Chantelle and I didn’t have a particularly good end to 2015. I haven’t gotten around to detailing it all in the blog yet, so I guess this is then officially the start.

Thursday 26 November 2015 marked the evening that we had invited my Mom and Dad over to have supper with us at our home. Of course, this then meant that on arrival back from work, Chantelle immediately set about cleaning the house, which translates to a lot of wiping down of surfaces and some furious mopping. (Standard procedure for whenever we’re expecting visitors mind you!)

Sadly for her sake though, she must have applied just a little too much soap to her mop water or sprayed a little too much floor cleaner beforehand, because on stepping down into the braai room to mop there, her feet slipped and she went down like a ton of bricks, landing on her back and somehow (miraculously!) not hitting the back of her head on the step in the process!

Lots of screaming, swearing and gnashing of teeth immediately let me know that something was wrong – which made sense considering that the toes on her left foot were now staring back at me whilst in the shape of a V!

close up of chantelle lotter's dislocated toe

The kids were beside themselves, so after calming them down, I organised with Jessica that we drop them over there for a bit until my folks (already on their way) could arrive to pick them up (shame, interrupting a date night with Mark in the progress), whilst Chantelle swore and managed to get hold of someone at our local pharmacy on the other line.

After a quick painful drive there, the doctor and pharmacist both took a look and concurred that it looked broken, meaning that our immediate next step was a race through to the Emergency Centre at Vergelegen Mediclinic Hospital (because of course, as with all accidents in the Lotter household, it was already after hours).

emergency centre at vergelegen mediclinic in somerset west

Naturally, Chantelle was in a heck of a lot of pain, and unfortunately it was quite the extended wait at the Emergency Centre to get her seen to.

(I twiddled my thumbs for a very, very long time, while back home, my folks ended up getting pizza for supper! This means that technically we still owe them supper one of these days…)

chantelle lotter with her bandaged foot

Anyway, luckily for Chantelle the twin x-rays showed that the toes were just dislocated as opposed to broken, and so after a super painful injection into her toes (she had insisted on the anesthetic without realizing how sore receiving it would be!), the doctor popped everything back into place and bandaged her up.

With that, our expensive and painful evening was now finally over.

chantelle lotter and her dislocated toe

Recovery was slow and sore, but thankfully the toes managed to heal up just in time such that she could still make the big, big December event – which was of course her being bridesmaid to best friend Retha’s big Stellenbosch wedding!

chantelle lotter at retha and miguel's wedding

(Which sadly I didn’t get to attend, the sorry story around that still to follow…)

Related Link: Vergelegen Mediclinic