A nightmare in the Squash Court

A typical Tuesday evening would normally find me playing casual football at Lugogo. For some reason on July 4th, I decided to play squash which I would normally play on Monday, Friday and Saturday. When I got at Kampala club, one of the facilitators, Michael Kawooya offered to sell me fresh shoes that had a better grip than my usual shoes and that I should consider buying them. I decided that I shall buy them and use them immediately. First bad idea. Initially, these shoes felt comfortable but were seemingly making it hard for me to stretch forward to reach balls. I simply ignored that and continued that high spirited fight playing Sam Kyagulanyi, a good squash player with national team experience and very crafty on the courts. Games tied at 1-1, I decided I needed to up my game and take the third game which Sam was leading. So, I decided, I shall go for all those balls, after all, I am swift. That was the second bad idea.

With Sam leading at 8, I picked point 6 and started smelling my chance to close in. So, to get the 7th point, I needed to pick a deep shot on the right back corner of the court. Sam was making me run all over the court but I was determined to reach every ball. ?As I ran from the left front corner of the court to pick what would have been a 7th point from a boost shot, I applied the necessary “brakes.” The braking was so swift that I clumsily lost balance setting my body in motion with a foot that was firm on the ground. This resulted in a dislocated ankle. I cannot explain what it felt like as it happened but I literally saw the shape of my bone at the bottom of my leg. Fortunately, it didn't break through the skin.

By some luck also, a good orthopaedic, a former number 1 squash player in Uganda, Dr. Alex Bangirana had been around watching the game. He had just left for home when he was urgently called back to come and assist. While all this was going on, I was being assisted by Uganda’s leading squash coach Derek Banyu to stay in one position. He kept my foot in the air, holding it firmly in his strong arms as we patiently waited for urgent assistance. Those were a horrific 15-20 minutes. The pain was excruciating and unbearable. Fortunately, Dr Bangirana Alex arrived quickly and immediately started giving badly needed first aid. A make shift cardboard support was created and made to support my now helplessly misplaced foot. I was bundled into the back seat of a double cabin Hilux and rushed to Case Hospital’s emergency room.

My foot needed to be repositioned. However, this could not be done without an X-ray image to ascertain the extent of the injury. For what seemed like eons, I was eventually injected with my first pain killer and wheeled into the X-ray room. Fortunately, the results showed that it was a dislocation and there were no bone fractures. Putting the foot back into place (what is referred to as reducing) is a painful procedure. It is recommended that one is taken into theatre and put out using anaesthetics to avoid feeling the pain. However, this was going to take a bit of time and keep me in this state of pain for a while. It included finding key personnel like the anaesthesiologist and related administrative actions. Dr. Bangirana then decided that he could attempt to ‘reduce’ the ankle using a strong painkiller. My body was introduced to pethidine and in no more than a minute of being injected, I felt super high (for sure that is a drug to which one can get addicted) and much less pain. Despite this, the process of reducing was a horrific 20 – 30 seconds of a new kind of pain like I have never experienced. I literally heard my bone going back in position at the end of it. I kind of feel for the guy I gripped in those seconds. I think he subsequently also needed some pain killers. After setting the dislocated ankle back in place (reducing), it felt as if nothing that serious had really happened. Anyhow, I am now looking at about a 6 weeks’ period of immobilization. 3 weeks in a cast and 3 weeks in an air-cast boot.

It could have been a lot worse, but I thank God that this was not the case. It is where my eyes are fixed for a quick healing.