I have to say that I really thought that my whole college experience was going to start off much differently! The first week I was here, there were about five or six residents in Carter hall and very few people on campus. This was because I was a week early for flag and band camp. Considering it was my first experience being away from home, out on my own, starting college and doing colorguard, I would have to say things started out very well. I was adjusting and making new friends, learning new routines in colorguard and settling into my dorm. Life was good! But things couldn’t be that easy could they?
It all started just a few weeks ago, it was almost the end of band camp, and the rest of the residents had moved in. It was time to get to know them and attend some school events together. It was a Friday night and the first weekend everyone was here. Everyone was very excited! The fourth floor of Carter, and a bunch of resident advisors, were heading down to the foam party and B.B.Q./foam party that was going on in the flatlands. It was a bit dark out and we were all walking down a hill. Unbeknownst to me there were several thick tree roots sticking out of the ground at the bottom of the hill. With my luck, my ankle must have gotten stuck or something, I tripped, fell, and slid. I scraped up my left leg, and my ankle was hurting very badly! Luckily, I was with a group of RA’s, and they jumped into action.
One RA got the University of Toledo Police Department, another went to get ice, and a couple stayed with me to help keep people away. The UTPD called the Fire Dept. When the firemen arrived, the UTPD held a flashlight above my head, as if it was not embarrassing enough! The Fire dept wrapped my ankle, and gave me the choice of whether or not I wanted to go to the hospital. I was not thinking clearly, so I just looked at my RA, and she told me I should go. The Fire Dept then called an ambulance. Before the ambulance got there, I had at least four or five RA’s around me, one Police Officer and two or three Firemen. While I was sitting there, I was told to call my parents and let them know what was going on, and see if there was a specific hospital I should go to with my insurance. I called my dad, and he and my sister were at home, and my mom was in Utah. They were all freaking out, wondering if they needed to come down and help. All I could tell them was that I was going to go to the hospital, I was going to be fine, and I would text when I get to the hospital and call after I had been discharged.
The ambulance finally arrived but they couldn't get over to where I was on the hill, so they got the “cute” little UTPD golf cart and picked me up and drove me up to the ambulance as everyone walking by was "trying" not to look, in other words everyone was staring at me! I could hear their whispers, "Do we know her?","I hope she's okay!", and "Who is that?" While getting the stretcher out, they almost hit my ankle with the doors from the ambulance. Then they helped me shift over to the stretcher and into in the ambulance. I felt very overwhelmed and a bit confused. The ambulance lady was very nice, she hooked me up to a heart monitor, took my blood pressure, and all that stuff that they do at hospitals and Doctors offices, and even tried not to hurt me. My RA was in the front seat of the ambulance, and another RA and a friend followed to make sure I was okay and they brought my insurance card. We arrived there at about 9:30pm. They took off the cardboard brace in it that they used to stabilize my ankle, and I got to see how it really looked. The right side of my ankle was swollen, and it really didn’t look as if there was much of an ankle bone, because it was so huge. The top of my foot was a bit swollen, but not much, and my toes were swollen how is why I developed the nickname fat or chubby toes. There was a bit of discoloration, a little purple. I sat in the hospital for at least 30 minutes before they even looked at me.
As I sat there in pain with my RAs, I was just trying to keep my mind off of the pain I had at the moment. I looked around the hospital and the only thing that seemed to have color was a picture on the wall. I just stared at it as if I was examining it as an artist. My RA looked over at me, and we were talking about it. She said “Did you know a lot of the paintings and pictures hospitals have up were made by people that had to be in the hospital a long time and they got to know the Doctors well?” I had never heard that, but it was cool to think about. I had this picture in my head of someone a little older that couldn’t get out of bed painting a picture. A nurse with a computer on a rolling came over to me and started registering me. Afterwards she just walked away and didn’t say anything. A male nurse then came up to me, a little later and started rolling me to the x-ray room. In there, they took x-rays of my ankle and part of my foot. The best part was they didn’t even hurt me! The male nurse rolled me back to the exact place that I was before they took me to x-rays. We all just sat there as people rolled by in wheelchairs and rolling beds. The RAs were talking about anything to keep my mind off of the pain. A while later, a doctor named Todd Melissa came up to me and ask if I was Laura, I said yes. He proceeded to tell me my ankle was not broken; it was just a sprain, without even looking at it or anything and that I’d be fine to walk out of the hospital. He handed me a prescription for Ibuprofen 600 mg and walked away.
The one guy we brought, stood beside me to help me attempt to walk and get to the car, since I should have been able to just walk out. I barely put any weight on my foot, and I started crying again. The nurse went over to a closet and gave me crutches and a wheelchair to take me out to the car. We went to Kroger to fill the prescription, where my RA’s felt bad so they bought me some chocolate too, and then continued on back to the dorm. We got back to my dorm around 12:30am they all set me a bed up on the floor. They left and I fell asleep because I knew I had a long day ahead of me of explaining my injury and trying to figure out how to be able to still do colorguard. Although the next day was very hard the next couple weeks and into over a month later it still affected my life. I was able to get rid of the crutches but I had a boot on that restricted me in from doing colorguard, doing activities with others, and getting to classes.