Broken Toes and Bar Fights

Up until the time I broke my toe, I had never had a broken bone in my body.  I was never one to risk life and limb to do things.  Never climbed trees or anything crazy like that.  So, the night I broke my toe was a painful and scary experience.  Then there was a bar fight.  Be prepared to laugh…

We always would get home really late  early from the track on Saturday nights Sunday mornings.  I would be like a zombie unloading the car and unhooking the trailer.  I would be half asleep, dreaming of something to eat and a shower to wash the track dirt away.  So, needless to say, I was never on top of my game when we got home and were unloading.

When we started towing the car out to the track, we purchased sway bar links for the trailer.  Sway bar links keep the trailer from swaying back and forth while towing and help distribute the weight evenly.  The key point of that sentence is distribute the weight.  As in, when you take them off, the weight shifts and the bars are no longer under load.  As in, they are super-hard to pop off and when you do, the weight shifts.  Did I mention the weight shifts?

So, the Hubs backs up the trailer into the drive way and I hop out with Uncle R to pop the sway bar links off with the special tool.  I was standing right beside the bar, the tool in my hand, prying on the fastener and Uncle R goes, “Watch your feet.”

Unfortunately, he said it too late.  Or, possible I was tired and didn’t react.  (Take your pic… I am going with the second one.)

The sway bar link popped off, fell onto my right foot and the weight of the trailer shifted… you guessed it, right on my foot.

I immediately started screaming– the pain was excruciating.  I ran into the house and sat down.  I was so afraid to take off my shoe because I felt something warm and wet and rattling.  I called my dad and was sobbing and freaking out on the phone.  He listened to me and said, “Take your f$&*#@! shoe off and see if it is okay.”  Meanwhile, the Hubs comes into the house and asks if I am okay.  I told him I thought I broke my foot and he went back outside.  (In his defense, I am a bit of a baby… I bump into something I start whimpering.)

I finally worked my shoe off and looked at my foot.  My baby toe was at a very odd angle.  As in perpendicular to my foot.  As in, ouch.

The Hubs came back in and I told him I needed to go to the hospital.  He told me they couldn’t do anything and I would be fine.  I freaked out and my dad asked to talk to him.  I was bundled into the truck and off to the hospital we went.  At 3:00 am.

We get there, and thankfully no one is in the waiting room.  We get back into a room and they give me some Vicodin and told me to hang tight for x-rays.

We wait.

We wait.

We wait.

We slept for about an hour.

Finally… they came to get me for x-rays.

My toe was broken and I would have to see an orthopedic surgeon to see if I needed surgery to set it.

The x-ray technician told me the reason I would pushed to the bottom of the list was there was a bar fight in the Oregon District.  Several of the patrons and bouncers were brought in with broken bones and injuries.

The doctor came in, straightened my toe, wrapped it up and sent me on my way.  As we were leaving, a couple of  bouncers and were sitting in the hall with bloody noses and busted up faces.

The moral of the story: watch your feet when taking of sway bar links and choose a hospital not near the local bar row.  Just sayin’.

And, just for the record… it was more than my toe broken.  Once the orthopedic surgeon looked at it and it didn’t heal after a few weeks, they did more x-rays and found several bones broken at the base of my toe.  I still have the mark on my skin where the bar hit, and my toe is an odd shape.

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