Stupid Broken Ankle: Week 6

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.

Stupid Broken Ankle: More Bills

I just saw two doctor bills came in from the Surgery on September 17th for about $10,000 (for an hour of surgery), bringing my total now up to nearly $30,000 for the surgery.

So far I've only had to foot the bill for the ambulance ride at just over $900.  It appears that the ambulance provider in my town is not "in network" so I get to pay for the entire ride myself.

My Broken Ankle: Week 5

Days 28-34 Look at that incredible shrinking leg! My right calf resembles an old lady's batwing and just hangs off the bones.  My knee looks huge in comparison.  It's fun getting to take my boot off for photo ops.

This week I had a major outing!  My parents came to town over the weekend and were a big help.  This was the second weekend they have come up to help out.  Dad assisted Hubby on re-building our deck and Mom helped inside, vacuumed the main floor and basement and most importantly, took me on a major outing.  This major outing was going to the indoor mall.  I rarely go to the indoor mall, but I needed to return some clothing I ordered for the girls that didn't fit.  We made a stop at 3 stores for the girls and then we swung into Bath & Body works to pick out new soaps and air fresheners.  They have everything pumpkin right now, and our house will smell like some version of pumpkin until next year.

I'd guess I was upright for over an hour on my knee scooter and my foot did not feel like it would explode. That is improvement.  However my knee felt like it might explode. They need a little more cushioning on those things for those of us who's legs have whittled away to pure bone.  Hence photo #1...

Day 33. Put my socks on and had to take a photo to show the difference in size of my left (good) ankle and my right (bad) ankle.  I then put a shoe on my right foot for the first time since the break.  I loosed up the lace about as much as I could to gingerly put my foot in.  It didn't hurt, but I was afraid it might.  I wasn't sure I would be able to get the shoe string tied.  I had just barely enough string to tie a little bow.

I jumped on my stationary bike (my triathlon bike mounted to a trainer) for 20 minutes at the lowest resistance with what I would guess was just 60 RPM.  The OS told me I was to use a stationary bike, not my bike on a trainer.  I don't know what the difference is exactly, but I tend to do my own thing anyway.

During my 20 minute spin my ankle was really stiff - not much flexing going on.  I had twinges of pain on the outside of my ankle bone (fibula) and the backside of my heel.  The heel seemed to loosen up as I pedaled. If I angled my foot just right the outer pain would stop, but it was hard to keep my foot at just the right angle.  Otherwise it didn't feel bad at all.  A little dissapointed I didn't work up a sweat or even breathe hard.  I'll add 5 minutes on tomorrow.  I'm not sure how much to push it.  I'll have to mount my bike computer and see what kind of cadence I'm keeping, then eventually try to up the cadence until I get to >80 rpm, this will come in time.

9 more days until I see the Dr.  I'll ask if he thinks my flu like symptoms are ongoing withdrawals or a possible metal allergy.

Day 34 - the end of week 5.  I chose not to take an allergy pill yesterday evening.  My aunt-in-law suggests that I am having continued withdrawal symptoms from the narcotics.  She convinced me to give up the allergy pill (aka mental cure). I woke up a bit achy in my neck, upper back, and shoulders this morning, the same feeling as when you are sick.  I took one naproxen and feel better this afternoon.

Today I also decided to get back to eating better.  I have sure appreciated all the delicious goodness people have brought over, but my stomach flab seems to be increasing and I don't like the look of it.  So, no more sugar for awhile...or at least not until I eat some. :-)

My Broken Ankle: I think I'm allergic to the metal plates and screws

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.

Scientific article discussing one particular metal allergy case. He was treated with antibiotics, and it was months before a metal allergy was suspected.

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.

Related articles

• Allergy to Some Metal Implants Linked to Rare Skin Cancer, Study Says
• Research: Orthopedic implants linked to a form of skin cancer in rare cases
• Herbal Remedies for Runny Nose

My Broken Ankle: Thank Goodness for Insurance, the bills are rolling in...

I got my first glimpse of the charges for my ankle. Take a look at these charges for my trip to the hospital. This is why everyone should have insurance.  I never use my insurance, I've been to see the Dr maybe once in the last 8 years, but when the unexpected happens (and it does) you don't want to pay this kind of money on the spot!

The 6 block ambulance ride was $905.

My surgery and overnight stay was $17,918.

ER charge $225.

Anesthesia: $720.

Radiology $104

Grand Total: $19,872

I'm still awaiting the Dr's charges for that day.  Those are billed separate.  I will also have the follow up appointments/visits w/ x-rays and splints, etc, and eventually Physical Therapy.

Related articles

• Splints Not Placed Properly in Most Suspected Pediatric Fractures

My Broken Ankle: Continued Body Aches at week 4

I have had full body achiness since the surgery.  I attributed most of it to side effects of narcotics or anesthesia.   During the first week, whenever I got slightly behind on dosing I was achy.  When I stopped taking them all together by the end of week 2, I was achy, non-stop for several days in a row.  Like having the flu, along with nausea, chills and sweats.  Now I am achy for about 25%-100% of the day.  Still get chills and sweats.  I am 27 days post fx & surgery.

The achiness/tiredness is really depressing.  I attributed the symptoms to side effects from stopping narcotics, but I don't think they should be lasting this long.  I don't know if this is a typical healing process or something else.  I haven't seen anyone else discuss this when they broke an ankle.  Anyone else have these symptoms?

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.