Must Have Items....If You Ever Break Your Ankle

 I have been in this current cast for a week now, and the pain is really gone at this point. Almost 5 weeks since the fall, and since then I have had five different casts, and a really painful recovery from surgery.  If you ever have to have this surgery, and I hope you don't, plan for the first week post surgery to be pretty bad, and take it day by day.

Right now, I sometimes get a stinging feeling where my three incisions are, but overall, I am dealing with discomfort and just the general feeling of being in a cast and dependent on others.  I am pretty much over it at this point and looking forward to walking again very soon.  I still get those random spasms/shocks up my leg, but not as often as before.  I had one last night when I was trying to fall asleep and it was sooooo painful.

Anyway, that's not technically the purpose of this post but thought I would share...

So, if you EVER break your ankle or have any sort of ankle injury (and I sincerely hope you don't) there are some items that I highly recommend you purchase, borrow or rent to get you through the journey to recovery.  It's kind of been a learn-as-you-go process for me, because this is all new to me, here are the items that have really gotten me through, to this point.

1. A large water bottle/jug - I have been drinking A LOT of water these days and because its not easy to get a refill and you don't always want to wait or rely on someone else to get you more water, having the largest water bottle you can find is important.
2. A backpack - I learned very early in this process that there are certain "things" that I need to carry around with me when  move from the bed to the couch and back to the bed each day on my crutches.  I was initially relying on my husband to transport all these items for me, but then had the idea to use my The North Face  backpack to carry everything I needed.  Now, I am packing my backpack with my laptop, phones, chargers, water bottle, books, pens, notes, medicines, whatever I need.  It's small and sounds silly, but I feel so independent doing that!
3. A bath bench - So, in addition to all the things you can't do on your own when you are immobile, the main one is obviously regarding hygiene.  I will just say this....find a caregiver that you trust and love, and invest in a bath bench.  It can be quite dangerous without one - tried it.  
4. A cast cover -  While you're using that bath bench, you don't want to get your cast or split wet AT ALL, especially after surgery when your incisions are healing.  I was skeptical about using this cast cover, but we tested it out, and so far so good.  I haven't completely submerged it in the water, but its really helpful for how I am using it right now, and I am so glad I have it.  
5. A knee scooter - This may be the coolest thing to come out of this whole ordeal.  It certainly has been a conversation piece.  I use this to get around downstairs and will likely take my new wheels out for a spin at the mall or something this weekend.  It's so much faster and safer than crutches.  You can purchase these or rent from a medical supply store.  I think doctors may also write prescriptions for them too.  I bought mine, I hope we never need it again though.  You can also buy baskets ad other accessories to help you with getting around and carrying items.  So far, every person who has visited us has had to test the scooter out for themselves -its pretty fun :)
6. Patience - You can't really buy this, but you have to have it to get through this.  If you don't have it, it will be miserable.  I believe we are each allowed the right to "pity party" days, and I have certainly had a few a lately.  But really just be patient with your recovery, your family and friends who are helping you, and with your injury - its a long process and returning to normal life will take a while - there are still many times I wonder "Why Me?!?!" and "WTF!!!" but I am learning to be patient and focus on each milestone as an achievement.  

I'll quote one of my favorite movies here ("What About Bob?") - "Baby step to four o'clock. Baby step to four o'clock."  Each hour, each day, each week is a small step to recovery.  Celebrate it.

One Week Post Surgery

It's been a while since I wrote about my experience, and I considered deactivating the blog because I wasn't sure if I was going to keep up with tracking my recovery.  But I figured I would post a few updates on how surgery went and the week after surgery.

I went into surgery on Thursday May 31.  It was a very straight forward procedure, and my husband was there with me.  The surgery was in an outpatient surgical center.  All of the staff was very helpful for the most part, and I think my most traumatic experience of the day was when one of the nurses was attempting to release the brake on my wheelchair and instead released/dropped the leg rest that my broken ankle and 20 pound full leg cast were resting on!!! My leg/cast went crashing down onto the hard hospital floor,  and I yelled a FOUR LETTER WORD at the top of my lungs.  Several other nurses came rushing into my pre-op room to help, and I am pretty sure I was in shock.

The nurse felt so bad and was so apologetic, I know it was a mistake, and I was really just ready to get some sleepy meds at that point.  From there I was wheeled into the area for my anesthesia, and also so the nurses could remove my full leg cast.  I don't really remember them removing my cast, because I was falling asleep when they started and completely asleep when they finished.  I had local anesthesia from the knee down and was put to sleep through an IV, so I wasn't completely under - I really like this option because I was not groggy when I woke up and didn't have the risk of being completely sedated.

When I woke up, my leg was still numb, and I wasn't experiencing any pain or grogginess. The bottom part of my leg was in a split cast with ace bandage and padding around it.  My husband and I headed home and I started taking my pain meds immediately.  My surgeon and nurses suggested I do this, so that I was always ahead of the pain.  This worked until about midnight that night, when the local anesthesia on my leg wore off.

Thursday night and all day Friday were bad.  Really bad.  I experienced a pain that I really can only describe as someone taking a knife and dragging in around your ankles, non stop.  The pain in my ankle resonated all the way up my leg.  It was excruciating.  I knew it would be bad, but really wasn't prepared for this.  Friday we called into my doctor's office and got a stronger pain medicine prescription.

This new medicine helped me so much to get through the weekend - but with any pain medicine, you also typically have side effects.  I had a raspy voice, and was pretty dizzy and nauseous most of the weekend - but I wasn't in too much pain.  I also had really itchy skin.  I started to only take a half tablet of the medicine along with a benadryl and that seemed to work really well.

Things were ok (considering) through Wednesday night like this.  I did experience some random pain and also this strange feeling when I was asleep or falling asleep - almost like a shock of some sort from leg that caused me to jump (imagine when you are dreaming you are falling and you jump to wake yourself up) - this would happen randomly.  I read this may have something to do with the nerves that were damaged/shifted during surgery, but I am not certain.

Wednesday night, the bottom part of my leg went completely numb.  I couldn't feel anything.  I was able to move my toes but everything else was numb.  I am sure it was a bit of me being so over this whole ordeal and worrying excessively, but I was so worried this might mean something bad.  So I called the nurse on Thursday and she said it may be because my ace bandages were too tight OR because I wasn't elevating my high enough.

I slept with four pillows under my leg, instead of three.  It helped a little - but the real relief came on Friday at my post op appointment when the splint/cast was removed - it felt so good to let my leg breathe for those few minutes for xrays!!   The doctor also removed some stitches (I didn't realize how painful this would be), and had me begin to move my ankle front/back and in circles- that was pretty weird since I have not moved my ankle since the fall in Belize.

Now, I have a short cast (under my knee and down to my toes) for the next three weeks.  Everything seems to be healing properly, and hopefully I'll get a boot in 3 weeks and start physical therapy.  I am able to put minimal pressure on my foot - only to maybe touch my foot to the ground while I brush my teeth or something, no more than that.  I haven't taken any pain medicine the past two days, and I think I am done with them.  There is still some pain, but nothing compared to what it was.

This is such a long process and not fun at all, but I am trying to make the most of it, and so appreciative of my friends and family who have offered to help us out a bit right now - we need it!  I have learned a few things and purchased some items I would highly recommend if anyone else goes through this - I will share those on my next post.