New and Old Bruises

My foot.

Recently I was making dinner when Aubrey brought a chair up behind me and jumped onto my back.  I was rushing around the kitchen, so I asked her to hop down so that we could get ready to sit up and eat.  She got down but as I was moving away she tried to jump back onto my back again.  I caught her before she fell but in the commotion the chair got knocked over and landed on my foot with a "SLAM!"

OoooWhee!  It hurt.  A.  Lot.  I scrunched my eyes firmly shut.  I pushed the breath out of my mouth and pulled it back in through my nose deliberately, tyring to control the pain by controlling my breathing. 

Ethan was upstairs in his room and heard the noise.  "Mom!  Are you okay!?" he hollered down the stairs (sweet boy).  I couldn't answer right away because I was gritting my teeth to keep from saying something I would regret.  "MOM!  ARE YOU OKAY!?" this time he sounded a little panicked.  "I'm alright," I managed weakly. 

I sat on the kitchen floor and gingerly peeled my sock off.  I was surprised by what I saw; nothing.  There was a little skin that was peeling off of my skinny second toe where the chair had hit the hardest, but that was it.  "Big baby," I accused myself harshly as I pulled my sock back on.  Clearly, I'd made a bigger deal of my injuries than necessary. 

As I got my pajamas on later that night,  I sat on the edge of the bed to reexamine my foot.  The change was impressive.  Purple in every shade ranging from purplish-pink to purplish-brown had creeped across two of my toes.  I felt a strange feeling of justification.  "See?  That did hurt," I told myself.

When I showed my foot to Kedar he reminded me of another bruise that I had over eleven years ago.

After Kedar asked me to marry him we went to get some pictures taken for our wedding announcements.  The family friend who was taking our pictures took us to a beautiful location with streams and gardens and wooden arches.  At one point we came to a big hill with a long cement staircase to the bottom.  Kedar challenged me to race down the hill.  Not one to back down from a challenge I, of course, accepted. 

We both got a good start.  We were taking the stairs one at a time in small, quick strides.  As we reached the halfway point the competition intensified and we started skipping steps.  I took a bad step and lost my footing.  My ankle twisted painfully and I heard a sharp "CRACK!"

This picture was taken two thirds of the way down our racing hill.  If you look carefully you can see that I am favoring my right foot.

Kedar helped me to the bottom of the hill.  As we continued taking pictures I could feel my ankle getting more and more swollen.  By the time we were finishing up I couldn't put any weight on my foot at all, I was completely relying on the firm arm that Kedar wrapped around my waist.  At last we were heading back to the car, to get there we had to climb a steep, rocky incline.  I just couldn't do it.  Kedar ended up carrying me on his back to the car.

My ankle was twice its normal size and black and blue by the time I got home.  For a few days I couldn't get off the couch so Kedar came and helped me when ever he could.  I wore an "air cast" for a couple weeks. 

A bad picture of my ankle after I got home from the doctors after our pictures.

My mom told me later that when she watched Kedar care for me while my ankle was healing, she knew that he would make a gentle and loving husband.