My Sister Is a Bad Ass

Did you guys know that my sister is such a bad ass.  3 months ago, while training for a triathlon, she took a nasty spill on her bike.  Nasty nasty.

Check out the initial xray.

You don't have to be a radiologist to see its really bad.  Freaky bad.

You won't believe, me, but...it got so much worse.

I don't remember the order of events...but after the break, they zipped her to a trauma center and they did something to stabilize it...but then something went wrong...and then she had this crazy thing called compartment syndrome.  (Did you see how I made that a link?  I dare you to click on it.  Its gnarly.)

Although its rare, maybe you heard of compartment syndrome..because around the same time that my bad ass sister got it, some famous dude also got it.  That guy had to have his arm cut off.  For reals.  Compartment syndrome is no joke.

Fortunately, my sis got to keep her leg, barely.  But it has been a crazy hard 3 months, and she still has a long road ahead.   Only this week did she finally get to start putting a bit of weight onto her leg.  Same girl that has 3 kids and runs marathons...she has been unable to use her leg for months.  Not cool.

Do you know what the treatment is for compartment syndrome?  Its called a fasciotomy.  (Only click on that link if you want to throw up in your mouth a little bit).  My bad ass sister had to do that.  And there were blood transfusions involved, and lots of other scary details.

Super Birdie dropped everything and zoomed down to help for a month.

Useless sister (me) went to Switzerland for 2 weeks, checking in by phone between runs and hot tubbing.  We swapped a few leggie selfies...it felt a little wrong but sisters do shit like that.

My sis spent weeks and weeks in the hospital.  When she rolled home she did it like a super diva, looking fab, wrapped in leopard in the back seat, with "HOME" on her shirt and fist deep in a bag of snickers bars.  I love this photo.

This has all been a major bummer (duh) for my sis.  She has stayed positive throughout, the way she does.  The cherry on top of the compartment syndrome sundae was that that my sis and mom had to bail out on our big plan to celebrate sis's 40th in Paris.

Ironic detail I just can't ignore: her "after" X-ray sure looks exactly like the eiffel tower.  Its like she got the worst possible souvenir and didn't even get to go on the trip.

Big sis has always had fab legs, check 'em out.  They'll be fab again soon.   Sorry about posting this photo LL, but it was either this or the yellow bikini shot...I kept it sweet...

She may not run more marathons, but she is an amazing swimmer and she is eager to dive back into the pool.  She is back at work, she is glad to have her leg and she is a model student in physical therapy and positive attituding.

LL - you are one tough girl.  Can't wait to celebrate your birthday...somewhere fabulous, when you are ready!  xoxo