Helpful advice

I recommend to everyone not to break their ankle.

Having ice skated and played ice hockey for about 20 years and never doing any damage to myself, I assumed that, those being reasonably dangerous activities, I was relatively bulletproof.

Not so.

Little did I realise that indoor netball is a vicious and violent game and it would be my undoing. Because I wanted to find a game that MrFiji and I could play together (with others, of course) and there are indoor netball courts reasonably nearby, I booked our team in to the competition in November last year.

Thirty seconds into game six I leapt to skillfully intercept an opposition team pass - and surprised everyone by catching the ball mid-air. And then I landed and heard a crunch.

Initially the sound, and then the pain of a broken ankle is something special. It hurt too much to cry, and as I had crumpled to the ground in a whimpering heap, other people noticed that something had happened and gathered around. I sat there growling at people not to touch me and trying not to puke. Eventually, as the game needed to continue, I hobbled off the court and sat in the bleachers with the netball centres supply of ice cubes (3 of them) inside a sock, trying to stop it hurting.

MrFiji, being the caring chap that he is, finished playing the game (we lost)before driving me to the hospital where they confirmed that I'd broken a chunk off my left talar dome. And so, six weeks of casts ensued.

This last Christmas and new year has been the quietest, most boring one in history.

And now Im being rehabilitated. Physiotherapy twice a week, which consists of the PhysioChick moving my ankle around until i shout, and then massaging my calf muscle until Im holding back the tears. All for my own good. And my ankle will apparently be normal again in about three more months. Hooray. At least I can climb stairs now.

All in all, a time consuming, painful, somewhat itchy and very annoying experience.
Just, Dont do it!