17 July 2006

The sprain in Maine

I am home from work today.

Why? Because I sprained my right ankle on Saturday.

I was invited to go sailing aboard a 35' Baba with my close friends and neighbors. We were going out for 12+ hours and hoped, with the right wind to get out to where we were likely to see whales.

The wind was not right to sail to the most likely place to see whales. So, we sailed and motored over to Cranberry Isles, an island town comprised of several islands. On the way, we did see a Minke whale. We got off on Baker Island to the southeast of Mount Desert Island.


This is a shot of The Baker Island Light Station. It marks the southwestern entrance to Frenchman Bay. The 43' high brick lighthouse (105 foot high focal plane) is located on the eastern coast and was built per order of then President, Quincy Adams to warn mariners of the treacherous shoals around the Cranberry Islands and the sand bar that connects it with Little Cranberry Island.


The Baker Island “Dance Floor,” is gorgeous, pink granite slab surrounded by piles of huge granite chunks. This is LBE. She is not resting. She is doing a private Pas de Deus with the granite. It was lovely to watch. She rolled and twisted and hung cantilevered and did a slow dance with the slow moving rocks.

After an hour or so, each of us taking time to ourselves to dance, nap, read, we walked back to where we tied up the tender. Within 100' of the shore as I was walking, talking about Northern Cardinals with Marco, I turned my ankle in a wagon wheel rut and ouch!

I sat down immediately. After a few moments of rest and using Marco as a crutch, I hobbled back to the tender. Getting out of the tender without tipping, up the convex side of the boat, (known for its high water line) over the gunwale and in was not easy.

But friends LBE and SBE helped and encouraged. LBE got an icepack from the cooler, and after rubbing a healthy dose of Arnica (an anti-inflammatory, pain reliever and a local antibiotic, that is used for dislocations, sprains, bruises, chilblains, and varicose ulcers. It helps to prevent bruising and swelling after traumatic injuries and prevents bruising at the site of injury.) gel on the sprain, wrapped my ankle with an ace bandage to hold the ice pack in place. I was able to recline on the bench with my leg up on the side deck and my foot elevated on the gunwale.


Always prepared, LBE had Rescue Remedy on board. Rescue Remedy is a combination of Bach Flower Essences (Star of Bethlehem: trauma and shock; Clematis: the tendency to faint and unconsciousness, being ‘far away’ and not present mentally; Cherry Plum: fear of mind giving way, verge of breakdown; Impatiens: irritability and tension; Rock Rose: terror and panic) that is beneficial when one finds oneself in traumatic situations, such as stress, emergencies, after getting bad news, before an exam or job interview and all other kind of situations where one may suddenly loose emotional balance. The Essences help to quickly get us back in balance so that we may calmly cope better with a situation.) I took several drops in my drinking water.

We did all the right things soon after the injury. So. I’m in pretty good shape but I knew that being in our new office with its flight of stairs would not be a good idea for me today. I’m home trying to keep my foot elevated and resting.

4 comments:

Lee Hartsfeld said...

Crimson,

Dang--I was going to ask you to listen to my latest "Stairway" (Stairway to Calliope), but considering your injury....

Hope you recover soon. I've never sprained an ankle (knock on wood) or broken a bone in my life. Of course, now that I've officially noted same, watch out.


Lee

leslie joan linder said...

Sounds like you had some fun - but it was hard to pick the right course of action for the weekend. Oh, well. At least you saw a whale. Hope your ankle feels better. PS: would you like me to put your blog on my local artists links? Edie and Gwen and in there. I didn't know if you wanted a listing, but I'm so proud of you for this beautiful blog that I would love to link it. :) See you soon and keep your chin/leg up, LJL ;)

Gwen said...

Sorry to hear about your ankle! It sounds like you had a great time up until then! Hopefully it should heal soon!

Gwen

CrimsonCrow said...

gwen,

Thanks for dropping by.

I am working on healing by staying off it, doing range of motion exercises and putting ice on it.