Life is what happens when you're making other plans
I had a small case of life a few weeks ago...I was going down the stairs from the third floor to the second, and my foot slipped or something. I slipped/fell down two steps to the landing, and landed really badly on my left ankle. As it was a Sunday afternoon, off to the urgent care center we went. (Well, it wasn't quite that simple. I couldn't put weight on my left foot to speak of, and I'm way too heavy for Himself to carry me, so getting down the steps and out to the car was...interesting.) It was already swelling a good bit; they X-rayed it and the doctor said he couldn't see anything on the X-rays but I'd obviously sprained it. Ice and elevation. They gave me an air cast for it, which I never was able to put on properly, and home we went. There was a pair of crutches in the basement from about 20 years ago when I sprained my ankle and needed help walking for a few days, so I started using those to get around.
Overnight, my ankle swelled up like a balloon and developed blisters. Then Tuesday, the urgent care center called. When the radiologist looked at the X-rays, she saw a little chip out of the bone in the back of my ankle. The treatment is no different than for the sprain, the nurse said, but you might want to see an orthopedist to make sure you don't have ongoing problems.
Two days later, after a visit to an orthopedist at the Center for Advanced Medicine (St. Louis has excellent doctors available, assuming of course you have insurance) and more X-rays, I learned that I had torn ligaments on both sides of my ankle and it would require surgery to repair them. They had to wait for the swelling to go down, so the surgery was scheduled for Monday, May 12, a week and a half in the future. Meanwhile they put a splint the size of Lake Michigan on my left leg/foot, and I rented a "knee walker" which really looks more like a scooter, and went home to be non-weight-bearing.
Have I ever mentioned that we have an extremely vertical house? Three stories, plus several steps to get down to street level from the front door. Because it is my left foot, I can still drive our automatic-transmission van just fine, assuming I can get to it. I am not the best on crutches, but I've managed.
It's now about a week and a half after the surgery. Because I spent the first week keeping my foot elevated above my heart like they said, the healing process is going well as far as I can tell. I have a splint bigger than Lake Michigan--but next Tuesday I get the stitches out and a smaller plaster cast for the next 4 weeks. However, my lovely 3rd-floor arranging has had to go completely by the wayside (I've been up there exactly twice, it is much harder to get from the 2nd to the 3rd floor than from the 1st to the 2nd). Also--no Lilies for us this year. I will still be non-weight-bearing, with a cast I can't get wet, and I can't figure out how I could possibly manage even if my doctors weren't telling me that a 4+-hour car trip is not a good idea for a person on blood thinners who has an immobilized left ankle.
We weren't planning on Pennsic anyway, because of lack of Himself's vacation time. I briefly thought about it, since we're missing Lilies, but Pennsic happens just as I'll be transitioning from a walking boot to a regular shoe and starting physical therapy, so that doesn't sound great either. The good news is that we should be able to take our trip to Yorkshire just fine--we hadn't booked anything yet so we're moving it a few weeks later to give me more time to get back to normal, but I should be able to do it.
I'm beginning to be able to get out and about a little now, which is a damned good thing, because yesterday I found myself watching the Starz Western channel for about 2 1/2 hours. Himself has had to pick up a lot of the little household chores (I re-hired the housekeeper through at least July because I can't clean). What I can do around the house is as follows:
1. Make coffee
2. Get trash or recycling on the first floor only to the kitchen bins.
3. Clean the cat box on the first floor. (I can't get to the ones on the 3rd floor.)
4. Feed the cats (although they don't make this easy!)
And that's pretty much it. The good news is that, eventually, I should have pretty much a full recovery. It will just be measured in months rather than days or weeks.
And hopefully I will manage not to be quite such a klutz once I can climb stairs again.
Overnight, my ankle swelled up like a balloon and developed blisters. Then Tuesday, the urgent care center called. When the radiologist looked at the X-rays, she saw a little chip out of the bone in the back of my ankle. The treatment is no different than for the sprain, the nurse said, but you might want to see an orthopedist to make sure you don't have ongoing problems.
Two days later, after a visit to an orthopedist at the Center for Advanced Medicine (St. Louis has excellent doctors available, assuming of course you have insurance) and more X-rays, I learned that I had torn ligaments on both sides of my ankle and it would require surgery to repair them. They had to wait for the swelling to go down, so the surgery was scheduled for Monday, May 12, a week and a half in the future. Meanwhile they put a splint the size of Lake Michigan on my left leg/foot, and I rented a "knee walker" which really looks more like a scooter, and went home to be non-weight-bearing.
Have I ever mentioned that we have an extremely vertical house? Three stories, plus several steps to get down to street level from the front door. Because it is my left foot, I can still drive our automatic-transmission van just fine, assuming I can get to it. I am not the best on crutches, but I've managed.
It's now about a week and a half after the surgery. Because I spent the first week keeping my foot elevated above my heart like they said, the healing process is going well as far as I can tell. I have a splint bigger than Lake Michigan--but next Tuesday I get the stitches out and a smaller plaster cast for the next 4 weeks. However, my lovely 3rd-floor arranging has had to go completely by the wayside (I've been up there exactly twice, it is much harder to get from the 2nd to the 3rd floor than from the 1st to the 2nd). Also--no Lilies for us this year. I will still be non-weight-bearing, with a cast I can't get wet, and I can't figure out how I could possibly manage even if my doctors weren't telling me that a 4+-hour car trip is not a good idea for a person on blood thinners who has an immobilized left ankle.
We weren't planning on Pennsic anyway, because of lack of Himself's vacation time. I briefly thought about it, since we're missing Lilies, but Pennsic happens just as I'll be transitioning from a walking boot to a regular shoe and starting physical therapy, so that doesn't sound great either. The good news is that we should be able to take our trip to Yorkshire just fine--we hadn't booked anything yet so we're moving it a few weeks later to give me more time to get back to normal, but I should be able to do it.
I'm beginning to be able to get out and about a little now, which is a damned good thing, because yesterday I found myself watching the Starz Western channel for about 2 1/2 hours. Himself has had to pick up a lot of the little household chores (I re-hired the housekeeper through at least July because I can't clean). What I can do around the house is as follows:
1. Make coffee
2. Get trash or recycling on the first floor only to the kitchen bins.
3. Clean the cat box on the first floor. (I can't get to the ones on the 3rd floor.)
4. Feed the cats (although they don't make this easy!)
And that's pretty much it. The good news is that, eventually, I should have pretty much a full recovery. It will just be measured in months rather than days or weeks.
And hopefully I will manage not to be quite such a klutz once I can climb stairs again.