Breaking my foot and being forced to slow down

So guys, I broke my foot.

I briefly mentioned it in last weekend’s little life recap, and I have received so many “what happened?!” texts and questions that I figured I’d post a little update.

I’m honestly a little embarrassed because I don’t even have a cool story. I was at my parents’ rushing to get ready for my college roommate Caitlin‘s bridal shower on a Saturday morning when I ran into the leg of a couch, dropped several f-bombs and looked down to find my pinky toe jutting out to the side.

I’ll spare you the photos.

All plans for the day were canceled (sorry Caitlin) and my dad drove me to the ER to get my poor little toe X-rayed, numbed, re-aligned, X-rayed again and splinted.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTeqlTzg-7y/

I spent the next week hobbling around Chicago on crutches with my swollen and bruised foot in a little black flat-soled foam shoe. I swear, it didn’t stop raining for a second of that week. It was miserable. My stupid shoe was soggy and wet. You can’t hold an umbrella when you’re on crutches.

After five or so days on crutches, I went to my follow-up appointment with a podiatrist here in Chicago. I was pretty nervous, because the initial set of X-rays I had done in the ER prompted the nurse to let me know there was a decent chance I’d need a surgically-placed pin put into my toe to realign the bone for healing. So, it was a huge relief when the podiatrist said the original realignment done in the ER was sufficient. However (seriously there’s always a catch), as it turns out, I’d actually broken two bones. I snapped the phalange of my little toe clean in half (the top circle on the above X-ray) and fractured my metatarsal (a little harder to see, but it’s the small line in the bottom circle on the above X-ray).

Treatment plan: Eight weeks in the black foam shoe.

I mean, it could be worse. It’s May, so I don’t have to worry about walking through snow and ice. And, it’s just one foot this time.

(Yunno, in case you guys forgot about that one time I broke both of my feet at the same time.)

I’m kind of trying to take this in stride (hah!) and use it as a reminder to step back (hah! OK, I’m done), slow down and prioritize what’s important.

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in getting from A to B/ A to Z/ whatever, that I forget to slow down and take time to enjoy life. Lately, I’ve kind of been treating life as one giant checklist. I’m forgoing genuine bliss in everyday moments in favor of running down one long to do list. I can’t be the only one who does this, right?

So, I’m trying to look on the bright side. I have an excuse to slow down for a bit and focus on my health and well-being. That doesn’t happen often. I’m the kind of person who always says “yes” to everything, so now I get to be a little selfish and say “no” for a bit while I try to recover.

How do you slow down when life gets chaotic? How do you force yourself to be more patient? If you have tips, leave them in the comments! I could definitely use them over the next coming weeks!