Get Sienna Back On Her Feet

Hey loves, I am reaching out for help to pay my living expenses, while I am taking off more time to heal than I expected. I am also fundraising to pay for massages and forms of therapy that are not covered by insurance. This is my 3rd corrective surgery on my ankle since I broke it in June of 2017-five years ago.

Here’s the recap: (scroll to bottom *** if you don’t have time to read)

I was at a downhill skateboarding event on Maryhill Loops road in the Dalles WA, when I took one last run before my lunch break, and learned a hard lesson of how I need to check myself before I wreck myself. Throughout the event, one of the organizers would yell at all of us to make sure we clear the shutdown zone after slowing down and stopping at the end of each run, but there was still congestion of bodies at the bottom of the road, no matter how many times he reminded us. At the very end of my last run, I was coming in hot with a large group of skaters and foot breaking to stop, but ufortunalety I was not equipped with the skills to maneuver around someone standing in the road while I was slowing down. I shoulder tapped him and I flew into the air. The first thing to touch the ground was the inside of my front (right) foot, and it turned a sharp ninety degrees, dislocating my ankle, breaking my fibula and chipping my tibia. Although I pressed it into the ground to put it back forty five degrees, my bone was attempting to push through my skin and was becoming visible. Let’s just say, this was the worst break of my life.

I had 16 screws inserted into my ankle, as well as a 10 inch metal bar. At that time, my posts and updates were happy, grateful, and optimistic, but I didn’t reveal all of the pain and hard weeks to follow, where I was on huge amounts of painkillers and unable to sleep. I was hallucinating in the hospital the week after the accident, and my brain was foggy all summer when I returned home in NM. I attended my first year of college on crutches and once I was able to walk comfortably in my boot, it was time for the extraction surgery to remove the metal in December of 2017. It took longer to heal because my bone had to fill in where the surgeon had cored into my bone to retrieve a piece of broken screw, so no metal would be left in me.

All the while, I was attending my first year of art school, which was physically demanding in many ways. I went to physical therapy when I was in Oregon, and did PT homework while in NM visiting family, but after all of that, I still had a lot of pain and trouble moving my joint. My ankle often clicked when I would walk, and I could feel my outside ligaments rolling over my ankle in a painful way, no matter what the physical task was at hand. I continued to stretch, but if school or work got too busy and I didn’t stretch daily, my foot would get locked up, making it painfully impossible to walk out the door at times. I spent years putting school ahead of my body, and when our art school closed, my efforts were directed to getting into the next closest art school, which proved to be more expensive and difficult for me to navigate. I left school and Covid-19 quickly followed. Finally, after being out of school and working when shutdown was lifted, I got my insurance in proper order and enrolled myself in more physical therapy, to help me with this lock foot I was experiencing. This was also to help the rest of my body to feel better, which has overcompensated for my ankle all this time. This affects my Ehler’s Danlos Syndrome as well (low collagen, high inflammation).

***Two months ago, I got an MRI on my ankle to find that I had been jumping, skating, and walking around on torn peroneal tendons- for five years! The short tendon was the most damaged and was in need of repair. It happened so fast, I was not prepared to have surgery, but if this could help my pain, why not do it ASAP?! I got surgery on March 31, 2022, and when the surgeon opened me up, she saw that my short and long tendons were twisted up, hence the bulky material rolling over my ankle. It took a while for her to get everything in place: She had to shave away some of my bone to create a groove for the tendons to sit correctly, which I might have chipped away in the initial break. She also orthoscopically removed scar tissue that was blocking my joint from movement. Most importantly, she used the material I had to repair my tendons and put a cap made of synthetic material over top to keep everything in place. I was told not to put any weight on my foot for 6 weeks, and I cannot drive for 8 weeks.

This has put a large dent in my work this month, and applying for temporary disability is proving to be impossible.

I am asking for support from anyone who is able to donate anything. Even the smallest amount is appreciated. I am working on making things to sell, but the past two weeks of healing slowed my body and brain down so much that I have realized I need more help, and it is time to reach out. I appreciate anyone who has taken the time to read this extremely long story, thanks for reading.

I also want to acknowledge that by doing a physical sport, I accepted the risk of injury, and I am responsible for what actions I took in my accident. I do not blame the people involved, although I hope my fall has influenced attendees at Maryhill to be more conscious and courteous of every rider’s safety on the road. Skateboarding has given me passion, expression, and confidence, so I hope the future of skateboarding is to look out for one another and listen to your bodies-and listen to your gut! Our bodies are precious. Thanks ♥️