I am a 24 yr old girl working in a MNC. My daily routine is so tiresome. I work in night shifts and it gets very tedious. Daily I face a very hectic time. I go to home around 6:00 am and sleep for only four hours. After a hurried breakfast, I go to college as I am doing my masters as well. My parents cannot pay for my further studies, so I have to support myself. I sometimes envy others who are doing well in their life. At times I want to get out of all this and go on a long holiday. I am considered as a very active personality who manages to work and as well as study that too with dedication. I wanted a change badly, but never ever I dreamt that my life was going to change so much….. It all started when I was excited to wear my high heeled sandals to work, which I had bought the previous day. I loved wearing high heels. So I got dressed and put on my new heels and was looking myself in the mirror and admiring myself when suddenly I realized that I was running late for my job. I started hurrying down the stairs, when I missed a step and lost my balance. I could literally feel my ankle twisting beneath me…it was so so excruciatingly painful that I almost passed out with pain. At that moment, I was seeing stars in front of my eyes, the pain was so horrible. I never thought that my fetish for wearing heels could cause me such as big problem and a very painful one at that. To add to my woes, there was no one at my home. It was so difficult and painful to move my foot and it was impossible for me to move, as impossible as asking a handicapped person to get up from a wheelchair and walk. This was like a nightmare come true for me. I struggled a lot to move and forced myself to move from that place and call for help.
Slowly I managed to crawl on the floor to reach for my phone and called my neighbor. He came and with his help, I was rushed to a hospital. There the doctor touched my ankle to examine and I screamed with pain. The pain was so horrible, that I did not let the doc examine my ankle. I kept telling myself that “I should be strong now and make myself strong enough to bear this pain, this pain will not last for long, I should cooperate with the doctor and get myself out of here and everything will be fine and I will get back to normal.” He asked me how did it happen???… I related my agony of how I was rushing down the stairs as I was late for my work and I tripped (because of high heels??) And fell…. I finally let the doc do his examination, after which he said, “You have got a 2nd degree sprain in ankle, which is due to muscle contractions and you need to have bed rest for 3 weeks.” This made me feel so depressed. It was beyond my imagination to stay at one place for 3 weeks, but I didn’t have any other option. My ankle was put in a splint.
The initial days of my recovery process were just horrible. I used to be awake till the wee hours of morning because of severe pain in my ankle. The meds were not working for my pain and the doc gave me a stronger dose of medicines. I never thought that my life could take such a horrible turn. I missed my classes and I missed my work as well. I was feeling like I was handicapped. I was just bugged up sitting at one place in my room, all the time listening to the sound of clock, tick-tock- tick-tock. I was feeling very irritated and depressed as well. I was just counting days to pass so that I could get back to my daily routine, but the time was going very slowly. Money was also a big concern to me, as I was not working and I had to support myself and I was missing my college too.
Finally three weeks passed. My ankle started to heal and I was doing some physiotherapy too. I started taking baby steps and tried to walk. Each step I took felt like a “Silver Lining in a Dark Cloud.” However, I was unable to balance myself properly. So the doctor advised me to take bed rest for more 2 weeks for complete healing. This made me more depressed. I felt like the sun had set and there is darkness everywhere. My mom had come to stay with me to help me out. She was very worried about me. I had reached the heights of depression and had become very lethargic. I missed my daily activities, job, friends and classes. It was very hard to believe that such an active person like me has become so lethargic. I had to keep my leg elevated for some periods of time to decrease the swelling. I didn’t like that, but it was a part of the treatment. Later, after 2 weeks I was able to walk somewhat better, but my ankle was still not perfect. However, I tried to keep myself positive by saying “Something is better than nothing.” The Doctor advised me to be careful with my ankle and to avoid putting excessive weight on it. And after my recovery, the doc also advised me to avoid wearing high heels; if I do then I need to be very careful and not rush about like a mad person when wearing high heels. However, since that day I have sworn off wearing heels and am now wearing just flats. Ever since my accident, if I see someone wearing high heels, I advise them like some elderly person to be very careful with their each step.
As I started recovering, I tried to get my life back to the normal track. I started going for work as well as to college for my studies. It was like everything was new to me, like I am coming out of hell with a new chapter in my life.
Those days were really horrible and very much painful for me that I could never forget. Anyways, I am not active like before, but I am trying to do my best to bring my old self back. It feels really great to get back to the normal routine of my life. Before my accident, I had thought of getting away from all these things (work and studies) and was fed up of my hectic life, but some weeks of complete inactivity made my see my life in the right perspective and made me appreciate what I have. Now I am loving my life more than before albeit becoming a bit wary of high heels…. now I have started loving my daily routine more than before. As someone says, “Who has never tasted bitter, knows not what is sweet.” This episode has taught me a lesson… to be thankful to God for whatever I have in my life and not envy others. I feel better with each passing day and the dark cloud of depression has also lifted.