Friday was payday and our last full day in Georgia, so I started the day with a shopping trip to get some needed items from the RV supply place, one of which was a Swift Hitch back-up camera. I’ve been promising Lex one of those for a while. We have yet to really put it to the test, but once we do, I’ll provide a product review. I also got a surge protector for the RV. These plug in outside between the utility pole and the RV itself and prevent damage to the RV’s electrical system in the event of an extreme power fluctuation. So far, we haven’t had that problem, but there’s always a first time. I understand some RV parks have more stable power sources than others.
After spending WAY too much money at the RV supply place, I fueled up the truck so we could start out with a full tank Saturday, and I grabbed some lunch for us from Boston Market. After lunch, I went to the park’s laundromat and did the wash. The pool was just across the street from the laundromat, so while my clothes were drying, I went and stuck my tootsies in the water for a little while and enjoyed watching storms roll in. I got the laundry back to the RV before those storms hit. They weren’t severe, providing just enough rain to settle the dust.
Friday evening we spent readying for the next day’s travel, putting things away, taking out the trash, washing up dishes, securing breakables. That way when we got up on Saturday, there’d be less to be done. We also watched a wonderful indie movie, Once. It’s an Irish film about two musicians and their friendship. Just beautiful. The film won the Oscar for best original song in 2008, and it’s easy to see why. I highly recommend it!
Friday was a full but pleasant day. As it turns out, Saturday would not be so kind to us.
We got a solid night’s sleep Friday night, woke up, had our breakfast, went out and ran some last-minute errands (getting ice and bottled water, putting the Netflix DVDs into the mail, etc.), and then started to get ready to go. I got the fresh water tanks filled, disconnected the city water and the sewage lines and stored all of that. I picked up the chocks and leveling blocks, pulled in the slides, and unplugged the power supply and stored the cord. With all that done, Lex set about hitching the RV. She got that done and grabbed the dogs to give them a last walk before loading them up into the truck.
In the meantime, I went back into the camper to do one last check of everything. Satisfied all the hatches were battened, I turned to leave the camper and stepped down from the bathroom into the living room. When I did, I missed the step, turning my ankle and falling. I fell onto the ankle and heard a sickening pop. Then the pain, pain so bad that a wave of nausea hit me. I cried out, and since I was right by the door, Lex heard me and came running. It took me a moment to recover from the shock and the nausea enough so that I could think clearly.
What to do? I couldn’t put any weight on it. Even trying made me scream. Lex talked about unhitching and taking me to a clinic. I told her there was no point. We were all hitched up and ready to go, and it was only half an hour before check-out time at the park. I suggested we take house and all to the clinic which was about 8 miles away.
We got there, and Lex went inside to ask if they had a wheelchair. A nurse came out and got me and rolled me in, and I was seen right away. They took x-rays and the doctor examined me. He said I had a severe sprain and a fractured bone in my foot. To be precise, it was part of the second toe that extends nearly back to the heel, explaining why I couldn’t put weight on the heel and why I could only flex my toes in one direction. He prescribed crutches, pain medicine, and anti-inflammatories. He also said that the worst part of the pain and swelling should pass within the next 72 hours, but the fracture might take a month to really heal and the sprain perhaps six weeks or more. That means I should be all better by the time we get back home and I have to go back to work. It also means that I won’t be doing a lot of walking around the French Quarter or the Garden District in New Orleans or doing much geocaching for the rest of this trip. That is really disappointing. I wonder if anyone in NOLA rents wheelchairs to tourists…hrm. I’m a big woman, so I don’t think I’ll be able to make it very far at a stretch on crutches. I can’t see us doing any walking tours.
My ankle swelled quickly after the injury
Dr. Tucker was very nice and had the sweetest Georgia accent. I just wanted to squeeze his little cheeks. He asked me at some point if I was a schoolteacher. Said that I “seemed” like one. He pegged me! You know how some people start to look like their dogs? I’m starting to look like my vocation, apparently. He spent a good amount of time actually talking to us and giving me advice for how to treat the ankle. Very different from my usual doctor visits when I’m shuttled in and out as quickly as possible. I left with my scripts and my x-ray films. I’ve been advised to follow up with an orthopedist should I still be having extreme pain and/or be unable to put any weight on it in a week. We’ll be in Texas in just over a week, so if I find myself really hurting then, I’ll find a doctor there.
Lex wheeled me back outside, and I got to figure out how to get back into the truck. I was glad we had those running bars installed. I was able to kneel and then pull myself up into the backseat where I would be able to put my leg up. Nothing wrong with the knees, thank goodness. I think that for the next week or so, I’ll be doing a lot of crawling and scooting around on my butt to get myself up and down the RV stairs and up from the living room into the bathroom and bedroom.
Leaving the parking lot was tricky. We had pulled straight in and up alongside the curb. We couldn’t just back out into the street because it was an extremely busy four-lane thoroughfare. That meant Lex had to back up and turn and pull out of the lot forward. This is something she hasn’t had a lot of practice with (we try to do pull-through sites only because of the size of the rig). It frustrates her in part, I think, because she’s a lefty and has real problems with left and right. So my usual waving of hands isn’t very helpful to her. And this time, I wasn’t going to be able to get out of the truck and wave my hands. She was on her own. It took a few tries, but she got it! I know it just about killed her because she was deathly afraid of backing into cars that were in her blind spots. She didn’t. We got out of there without a scratch! My hero!
We drove up a block to a supermarket pharmacy and parked in their big lot. Lex went in and got my scripts and picked up some lunch. I stayed in the truck, and she brought the food which we ate while waiting for the scripts to be filled. Unfortunately, they didn’t have crutches, and rather than risk trying to get in and out of a Walgreen’s parking lot with our big rig, I just decided to wait until we get to New Orleans on Sunday to find a pair of crutches. As soon as I got the meds, I took them, praying for them to kick in quickly, and then we headed out of town. By the time we hit the outskirts of Atlanta, I was a little sleepy and my pain was less.
Not long into our drive, I realized I had to go to the restroom. Oh, boy. That meant finding a place to stop and then figuring out how to get me out of the truck and then into either a public bathroom or the RV itself. We found a Pilot truck stop near the Alabama state line and fueld up. I got myself out of the truck with Lex’s help, and then leaned on her and tried to hop the 100 feet or so to the door of the store. I couldn’t do it. I almost fell several times, and I’m in such bad shape that hopping on one leg is a nigh upon impossible task for more than a few hops. Halfway to the door, we had to turn around and go back to the RV. A few of the truckers took notice and asked if I was okay. I explained that I had broken my foot. One insisted on taking Lex’s place and letting me lean on him while he escorted me to the RV. Really nice man. He explained that he’d hurt his foot in the same way and understood how painful it can be. I always knew truckers were, by and large, a really friendly, helpful bunch of people, but RVing is really reinforcing that for me. Thank you anonymous trucker in the middle of Nowhere, Georgia!
By the time I got seated on the RV steps, another wave of nausea washed over me, and I got that cold, clammy feeling. I’ve never fainted in my life, but I’ve heard from those who have those are the symptoms that hit right before passing out. Fortunately, I was already sitting down, or we might have had an even bigger problem! Once that horrible feeling passed, I scooched up the stairs on my butt, turned over so that I was on my knees once I was inside the camper and then basically crawled up the steps into the bathroom and then over to the bed where I was able to pull myself up to a standing position. I managed to get in and out of the “throne room” without incident and then had to do it all over again and get back into the truck. I swore to myself that even if I had to go again, I was going to hold it until we stopped for the night. That was just too excruciating and exhausting.
Hurting my ankle has made me painfully aware of how much of a disadvantage my weight is. Hopefully not being mobile will keep me out of the kitchen and away from the snacks. Between that and the hopping, I might lose a few pounds! My decreased mobility has also made me have an even greater appreciation and respect for my friend Crystal who passed away last year. She had MD so was in a wheelchair all her life. She managed to live a very normal life despite her disability, going to school, traveling the world, taking remarkable photographs, throwing parties. How she found the energy to drag herself out of bed, into the chair, onto the toilet, and into the tub on a regular basis much less to work, school, and all over the globe is beyond me. I have the use of my legs if not one of my feet, and I still find this taking every ounce of strength I have. I always knew she was an amazing woman, but this is showing me exactly HOW amazing she was. I’m going to have a few weeks of inconvenience. She had thirty-three years of a much greater difficulty with no hope for improvement, and yet she was a light and a joy.
Well, we got back on the road, entered Alabama and drove through Montgomery and then down toward Mobile. We stopped about halfway between the two cities at Owassa Lakeside RV Park in a town called Evergreen. Well, we’re not even in the town, really. We’re just about a mile off the highway down a gravel-topped county road. We arrived after dark, so I haven’t had a good look around, but I have the feeling this is quite a peaceful, idyllic little place. Wish we had more time to investigate the area, but we’ll be out of here in the morning and back on the road to New Orleans. We didn’t bother to unhitch for the night. Lex just put the front landing gear down to get the weight off the hitch, plugged in the power, put out the slides, and fired up the A/C before she came back for me and the dogs.
The dogs are exhausted. I think this was all just as traumatic for them as it was for us. They had to sit in the truck the whole day. While I was in the doc’s office, we left the truck idle with the A/C on and the windows up, so they didn’t get heatstroke in the 90+ degree temps, but they get distressed whenever we are out of their line of sight. They were happy to see us back in the truck and are even happier to be sacked out on the sofa by me as I type this. Otis is such a good traveler. He just lies down on the truck seat and goes to sleep. Ivy never quits fidgeting, wandering back and forth, sniffing everything. And then she wanted to sleep in my lap and try to walk on my hurt foot. Oi! What a mess she is. I hope she learns to calm down and just relax when we’re on the road. Maybe Otis will rub off on her one day.
Lex has been such a trooper through all this. My injury is going to make this trip doubly tough on her. She was already the sole driver, and now she also has to do all the setting up and breaking down of the camper all by herself, too. This is no vacation for her, especially since she has to continue to work through all this. Thank you, baby, for being so wonderful and patient.
Well, it’s late, and we need to get a reasonably early start in the day. I’m going to make my way slowly over to the bathroom and then into bed. It’s been a very, very long day. I said after the sewage incident the other night that I hoped that would be the worst thing that happened all trip, but I think the broken foot has that beat. Okay, I’m really serious now. Powers That Be, please let nothing, and I mean nothing, any worse than this happen for the duration of the trip. Please.
Oh, and I do have pictures from the day, not just of my ankle, but shots from along our route, too. Will have to upload them another time.
Reading about your adventures is like reading a novel. You write so well. I hope your;re sAVING ALL THSopps. It has the making of a great read and best seller.
love,
Pa