The Ankle of Pain

Courtesy Pixabay

It was a heroic rush down the basketball court after making a steal. We were losing and I was brought in off the bench to replace one of the starters. I don't remember who. At any rate this was a chance to get two points back. I had two guys to beat and both of them were off balance. The first one bought a head fake at half court (like I was really going to shoot it from there) and my momentum was going to get me past the second, except opponent number one landed on my foot as I streaked past him. My ankle didn't roll, it dislocated and popped back. I hit the floor. I jumped back up but couldn't even take a step. I hopped off to the locker room where the junior coach helped me get my shoe and sock off. Evidently they didn't know what I'd done because that's not what you're supposed to do with that kind of injury. We watched my ankle inflate right there. By the time we got ice on it, it had ballooned. That injury pretty much finished the season for me. Doctor said I should be able to start playing again a week later but I couldn't push off with it for the next six weeks.

The following season we were playing against a group of alumni stars to give us some strong competition. I fired off a hook shot over Paul Treitz and landed on the side of his leg. Same ankle rolled and I rode the side of that leg all the way to the floor. Bad sprain, torn ligaments, bone chips and of course a great deal of pain. Incidentally “Tripes” starred several years earlier taking the league scoring championship over Jay Triano of Welland High former coach of the Toronto Raptors and current coach of the Canadian national team.

My best friend took me to the hospital for x-rays. In the waiting room I dropped something on the floor and managed to tip my wheelchair up on the foot rest. Some other emergency victim rescued me, while I was trying to figure out how to get out of that without getting another injury.

I suffered two minor sprains of that same ankle in college. Once on the basketball court again and the other time running across campus just before a costume ball. People thought I was limping at the dance as part of my costume.

After college, I slipped in the muck on a landscaping job site. That was a nasty sprain almost as bad as the initial injury. The company I worked for did bring me to the hospital but badly bungled everything from there. I never worked for them again.

Finally when I thought the curse had ended, I was playing Frisbee with my kids in the yard. One of the boys let fly with an errant throw across the township drain, which ran through the middle of our property and I leaped gracefully after it. On landing my foot skidded on some slick dirt and the ankle rolled where the mud ended. This time the bone cracked and I ended up with a walking cast.

Hopefully, writing this chronicle doesn't jinx me and I'll never injure it again.