I broke my foot on the first of December. While I don’t recommend it, I am extremely grateful for the perspective this experience has given me. 

I’d been feeling exhausted in most areas of my life and was pretty much burnt out across all planes. I’ve been meeting with a therapist regularly who has been super helpful and in addition to therapy I wanted to go a bit more inward. I decided to sign up for a silent retreat in the mountains of Tagaytay for some solitude.

(side note: If you’ve met me in person you’re probably scratching your head because I am almost never quiet. This is the exact reason why I wanted to attend a silent retreat. FORBIDDEN DALDAL!)

When the morning came for me to become at one with myself (oooommmm) I walked outside to find a panel of our large metal gated rusted off 2/3 of the hinges and stuck in the driveway. I told the kids to stand back as my husband and I attempted to push the 200lb panel out of the way so I could get the car out and scoot off to my silent retreat. In a matter of seconds I found myself on the other side of the drive way laying on the ground. Somehow the metal panel had rolled across my foot and punctured a gaping wound in it exposing flesh and bone. As I laid on my back and looked up at the open wound I couldn’t feel anything. 

Within a matter of minutes my husband had tightly tied off my foot, put us all in the car and off we went to the hospital. My poor children and husband suffered the worst. I couldn’t feel pain because of the shock and all they could feel was shock and fear. It was pretty traumatizing for them to say the least. Reflecting back, we should have requested to have this constantly-rusted-broken-gate replaced long ago (especially with children) and not moved it ourselves.

I’m exhausted from retelling the story so I’ll wrap up and say I ended up having an open fracture, five breaks, a lot of stitches and 6 pins. More than anything, this experience has given me the greatest gift of perspective and extreme humility. It took me getting knocked on my butt to shake me up and ground me again. (You can read and see more on Instagram.)

I am extremely grateful for the medical care I had through this whole process and the physical therapy and other support I continue to receive.

Dr. Nicomedes at St. Lukes, his staff and the nurse staff at St. Lukes were all superb and I do not hesitate to refer them to anyone. I am deeply humbled by the love and compassion my children and I have received from friends. Since we are so far from family community is everything. I am so grateful for the kind women and families who took my children multiple days so I could rest and heal. Knowing they were well cared for was the best peace of mind I could receive.

Over the next little while I’ll share some #perksofpinas that helped me get through the holidays with a broken foot and no helper. Oh yeah, did I mention Ate #ChandaPoppins was gone most of December? She deserves her much needed holiday and spent her time on the beaches of her province, Masbate. Go Chanda! Tune in tomorrow to learn more about Happy Helpers, who deep cleaned my house three times over the holidays and kept me sane. Game changer, I tell ya!

Kita Kita,

Amber