My Broken Ankle: Week 4

All photos taken on Day 26

I'm not going to lie. Being stuck on the couch all day is really annoying.  Thank God for the internet and Netflix.  Did some more searching of other people who have broken ankles and came across one blog from a guy who broke his ankle and had no insurance.  His bill was over $20,000 when all was said and done.  I haven't seen a single bill yet.  I have insurance.  I actually think we've met the deductible for our insurance this year, so I'm crossing my fingers we don't pay a dime for this.

So, what is new this week?  Um, still swollen.  Still feels like my foot will explode when I stand for very long.  Foot still turns purple when not elevated.  My foot is still numb and the skin hurts when anything touches it, so my nerves are still jacked up.

Oh what is new, I almost forgot!  I have started taking my boot off for extended periods of time and sleeping w/o it on.  Don't tell my OS, I'm not really supposed to do this. But if I"m just on the couch all day what the heck is going to happen?  Unfortunately this "boot removal" reveals my bat wing of a calf.  It just hangs off the bone and is is now over 2" smaller than my left calf.  This can be said for the rest of my right leg.  Because my calf is so scrawny now, it actually hurts to prop it on something.  It's like I'm just laying my bone on things, there is no cushioning.  It's getting really uncomfortable.

I've started to do some wiggling of my toes and a small amount of flexing of the ankle.

I started to rub on some Arnica Cream before bed and after getting up. I don't know if it helps, but I like to think it does.  I can see some of my bruises turning bright yellow now, a sign of them dissolving, which Arnica is supposed to help with, along with pain and inflammation. You can read about it here. It's not the same brand that I have, but I'm sure they're all the same for the most part.

Sleeping is still uncomfortable.  I wrap my ankle in an ace bandage to support it while I sleep.  I honestly think all the swelling alone probably supports it, but better safe than sorry.  I prop my lower leg up on a pillow, side sleeping seems to make the ankle sore, the bony leg can't find a good position to be in, and I resort to tossing a turning a lot.  I'm really tired of laying on my back all the time.  Hubby snapped at me last night about 2 AM for tossing and turning so I got up and crutched it to the couch.  Using crutches when half asleep is not really a good thing.  I made it down 2 flights of stairs w/o dying, so that says something about good balance, I think.

I finally went to church on Sunday.  My leg was killing me be the end of service which ran a smidgen over an hour.  That night I went shopping with the hubby as we have finally ran out of all pre-made meals and gift cards to restaurants and needed to finally get back to making our own dinners.  I created a nice menu for the week complete with shopping list.  I got to ride around the store in the electric scooter and help pick out the groceries.  Divide and conquer.  Worked pretty well, but again, my foot was killing me when we were done.  I seriously hope this goes away soon.  I would be nice to be upright for more than an hour without feeling like my foot will explode.  Speaking of explode, that's what the hubby is going to do when he has to actually start making and preparing meals and deciphering recipes for the whole family each night.  I cannot say enough thank yous to everyone who brought food over to us.  I kind of like my healthy eating, and my normal meals are not easy quick meals, so we'll see how the hubby does these next 7 days.

This 4th week is drawing to an end in a couple days and then I can start going to the gym to jump on the stationary bikes.  Hubby will have to drive me, I'll crutch it to the elevator, crutch it to the bikes, and then spin for as long as I can.  Wonder how that first day is going to go?  I'll report back at the end of next week.