My Fractured Ankle story. The Beginning: Part 1 of 3

“Hopefully my story can ease and help someone else who may be going through this.”~Mario

Rise From the Fall

It has been a few years since it happened. January 17, 2023 to be exact. It was one of the most impactful days of my entire life. I never thought of anything like this could happen to me, but it did and I wasn’t ready. There I laid on the sports field sitting on my ass trying to stand up but I couldn’t. Confused as to what was going on. SO, what the hell did happen? I fractured my ankle in a very bad way. 

Up until this point I had been a healthy athletic adult male who loves sports and picking up physical objects. I liked playing sports, I loved jogging - jumping over stuff, I liked lifting weights, I like lifting up all the grocery bags at one shot and bringing them. I like doing physical things like that. I was very good physically. 

So how did it happen? 

Well you see, it was a normal day at work. Weather was fine; just a normal day. I was the PE teacher and I loved playing with my alumnus. I believe a teacher needs to be able to do what he teaches, so I was a hands on educator. On this particular day, we were playing softball. Even though I love playing most sports, my favorite sport to play is baseball and kickball. Back to the game; The game had started not long before. There I was, standing on first base waiting my turn to make a run to second base. We were a few runs in so I was not the first batter. When we played softball, I had a rule: "no stealing base." I did this mainly because we were a training facility. Some of the minors never even heard of baseball. so for me to simplify my teachings to them, I set up that rule; it's easier for them to understand that it's a turn based sport and not an all out (as I would have said it "al garete" sport) which would translate to out of control in Puerto Rican. 

So I had to wait for the next player to hit the ball in order for me to run to second base. After the player hit a nice ball, I bolted to second base as fast as I could have—full force. On second base stood one of my alumnus. This player somehow already had the ball in his hand ready for me to tag me out. I made a leap over him in an attempt to get to second base and make him miss me. I did clear him and I did make it to second base safe. But when I landed, I must have landed wrong because I heard a pop and I fell on my ass. I thought.” oh shit my boot broke.” When I went to pick my right leg up, I saw that my foot was dangling. I thought “ what the fuck!” At this point, I thought maybe I had dislocated my ankle and it will get fixed on its own. After a few failed attempts to stand up, I knew I was fuck!

Paramedics were called and I was rushed to the hospital. 

On my next post, pertaining to my accident, I will talk about the operation, recovery, things I had to adapt to and overall my experience with the process.