Coming into 2025, I was in the best shape of my life. I was hitting the gym 4-5 times per week, hiking regularly, prioritizing protein and fiber in my diet, supplementing with creatine, gaining muscle mass and strength, and just feeling great overall. I was also making gains in the realm of mental and emotional health, working on my personal training course almost daily and prioritizing my sleep for probably the first time in my adult life. I was hoping to be done with my certifications and ready to start work by March and build my new career as a certified personal trainer and nutrition coach. Life was good, and I was finally going to start the next phase of growth. But then…

On the morning of January 9th, with a snow storm expected to hit that night, I wanted to take advantage of the sunshine and decided to delay going to the gym in order to go for a long walk down our country road with the dogs. Even though it was quite cold, I bundled up in my insulated bibs, strapped on my winter boots, and headed out with Ollie and Kenny. Since we live far out in the country with very little traffic, i typically walk my boys off-leash and work on recall training, which they’re doing great with. We walked out about a mile and turned around to come home. As I walked on the edge of the road, Ollie and Kenny were running in the ditch chasing each other and playing. They were living their best lives in that moment, and I was giggling watching them have so much fun. At some point, they ran behind me. Next thing I knew, they came running downhill at full speed and tackled each other, rolling directly into my left ankle. That’s about 125 pounds worth of dog. I immediately felt popping and crunching, as if my lower leg bones shifted forward, but my foot stayed in place. As it turned out, that’s exactly what happened.

I crumpled to the ground in excruciating pain and let out what was surely a blood-curdling scream that not a single person heard, because the only beings nearby in that moment were a neighbor’s cows and horses. When I fell, my phone flew out of my pocket into the weeds, so once I gathered myself, the first order of business was finding it so I could call for help. I tried to stand on my right foot to get a better view of the ground around me and located my phone a couple of yards ahead. I managed to crawl on my hands and knees to get it while dragging my left foot behind me. I was honestly terrified to even look at my ankle or untie my boot. It felt as if my foot was dangling from my leg, and I wasn’t sure the bone hadn’t broken through the skin. 😳 The last thing I wanted was to bleed out on the side of the road.

I did manage to get my hands on my phone and called David, but he didn’t answer. It turned out he was working on a rooftop and had left his phone in his work van. So I called my mom. Also no answer. It was at this point I broke down crying. We’re new to the area and don’t know many people. We are pretty close with our immediate neighbors, but I knew they were out of town. Everyone else I could’ve called for help were 40 minutes or more away, so I laid down on the gravel and wallowed in my emotions as I tried to think of what to do. It dawned on me that my neighbors have adult children who live with them, so I decided to reach out and ask if any of their kids were home at the time. Those kids weren’t, but thankfully their oldest daughter, who only lives minutes from us, was home. I hung up with the mom and waited on the roadside as the dogs continued to play as if nothing was wrong.

The entire time we’d been out walking, I hadn’t seen a single car go by, but as I was waiting for Mary, finally a vehicle approached. I waved them down, and they stopped. It was a lovely couple, also new to the area, who were in the process of moving furniture. They had no space in their car to take me to the hospital, but they parked and stayed with me until my ride arrived. They even found a couple of towels in their car to roll up and put under by foot and ankle for support. I wish I could remember their names and thank them properly, but my brain just did not let me retain that info in the midst of all the pain. Just having them there with me was so comforting as I was experiencing such a traumatic time. When Mary arrived, they helped her get me into the truck before going on about their day. Kenny hopped into the truck happily with a little coaxing from me, but Ollie is known for being a bit skiddish around unfamiliar people and refused to climb in. That turd just walked beside the truck as Mary drove me back to the house very slowly while I called him out the open window. It was at that point my mom returned my call, and I was able to fill her in on what was happening. She assured me she would be on her way to me shortly. Mary managed to get the dogs corralled onto the back deck and collected my necessities, then drove me to the ER, where her sister also met up with us. With help from some crutches Mary grabbed from her parents’ house, they assisted me into the waiting area and stayed until my mom arrived. I’m forever grateful to them for their selflessness that day. They truly saved me during one of the scariest moments of my life.

Once I was moved to a room in the ER, a nurse helped me to remove my snow boot from my affected foot and ankle, something I hope to never experience again, because holy hell! So painful. Upon seeing it, it was apparent that something was horribly wrong. The skin wasn’t broken, thankfully, but my ankle was bending in ways that it clearly shouldn’t. They gave me something for pain then brought the radiology team in to see just how bad it was. As it turned out, I had broken both the medial and lateral malleolus and dislocated the talus bone. There was a piece completely broken off of the medial malleolus, and the lateral bone was split.

It was clear from the x-rays that I would need surgery to repair the breaks, but I’d also need to have the talus bone reset before leaving the ER. In order to do that, the doctor said they’d give me ketamine to sedate me and “send me to my happy place” while they set the bones and wrapped it all up in a splint. Having never been someone who messed with recreational drugs, I had no idea what to expect. David had arrived shortly after the x-rays were taken and at this point enlightened me to the term “K Hole.” Fun. 😬 As I found out from my surgeon many days later, ketamine is supposed be given with an anti-anxiety med to prevent a “bad trip.” Guess what they didn’t give me. Yep. They sent me down a very dark K Hole where the walls were collapsing into me, my soul separated from my body, alien beings were working on my leg, and I was trapped inside a tesseract screaming for help. And I still felt the pain as they set my ankle. As I came to, the walls of the room were melting, along with the faces of the staff. A nurse told me “Ketamine is not your friend, girl.” No kidding! Apparently, I was yelling out and being combative as they were working on me. Y’all, never again. This girl does NOT like drugs.

Finally, after several hours, I was handed a set of crutches and a prescription for pain meds and released to go home. I was in a ton of pain, but at least my ankle and foot were somewhat secured. I was instructed to rest as much as possible, keep my leg elevated above my heart most of the day, apply zero weight to the affected leg, and to call the orthopedic surgeon to follow-up.

In an instant, all of my goals for 2025 were put on hold. I had to suspend my gym membership. I could barely eat and dropped a few pounds during the first couple of weeks thanks to meds. I couldn’t even work on my CPT course, because the pain made it so difficult to focus or retain new information. I felt drunk or hungover most of the time. And this was all before the surgery left me temporarily vision impaired. More on that next time…

Stay tuned for part two of this epic journey through healing.

And yes, I have forgiven my fur babies. This was purely a freak accident. They were just playing. Who could ever be mad at those sweet faces? But I think I’ll probably keep them on leashes next time… whenever that may be.