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Using your own two feet is something everyone takes for granted that is until you can’t. I found this out after falling off a horse and breaking my foot. I was advised to lay on my back with my foot higher than my heart for 4 to 6 weeks……very funny! I mean I have a business and children; I can’t lay down for one day or even one hour! I was so bored I had someone drive me to the store and sat in a wheelchair so I could get around. It was a motorized chair and at first it was fun however I found that many of the stores aisles were blocked by boxes and then most of the items I wanted were up so high on the shelves that I couldn’t reach them.

Do you know that the two malls I visited all had wheel -chairs in the center of them? If you are capable of walking to the center of a mall do you really think you need one? What were they thinking when they designed these places? I also found the handicapped stalls in the bathrooms were the last ones in the bathrooms…duhhh.

Bored out of my mind I started to post comments on Facebook. One of my FB buddies asked if I would like to borrow her crutches. I jumped at the generous offer, by this point the kids were absolutely sick of getting things for me and I thought maybe I could start to help myself. I got the crutches and the house was empty so I thought I would get up from the couch to make my lunch.

The kitchen seemed as far away as the Amazon but I made it, I hopped from one counter to the other. I poured a cup of tea and had my sandwich and tea ready to take back to the couch but how do you carry things when using crutches??? I put my tea in a travel mug and hopped over to the coffee table; I hopped back to the kitchen for my sandwich and hopped back to the couch. I almost made it when my plate slipped though my fingers and smashed onto the ground. There went all that hard work to make my own lunch and be self-sufficient.

Although the crutches helped a little they made my arms hurt and I lost my balance and found myself going backwards! The thought of going up or down stairs on them was more daunting than the thought of sky diving. I think they should make the use of crutches into an Extreme Sport. I did find some helpful home made movies on YouTube that showed how to use crutches correctly but when I put this into practice I found that these people must be injured Cirque de Soleil actors.

This view of life has made me far more aware of what others go through; I will never take standing on my own two feet for granted ever again!

One day after writing this the earthquake hit Haiti. My foot problems seemed ridiculous to even mention in comparison. I wondered how these poor people that had terrible injuries and crushed limbs would do out there and who would be able to help them when there was such devastation. It’s a small world as it turns out that the doctor’s office treating my foot sent a team of surgeons to Haiti.

A medical team from The Orthopaedic Institute consisting of two orthopaedic surgeons (Stephen Waters, M.D. & Amanda Maxey, M.D.), one plastic surgeon (Jason Rosenberg, M.D.) and one surgical tech (Dale McDilda, S.T.) left January 20th for Haiti with the logistical assistance of Attorney General Bill McCollum, United States Senators Bill Nelson & George LeMieux. Further, the University of Florida Foundation generously donated a plane allowing the medical team to make the connecting chartered flight to Haiti.

The goal of this mission is to provide medical support to the injured people in the area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti after the devastating earthquake on January 12, 2010. After arriving in Haiti, safety became an issue and the team traveled to Jimani, Dominican Republic. They have been treating patients transferred there from Port-au-Prince in a make-shift hospital.
Dr. Rosenberg sent the following info this afternoon. “We have operated on several people this morning from children 9 months old to adults. The injuries included: head lacerations, foot crush injury, upper extremity, skin grafts, hand crush injury - - gotta get back to the OR.”
Dr. Maxey is humbled and states “the ability to use our surgical skills to help relieve the suffering of the injured is a great privilege and this is an excellent opportunity to give back to those in dire need.”

To get up to date information on the medical team’s experiences in Haiti please visit www.twitter.com/toihealth or www.facebook.com/toihealth.

The Orthopaedic Institute plans to donate $1 per Twitter follower up to 5,000 to the American Red Cross for the relief efforts in Haiti.