State of the Foot
I've just been sitting around and healing, which is a lot like sleeping. I'm pretty well off the pain killers, though I will still take one at night if I am having trouble getting to sleep and the foot is acting up at all, or in the day if I think I'm going to need to have it down a lot. In all honesty as long as I keep it elevated, the pain around the break is not really any worse than my general pain levels, though it feels qualitatively different.
Sometimes the dressings themselves have really bothered me, to a degree that's much worse than the break/surgery itself. It feels like topical itching/chafing, and sort of prickly-hot, as if a colony of fire ants has taken up residence inside the cast, though only the early stages of that (having been swarmed by fire ants once, I can compare!) and oddly enough a benadryl will knock it down for over twenty four hours. (When it should last only about six hours.) Normal pain killers don't touch this at all. Oh well, whatever works?
I've been having a lot of severe flareup days, which make it hard to do anything at all, because of the awkwardness of having to move around on only one leg while not really being able to support my weight with that leg, or not being able to push the wheelchair once I finally get myself into it. I try to make up for that on good days by spending some time balancing whenever I get up, in order to strengthen that leg, moving around more on good days, etc. I'll also follow up balancing on my good leg with putting weight down on the post on the cast and balancing that way; I can't balance just on the cast, but I'm hoping that putting weight on that leg throughout will make it easier to rehab and walk properly once I get the cast off as opposed to not using it at all. I don't feel any increase in pain as long as I use only the heel so my foot seems happy with this approach. I have noticed that if I'm having a decent-to-good day flareup wise, that it's actually easier for me to get myself around than it was when I first injured myself, so I do appear to be strengthening even though how much I can use that muscle varies day by day.
Every now and then I try out the crutches again and then say "yup, still really hard." I'm thinking of keeping them out as an upper body workout device once I heal; they'll be much more practical if I can simply walk back if I get too tired, rather than being stranded because I thought I could get twice as far as I really could. It's hard to motivate myself to use them given how small my round trips are right now; a trip around the room just does not feel like an achievement in any way. But down the hall and then walk back might. If I keep it up, then if I ever injure a foot again I'll actually be able to use them for their intended purpose. And it's not like I have been able to make it to the gym for years, so my poor little t-rex arms could use some workouts.
Sometimes the dressings themselves have really bothered me, to a degree that's much worse than the break/surgery itself. It feels like topical itching/chafing, and sort of prickly-hot, as if a colony of fire ants has taken up residence inside the cast, though only the early stages of that (having been swarmed by fire ants once, I can compare!) and oddly enough a benadryl will knock it down for over twenty four hours. (When it should last only about six hours.) Normal pain killers don't touch this at all. Oh well, whatever works?
I've been having a lot of severe flareup days, which make it hard to do anything at all, because of the awkwardness of having to move around on only one leg while not really being able to support my weight with that leg, or not being able to push the wheelchair once I finally get myself into it. I try to make up for that on good days by spending some time balancing whenever I get up, in order to strengthen that leg, moving around more on good days, etc. I'll also follow up balancing on my good leg with putting weight down on the post on the cast and balancing that way; I can't balance just on the cast, but I'm hoping that putting weight on that leg throughout will make it easier to rehab and walk properly once I get the cast off as opposed to not using it at all. I don't feel any increase in pain as long as I use only the heel so my foot seems happy with this approach. I have noticed that if I'm having a decent-to-good day flareup wise, that it's actually easier for me to get myself around than it was when I first injured myself, so I do appear to be strengthening even though how much I can use that muscle varies day by day.
Every now and then I try out the crutches again and then say "yup, still really hard." I'm thinking of keeping them out as an upper body workout device once I heal; they'll be much more practical if I can simply walk back if I get too tired, rather than being stranded because I thought I could get twice as far as I really could. It's hard to motivate myself to use them given how small my round trips are right now; a trip around the room just does not feel like an achievement in any way. But down the hall and then walk back might. If I keep it up, then if I ever injure a foot again I'll actually be able to use them for their intended purpose. And it's not like I have been able to make it to the gym for years, so my poor little t-rex arms could use some workouts.