Ring. Ring. (okay my phone really doesn’t make a ringing sound, but whatever)
Me: Hello?
Dad: Did I wake you up?
*no but it is only 6:45am so I haven’t spoken to anyone yet, the voice is a little scratchy
Me: No
*a little concerned that my dad is calling me so early in the morning.
Dad: Your mom and I are in the ER with Sam (my middle brother).
Me: WHAT?!
Dad: He crashed his bike and broke his ankle.
I head to the ER to see the damage. Apparently Sam misjudged a curb and crashed his bike and ended up dislocating his ankle and breaking it in two places. The dislocation and breakage also were cutting off a major blood supply to his foot.
Some back story: Sam is chef at a local higher end restaurant. He is an amazing cook and can create dishes from almost anything. I on the other hand can microwave the hell out of a frozen dinner. He works late, usually getting done with work after midnight. He also likes to ride his bike to and from work (he’s kind of hippie like that and also likes the exercise).
The night of the incident Sam and a co-worker were celebrating Sam’s promotion to sauté chef. They had a couple beers at the restaurant and then they decided to head to one of the bars in the area for another drink or two. At the bar Sam and companion have another drink and decide to hit up one last bar before last call. Now I also want to mention that Sam was not wasted, he had had about 4 drinks in the span of several hours, but he was feeling good. Between the first bar and the second is when the accident occurred.
He was riding his bike in the street and wanted to move onto the sidewalk. There was a driveway up ahead and Sam attempted to move onto the sidewalk there. He isn’t sure if there was a bigger lip in the driveway or what exactly happened, but somehow his bike didn’t make it and Sam and bike went boom. And Sam’s ankle went crack! This was a little before 3 am.
When I arrived at the ER Sam was one some serious pain killers and was feeling pretty good. He was cracking jokes and talking about how the whole family should go get Thai food that night. He kept asking for water because his mouth was like the Sahara (a little alcohol dehydration and lot of pain killer cotton mouth). Once it was determined that he would not have surgery on his ankle that day he was allowed some water. When his water was empty he attempted to slyly swipe our mom’s coffee, she just laughed at him because her coffee is just coffee and cream, no sugar. Sam likes his coffee sweet, his expression was hilarious.
My other brother Alex had come to see Sam around 5am and I guess when he got there he looks at Sam’s ankles and says, “Which one did you break? They are both pretty fat.” Sam’s broken ankle was the size of a grapefruit. See how my family is…
Of course when I got there I started taking pictures! And you’re welcome.
They were splinting his leg to take him for more scans
*when they were rolling him back to the room after his scans he stuck his hand out to get high fives from all the nurses at the nurses station. A couple of the nurses left him hanging, but it was funny!
He really enjoyed me taking photos
Chatting on the phone with his wife, while wearing our dad’s hat he swiped a few minutes before.
His ankle is going to require surgery so they can stabilize it with steel plates and screws. He is in a lot agony now that the hospital pain killer has worn off, but the Percocet is helping a little. He meets with the surgeon today to schedule the surgery. We are all hoping Sam won’t be laid up too long because, well, his job requires him to be on his feet.
Please send good thoughts for his speedy recovery!
