mobility atan all-time low. I was not allowed to go anywhere or do anything. That made me really mad because I don’t like to do nothing all day.

The next morning everyone was packing up and getting ready to go home, and I couldn’t do anything; I felt so useless. Then to make it worse they all wanted to take a WALK down to the river… I wasn’t supposed to do anything of that sort, but I was determined to get there myself, even if it meant I had to crawl part way. I started by hopping on one foot and then I used my heel every once in a while. Then I had to take a break and I was just outside of the campsite. I was not impressed. Eventually my dad asked if I wanted help and I said no. I was going to do it by myself. He asked if I wanted him to carry me down there, and once again I said no. I made a big mistake by saying no, because when I got to the rocks that is when I had the most trouble.

I had the entire ten days ahead of me of doing nothing. After that long ten days I was so glad that I could get my stitches out. But because I was walking the first day I had to have my stitches in for an extra four days just to make sure that they would be okay. And that it had healed properly and that it wouldn’t re open and I wouldn’t have to get stitches again. After that I got them taken out I was finally able to sit cross-legged.  I was so happy that I could finally do all the things that I wanted to do. I still couldn’t shower without a bag on my foot.

Now I am okay and can do all the things that I usually do. My foot only hurts once in a while. And if I have my feet in cold water then the scar gets all dark purple and it is weird. There is that odd day that it will start randomly start hurting but that is okay, almost every day it is all tingly because all the nerves are still healing and fusing together it will be like this all the time but that is okay because I have to have hope that it will one day eventually heal as close to normal as possible.