On Saturday, May 7, my mom asked me to go to the park with her. She said she’d walk two of our dogs while I used my long board, and it was a beautiful day for it.

I had just passed my road test the day before and was anxiously waiting for Monday to come, so I could get my license at the Secretary of State. Of course, I drove us to the park.

We parked at the Davison Area Dog Park and planned to walk the paths to Jack N. Abernathy Regional Park and back.

We were about a quarter mile from the park when I wiped out.

I tried to catch myself with my legs as to not do any damage to my wrists because of my guitar playing. As I put my leg back, I kept falling and took a pretty bad fall.

My mom was instantly by my side and asked me to stand, thinking I was just overreacting because I have an extremely low pain tolerance. But I told her I couldn’t feel or move my foot.

I had high-top Converse shoes on, but even through my shoe you could see the awkward angle of my ankle. Mom told me to leave the shoe on so it didn’t swell up.

She called my grandma to come help us because we were about two or three miles from the car, and we had our two dogs with us.

I sat on my board and scooted as far as I could to the road. When my grandma came, we piled in and went to our car to drop off Mom and the dogs. Grams drove me to the hospital, and Mom met us there.

I laid in the back of the car and Grams had me prop me foot up. She said it didn’t look good. Grams used to be a nurse and has seen plenty of broken bones in her lifetime.

The ride to the hospital was extremely painful, and I seemed to feel every bump in the road.

I was crying, sweating, and gasping to keep a steady breath. It was really scary.

At the hospital, the doctors and nurses kept asking me what happened, of course, and I felt like an idiot telling them I slipped while skateboarding. Clumsy people should not go skateboarding … no matter how cool you think it is.

When they got my shoe off at the emergency room, my ankle was swollen, bruised, and definitely not going the way it was supposed to.

After getting a room, I was given an IV and I had X-Rays taken. The news was not good.

I fractured and dislocated my ankle, and it would not heal without surgery.

The doctors gave me anesthesia and set my ankle.

My ankle sort of looks like it has a cast but the cast is not big and hard. The purpose was to keep my ankle still while the swelling goes down.

Related Story

Having an injury is a major setback, especially with school

My next step is to see a surgeon to figure out what is going to happen next.

It’s going to be a long road to recovery.

But I have a ton of people helping and supporting me, and I can’t thank them enough.

Jenna Robinson is an editor for The Eclipse. She is writing a series that will follow her path from the ER to recovery. This is Part 1. Stay tuned.