Laid up and Grateful

Don’t be grossed out by my gnarly foot. It has a bunch of cream on there to relieve pain and swelling. I rolled, sprained or fractured my ankle last night playing tennis. I’m not sure if I heard a “pop” or a “snap” when it happened, it was drowned out by my baby screams of agony. Good Samaritan’s carried me to my car and I called my bride telling her to prep up large bucket of ice and water. I iced it and elevated it all night and my nurse slathered the above cream on it often. I’ve twisted my ankle before, and once rolled it playing basketball, but those instances must have been minor because the pain can’t be compared to this one. I simply took a few steps to the left to hit a ball, my shoe “slid” somehow and my ankle flopped. It felt like my fibula cracked and0 came right through my skin, but when I was able to stop screaming, I looked and was relieved to not see a site like that. I did not go to the doc yet. I will give it a few days. As far as I can tell nothing broke,  but will monitor progress closely.

As of this morning, I was surprised to find it less swollen than I had anticipated it to be upon waking. No real discoloration to speak of….good sign? Pain is still here, but less severe just sitting and keeping it elevated.

I was given some “natural” healing and pain relief capsules and cream (above) both have as the main ingredient ETArol. ETArol is a  concentrated extract of New Zealand Green Lipped Mussels, clinically proven to have powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Research on the New Zealand Green Lipped Mussel has demonstrated improvement in up to 75% of patients with osteoarthritis and 77% of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. This same mussel has been clinically shown to be more potent in relieving inflammatory swelling than aspirin, acetominophen, ibuprofen or naproxen.

I must say, so far so good.

It’s very important to keep an attitude of gratitude when your body gets stressed like this. It’s easy to have your mind run off on you and flood you with nothing but doom and gloom thoughts…. but pain management, healing and recovery start with your thoughts. Keep them positive and grateful.

Focus on things you can do when these types of “incidents’ come along. I’m enjoying using the crutches, I’m happy I’ve been doing lots of weighted dips in the gym. I will exercise a bit differently over the coming weeks. But since i’m less mobile, I will use the time to work on different things. I’m grateful that the rest of my body works, I’m grateful to be alive….I’m grateful my loving wife is here to help me.

So now that I’m done screaming cussing and crying, I focus on the good stuff.

No matter what, keep your perspective, keep positive, always find a way to look at things from a different angle….BE HAPPY.

NAMASTE