Sometimes you just don't have a leg to stand on

Around this time two years ago I was thrown a curve-ball that drastically affected my entire life.

I was dancing in the studio in my basement, like I do almost everyday when I'm home, so it was absolutely a normal day. I even remember what I was dancing to: Oculus Ex Inferni by Symphony X. I went to do a double attitude jump and as I was coming back down to land it I caught all of my weight on the side of my foot.

Note the sexy blue boot. 

This was the first in a series of injuries that gradually screwed up my ankle for good. I was out of dance for about two months and quite frankly I probably should have been out for longer, but I am stupid, so the first second it didn't absolutely kill to relevé I was dancing again. 

I am an idiot. 

Because of that decision I was back doing risky jumps and turns way before I should have. After I had been dancing again for only a few months in March when I supinated my same ankle while walking. At first I thought I had broken my ankle because I heard a super loud cracking sound, but I later learned that ligaments tend to make a loud cracking noise when they tear apart.

That particular injury took a couple of months to heal. For a while I wasn't even sure if I would be able to attend the dance intensive at Ballet Chicago  that summer that I had auditioned into. Luckily I felt strong enough several weeks before the 5 week long intensive started and decided to go. (That's how I initially found out about Columbia!) When I came back at the end of the summer I felt stronger than I'd been in months and I was excited to start my junior year.

However, it was apparently inevitable that I would get injured again. That December I was at a show for my best friend's band in Columbus when I was knocked over in a mosh pit. Again I supinated my bad ankle, but rather than get trampled my the mosh pit, I jumped right back up. I could tell I'd hurt my ankle again, but the combination of adrenaline and my heightened pain tolerance made me assume that it wasn't too bad. I initially ignored the pain and went to my dance classes like usual. I was also trying to make up for my previous absences from when I'd been injured before and so I was taking up to 2 1/2 hours of modern, 3 hours of tap, 2 hours of jazz, and 8 to 10 hours of ballet per week. This was all at the same time that rehearsals for the spring musical - Thoroughly Modern Millie - were starting, for which I was Dance Captain, and playing the parts of Alice, and the understudy for Millie.

The pain kept up so I went back to my ankle specialist who promptly informed me that I would need an MRI, and probably surgery. I was crushed. I had to worry about finishing the musical, then there was the BV choir's trip to New York City, and finally I had been accepted to the Jordan Academy of Dance's summer ballet intensive. The timing was so completely NOT conducive to having surgery.

My MRI indicated that my anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL) was stretched by my injuries to the point where it no longer offered me any stability. So I was scheduled to have surgery on April Fool's Day of 2010. The surgery (called a "modified brostrom" surgery) required three small Xs to be cut in separate parts of my ankle to scope the area, then a larger incision be made on my ankle bone. Then my ATFL would be cut in half and overlapped - both for extra stability and to shorten the ligament. When I woke up from my surgery my ankle specialist/surgeon informed me that my ATFL had actually been detached from my tibia, so they had to take the extra step of reattaching it first. So. Much. Fun. But when I got home from my surgery my bestie Knox came over with chocolate ice cream and wafer cookies and we watched UP and Gilmore Girls.

Rockefeller Center!

A week later Visions, Baronettes and Symphonic choir were supposed to leave for New York City. There was no way I was going to miss this trip, so despite my choir director's underhanded attempts to get me to stay home, I went and I had a fabulous time! I got to see The Addams Family Musical which has become one of my all-time favorite Broadway musicals. I got to see Billy Elliot, and even though I didn't get to dance in the choreography workshop with cast members of Billy Elliot, they signed my bright green cast! I also "crutched" the entire span of the Brooklyn Bridge!

 

At Thespian inductions in my boot.

Even after I had my surgery I was an idiot. Why? Well, the day I got my cast off and my boot on was the day of show choir auditions. Additionally, I wanted to audition to be Dance Captain, which meant that I had to choreograph 8 eight-counts and teach it to the group in 10 minutes. So I went to the doctor's during school on the day of auditions and got my cast off. My doctor told me not to walk on my leg and to keep using my crutches until I was completely pain free. I crutched out of the doctor's office, threw my crutches in the back of the car, went back to school and did my whole audition on my boot. Not the smartest move I've ever made, but also not the worst -- I got Dance Captain.

After 6 months away from dance, tons of physical therapy, and a switch in dance studios I was back dancing and happier than ever. I've rolled my ankle a couple of times since but never badly, and now I'm always very careful to ice and rest it immediately and for several days after just to be sure.