What is worse than an autoimmune disease of the liver? Spraining your foot!

Thankfully, it was a mild sprain. I was not at home when it happened. Still, two things rapidly crossed my mind - one, my adopted mother’s life came to a crashing halt after a fall. Two, the sprain was to my right foot. I was not at home. My adult son Erick was with me, but he doesn’t drive. His first question was could I drive with my left leg? So I explained that does not work, and when seated in the car, showed him how awkward it is to put one’s left leg around one’s right leg to reach the gas pedal. Thankfully, I was able to drive with the sprained foot. When we came home, my hero oldest son brought me ice, made dinner, fetched my first aid kit, and made me a makeshift binding for my foot, since there was no ace bandage in the first aid kit.

Once my foot was numb from the ice, I gave it a good look. It was pretty swollen, but below my ankle and to the side. There was some light bruising. Bruising is tricky when your natural skin tone is not pale. But the bruise color was more bluish than black. I rested and iced my foot that evening. In the morning I was able to drive Erick to an appointment. That was all. The rest of the day I had to rest the foot. Here is where the autoimmune disease was almost helpful - it comes with fatigue. So I was inclined to rest anyway. The only difference was I needed to elevate the foot.

By day three, I was able to walk fairly normally with minimal pain. I felt very thankful.

I do not recommend trying this yourself. I have a good chunk of knowledge that helped me, and my sons both helped me with things so I could rest my foot. But generally I would recommend getting medical attention.

I was doubly glad I am not working at my day job for the summer. That would have made things more difficult.

I have lived without a car before, but I was very, very glad I could drive. Still, I quickly made contingency plans for what to do if I couldn’t. Our summer has been fun so far, but peppered with multiple doctor’s appointments and other obligations that would have needed to be rescheduled or canceled. This is where single parenting can be difficult, and I am so thankful for having my older son around to back me up.