The Accidental "Se" and Other Accidents

In recent light, the title for my blog has become rather ironic and needed a few clarifying words that were added to the description of my blog. Indeed, my feet-- or my ankle to be more specific--may be doing a little more wandering than it probably should.

Let me elucidate this with a little Spanish lesson.

My high school Spanish teacher jokingly explained that the Spanish do not enjoy taking responsibility for the things accidental or unplanned and have managed to fit this into their grammar. Hence, the accidental “se.”

In Spanish, you don't lose your homework. Oh no, your homework got lost... but you may have been involved. You did not crash the car. The car crashed... and you may have been involved.

Let's go with the car example. The normal English-speaking-Spanish-learning person would translate “I crashed the car” as “Choqué el carro.” But no. Why would you crash a car, perfect, wonderful you? Indeed, there is no need to conjugate the verb “chocar” for the “yo” (I) form. Instead, the accidental “se” makes it so the verb agrees with the object rather than the subject, rendering the translation as such: “Se me chocó el carro.”

This way, it appears as though the car did the crashing, not you... which is the truth, right? You were only invovled.

The point to this roundabout explanation? Se me romperion un tendón y un ligamento en el tobillo. A tendon and a ligament in my ankle broke... I may have been involved.

I have a knack for spraining/rolling my ankle. The first time was in 8th grade when I rolled it during a basketball game. Naturally, I went and hiked on it for a week in Yosemite. The subsequent years did not help: I sprained it again from skim boarding, then from going around a corner to fast, then from stepping in a pothole, then from stepping on a golf ball, and then from getting hit by a field hockey ball. Naturally, after that, I played field hockey on it for a weekend tournament.

That gives us a grand total of six sprains in six years.

After awhile, I figured that the swelling in my ankle was just scar tissue. The pain was minimal, but after the last sprain, things started to go downhill. My ankle and foot cracked all the time. I would get stiff really easily or have shooting pains up my leg. But I played hockey on my ankle and it seemed fine (if a bit more swollen), so I figured that's just how it was.

My dear mother, being the wonderful, albeit worrisome (aka mommy-ish) person that she is, made me an appointment with a foot doctor just to check and make sure everything was alright.

The doctor first looked at me like I was crazy as I re-told this story and then fiddled with my foot for a bit. His consensus was that the swelling was a ganglion cyst caused by trauma to one of the tendons that runs on the underside of my ankle-- the cyst is just a build up from fluid released during trauma to a tendon. It would be fixed by a minor surgery to drain the cyst and I would be back on my feet in a day. But just to be sure, he ordered an MRI to check for further tendon/ligament damage, because that would be a much more invasive procedure to reattach everything-- I would be looking at a 4-6 week recovery.

I convinced myself quite well that it was probably just a cyst. After all, who walks around with torn ligaments and tendons for six years without being in massive pain?

Well, apparently me.

Anyway, as it turns out, I have a pretty large cyst-- about 3 square centimeters-- and then a burst tendon on the underside of my ankle and a snapped ligament on the top of my ankle. I believe I can thank my high pain tolerance for preventing me from exploding. Thank you, genetics.

For reference, I probably destroyed by peroneus brevis tendon and my anterior talofibular ligament.

Because of the extensive recovery time required for the procedure I need, it will be postponed until next summer. That means coming straight home from Spain after finals at the end of June, going right into surgery, not being able to work at camp, probably having physical therapy, and then maybe not playing field hockey in the fall. I'm really bummed, considering I really wanted to stay in Europe and travel, having a big kid desk job sucks, and field hockey is like my second family at school.

So what does that mean while I'm in Spain? My doctor suggested good walking shoes and to be careful while walking on cobblestones. I will probably become very familiar with reading pain medicine bottles in Spanish. And I will wear an ankle brace most of the time. So, these wandering feet will do as much wandering as they can.