"Fractures also can occur in individuals with unstable ankle joints and a history of recurrent ankle sprains." Aha, I suspected that the fact I had rolled my ankle the morning I broke it probably played a roll in the fact it broke that evening. Plus I had a pretty good sprain on that same ankle during an adventure race about 2 months prior - I rolled it on a rut in a trail. "most women experiencing ankle fractures are over age 50" Hmmm...I'm not that old. I wonder if most are caused by slipping on ice, or falling on stairs? Anyone want to take a bet?
The mucous sheaths of the tendons around the ankle. Lateral aspect. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I have the OK to start bearing weight on my foot this week. This first week I'm supposed to use 2 crutches, then work my way to one crutch and then no crutches. This is 2 crutches week, and trust me, I need 2 crutches as putting weight on my foot is rather painful. Not the ankle, but the foot. Why the foot you may wonder? "Yes, please tell me, why the foot if you broke the ankle?" Well, let me tell you. The tendons and ligaments in the foot essentially shrink/tighten up from not being stretched for 6 solid weeks. Plus there is tons of swelling. When you step on a swollen foot, it hurts. When you step on a swollen foot and stretch all the tendons and ligaments, it hurts more. It's like stretching past your stretching limit - think of touching your toes, but add another 5" past your toes. Now spread that pain all over your foot. My right foot is about 1/2 size shorter and narrower than my left, but it's much thicker. I liken it to a cooked hamburger. You put it on the grill thin and big, but by the time it's done cooking it's thicker and the diameter much smaller. That's my right foot, a cooked hamburger. I have to push through the uncomfortable pain in order for it to get better. I also have to start doing exercises to increase muscle strength and flexibility. Both suck. I notice obvious improvements in the amount of movement by day 4 of this week. And get this: I can do squats now! I did 20 just fine - well sort of fine. Guess that means it's time to start doing some sort of workout routine again. My calf cramps up on simple flexing exercises. That will hopefully work it's way out by the end of this week. I forgot to mention that my legs insist on stretching all the time while I'm in bed. Must be from all the laying/sitting around, but if I start to straighten my legs in bed they instantly start to do a full on stretch. Rather annoying and strangely odd at the same time. It's like being possessed. But this has been going on for weeks. I returned to work all of this week. I played it conservative and only worked 5 hours each of the first 2 days. I was pretty worn out by the end of the day and slept pretty well. It has created a nice improvement in my sleep cycle. It also causes my ankle to swell to twice it's size by the end of the day. I've added a photo of how great the ankle looks first thing in the morning when nearly all swelling is gone. Trust me, by the end of the day it looks nothing like this. In fact, with in a few minutes of getting up it looks nothing like this.
This week flew by. I finally got to the point where I could be up long enough to cook food. Grant it, it was not easy, and took about 2x as long as normal due to trying to maneuver my knee scooter back and forth around the kitchen island. I resembled Austin Powers turning his cart around inside the building. Frustrating. But at least I had one free hand to carry something.
I was trusted to be on my own most of this week. Towards the end of this week my husband had the decking installed (no railing yet) so I could finally go OUTSIDE, and let the dog out. We have been without a deck for 3 - 4 weeks.
Speaking of letting the dog outside, I attempted to let him out the front door, we have a short lead line from the porch. Opening a storm door one footed, on crutches, while going down a stair simultaneously is quite the feat. I attempted this in addition to picking up the lead to clip on the dog. At this point the dog seizes his opportunity and takes off out the door and across the street. He's completely ignoring me. Deaf. Stone cold deaf, or perhaps sound does not travel across streets. I hobble across the law, across the street and towards the back of the neighbors house where the dog continues to avoid me. He apparently has forgotten who I even am. He now not only can't hear me, he now can't even see me. I'm like a ghost. It dawns on me I can't get him back home and will need a leash. So I hobble back home and get the leash. (I now remember a story about the leash and the dog from week 2 that's rather humorous and I didn't tell it. I'll have to tell that story at some point.) I get the leash and hobble back through that stupid storm door, I swear it tries to sweep my crutches out from under me, and down the stairs, across the yard, across the street. Now the dog has wandered up the street and is going behind another house. I hobble after him, calling him the whole time. He just keeps going. I'm at a dead sprint on my crutches, roughly 2 mph. I nearly wipe out several times in the grass. I am not happy, and yet, I'm sort of laughing at the situation. He has managed to find a stretch of backyards w/o fences. We continue this oblivious chase through several yards before he stops to smell something under some tall pampas grass. For fear of this continuing for the next 4 hours, I seize the opportunity and I hurl myself on top of him. Yes, I hurled. My crutches went every which way, but I had him, and I had the leash. He was mine. I tie the end of the leash around my waist leaving just enough leash to drop down to his collar. I can't hold the leash with crutches, so this is my only option. I crawl around some persons back yard and gather my crutches with him tied to my waist. I'm sure it was pretty funny to watch. "Honey, there's some strange lady crawling in our back yard with a dog tied around her waist." I drag him all the way back to the house and take him inside and don't let him out again until the deck is built.
Right ankle, inside view.
That's a chunk of my tibia not attached to anything.
At the end of this week, day 41 to be precise, I had another set of x-ray's done. I finally looked at my paperwork and it said I had a trimalleolar fracture with ankle dislocation. Trimalleolar is fancy speak for I broke the right side, the left side, and the back of my tibia/fibula that make up my ankle. This time I had hubby get a photo of the side view. This was the nasty looking view. So much more healing needs to take place. I was told this is normal for someone "my age." So much for taking calcium, vitamin D, fish oil, and a multi-vitamin. I thought for sure I would be the one outlier / miracle with complete healing at this stage. My hopes were dashed. Despite acting like a kid, I do not possess the healing abilities of a child. You would think the two would translate.
Now the good news. I can start putting weight on my foot. I'll be in my boot another 2 weeks while learning to walk again (cue inspiring music) with the aid of crutches. In a matter of seconds following my first attempt at walking, I have learned it feels like my bones are going to pop through the skin in the bottom of my foot. I was told this feeling would eventually go away. Oh, Lord it better go away! I get to work on daily exercises at home to strengthen my muscles, and perform stretches for the calf, ankle, and foot to move again. I can't move them much at all right now and my itty-bitty calf cramps when I try to use it. It's like all my joints and muscles are filled with cement. Click here to see my video displaying my fancy foot work side by side - good versus evil.
And most importantly, if you have followed these weekly blog posts, I finally figured out what is causing me to feel like I have the flu. It's not a metal allergy (I should probably stop doing so much research about these things). It's doing too much, being too active. I had no idea that doing too much would give me achy muscles all over, chills, and make me feel like crap. Live and learn. So, I guess I'll relax a bit more and heal a bit more. And to be honest, I'm kind of getting tired of the computer and watching TV.
I might try a half day at work Thursday and Friday during "week 7". The problem is that I am still not allowed to drive due to the boot. Apparently if you are to get in an accident you will automatically be at fault due to the boot (or cast). Crazy right? So if I figure out a way to get to/from work, I'll make an attempt to go. I'll have to spend the day in my office and avoid the lab - open toed shoes, or boots in my case, are not allowed in the labs. Plus I can't stand, or carry, or do anything other than sit at my desk anyway. But I can sort of walk with crutches! Things are looking up!
Missed the story on how I broke my ankle? You can read it here.
I haven't taken narcotic pain meds since about the end of September. It is now October 20th and I still feel sick. Perhaps I am not having withdrawals from the narcotics. Should withdrawals take longer than the amount of time you took them?
I did this little experiment, I started taking allergy meds (loratadine) to see if that would help me feel better. I have only had maybe 2 or 3 days where I felt mostly normal in the last 2.5 weeks, the remainder of days I have felt like I had the flu with small time periods of feeling just ok. I starting taking my allergy meds a few days ago and since starting them I feel so much better.
I'm now starting to question the rash I had on my body a few days after leaving the hospital. I had a cast on and I first noticed the rash (not an itchy rash) at the top of my cast. Initially I thought perhaps my cast was irritating my leg. It then spread up my leg and eventually showed up on my arms and both legs. I attributed this to the pain pills I was taking. I took some allergy meds and switched to a different pain pill. Hmm...
I need to state that I have OTC loratadine (Claritin) because I have had a drippy nose since being pregnant with my kids. I have no allergy to anything, my nose is just drippy. A few years back a friend stated he takes a daily allergy meds for his drippy nose. He too has no known allergy, but his doctor suggested trying an allergy pill and that took care of his drippy nose. I decided to try this approach too and it worked for me. I've been hit or miss with taking my pills. It seems to be drippier when I'm at work - and since I have been home for 4+ weeks now it hasn't been irritating enough to remember to take a pill for it. That is until I started reading about flu like symptoms after implants, plates, rods, screws, etc being installed on people.
I couldn't find an article that stated allergy meds helped, but all stated it is from an allergic reaction to one of the metals in the device installed. Being the scientist I am I did my own experiment. I took an allergy pill one evening and the next day felt so much better. I continued taking them and have continued to feel pretty dang good. Yesterday was the only day I started to have some of the symptoms return, so I took my pill earlier in the day (instead of the evening) and by bed time I felt better again.
The next step in my plan is to stop taking the allergy pills and see if the symptoms return. I really don't want to do this as feeling not sick is so much better, but I want to know if by body is reacting to the metal hardware or not so I need to do it. I'll wait a couple more days. I want to go a whole week on the allergy meds before stopping. I'll post an update on how this goes for me next week.
There are tests that can be done for metal allergy called the MELISA test. I may decide to have this done, or I may just continue with daily allergy medication if that seems to take care of it until I can have my hardware removed.
To read more about testing for metal allergies click here.
It never occurred to me before, but I don't wear earrings because they irritate my ears something fierce, they get red, sore, and can get scabs if I leave them in for very long. Perhaps this is a metal allergy. I don't have a reaction to necklaces, rings, or bracelets, just earrings.
I've added a photo of how great the ankle looks first thing in the morning when nearly all swelling is gone. Trust me, by the end of the day it looks nothing like this. In fact, with in a few minutes of getting up it looks nothing like this.
