The day I broke my leg - Part I
Okay so I havent written in a really long time. But on 2/17 at approximately 8:00am I had a life changing event. Not the good kind. Here is the story, I will flesh it out more over the next couple of days/weeks/months but here is the overview:

2/17 - Woke up. Bassi and I got the kids ready, fed them got them dressed. Yaakov (3) was going to school and Binny (15 months) was going to his babysitters house. As per our usual I was going to take Yaakov and Bassi was going to take Binny. We left the house at 7:30. It was cold but it was supposed to warm up as the day progressed. I noticed that I needed gas. Pulled into a station and filled up. At the station I noticed that the Megamillions jackpot was up to 70 Million. I didn't want to get out at the gas station to get a ticket because I had Yaakov with me. I dropped Yaakov off at school. It was about 7:45. I was running a little early so I decided to stop at the convenience store near work to get lottery tickets. I got out of my car and closed the door. I took one step slipped on the ice and heard a VERY loud snap. My leg collapsed under me. I screamed. I started pounding the ground and screaming for help. I had no idea how bad my leg was but I was sure that it was broken. I could not move at all. I began to shake violently, probably from going into shock. Four or five people can running over. One of them slipped on the ice herself. She was okay. They gave me something to put under my head. They tried to cover me with a blanket to keep me warm. Someone called 911. I dont know how long it was but the cops showed up and began asking several questions. They wanted to know if I had injured anything other than the leg. I said that I thought it was only my leg. I tried to move my right leg (the injured one) on top of the left leg for support. I have never felt such pain in my life. The leg burned and ached at the same time. I felt like the leg was pointing to the right but when I looked at it it was pointing left. I began humming to get my mind off the pain. Shortly Franklin Lakes EMTs arrived. They wanted to stabilize the leg. One EMT told me that there was an obvious fracture. The first thing they tried to do was to put an aircast on the leg. The pressure from the aircast caused me to scream out in pain. Then they tried to put some pillows around it. I screamed some more. Eventually they got me onto the stretcher and into the ambulance. The EMTs wanted to know what hospital wanted to go to. I told them that Holy Name was closest to me house. They took one look at my leg and said no way. I needed a hospital with a good trauma center. They decided on Hackensack. There was apparently a tremendous amount of traffic on route 208 due to rush hour. So the ambulance driver had to use the shoulder. That was very bumpy, and my leg was not stable because it was too painful. Eventually we got to the ER. This was the first time I really got to look at the leg. My knee was pointing to the right but the foot was pointing to the left. Not pleasant. The time was approximately 8:30am. The EMTs told me that they would call Bassi at work and have her meet me here. They said that I needed an advocate and they were right. Bassi got to the hospital at 9:00am and stayed by my side. It took them another hour before they even triaged me. All this time I am sitting on a hospital stretcher in the middle of the hall in the ER. Anytime someone passes me they take one look at my leg and go (ugh). One 6 year old kid passed by and I thought he was going to puke after looking at my foot. About 10:00 (2 hours after breaking my leg) they finally give me a shot of morphine. This does nothing to kill the pain but it does make me calm down a little bit. The doctor come by and give me another shot of morphine. Still no help. The hospital starts an IV line. The doctor give me a shot of something that starts with an L. I can remember the name. That helped a little. Eventually they got me into X-Ray. I would find out later that the leg was broken in two places. My Tibia and my Fibula were fractured all the way through. The bones had swivelled around inside the leg. My only option would be surgery, more on that in the next post.