My first week was horrid. The bone pain did not subside until my 4th day post op. I felt so good that I grabbed a wheeled dining room chair and vacuumed the floors and furniture. The kids were at daycare so I ended up taking a nap on pain meds shortly after doing my tidy up chores due to swelling in my splint (I could feel the sides of the splint and every single bump digging into my ankle and foot). During the week days I had from 8 to noon by myself..well, no..with the dog and cat. The cat would be fine if he would move out of the way of the crutches and the dog...well...the dog requires outside potty breaks...for a 20 pound dog he has a lot of pull...I have fallen before and really didn't want to go through this again. However, it is the beginning of college football season and my husband will not be around much at all to help me. I will do my best not to take any narcotic pain meds during the day as my little boys are extremely busy and active. Oh the joy....
I fell four times in my first week of non weight bearing in my splint. The first time was while I was letting my dog outside to potty...I figured since I lived on the bottom floor and half my apartment was under the ground level, that I could take the screen out of my spare bedroom and simply lift the dog out and lift him back in. Well, the idea was brilliant until I lost my balance letting the dog back in and ended up tossing him to the bed, keeping my leg straight up in the air and falling flat on my back in the room. My crutches fell and one struck the dog who was less than thrilled. The second time was on the bathroom floor as there was water on the floor where my crutch touched...and slipped out from under me. I did land on my left foot....good thing it was night time and I was able to take pain meds. The third time I fell was in the living room. My husband was not coming over that evening after football meetings (summer football league stuff) and actually neglected to tell me that he was out of town that night. Anyway....my dog is so afraid of my crutches that I have to leave them by the couch and then hop to his kennel and drag him out. If he cannot see the crutches he will kinda come out willingly...kinda. Well...my mistake was that I put a shoe on my good foot prior to hopping over to the kennel and ended up catching my shoe on the carpet, landing straight on my bad foot (the toe) and putting a serious bruise on my left hip from the fall. I cried...I called my husband and well...to make a long story short, the word divorce came up quite a few times once he made it back into town.
The fourth time I fell was coming over to where my husband stays during the school year, the college dorms. He has 16 steps at the front door that I have to go up. Understand that I mastered these on crutches when I had knee surgery nearly two years ago. Difference is that with my knee surgery I was allowed to bear some weight and toe touch on my bad leg. My kids went ahead of me and my husband went behind me in case I lost my balance going up. I got to the 15th step and my good foot made it to the top but my crutches caught the edge of the step and I landed on my bad heel as it slid forward and hit the wall ahead of me. Oh my gosh...talk about some pain!!!! I ended up going straight to the bedroom with a full dose of pain meds. After each of my falls I had no bleeding so I figured I would let the doc know when I see him on the 13th of this month. Good grief!
He is frustrated that I can't sit still, he has no idea that I am not capable of that when the dog has to go to the bathroom and the little boys need help with things like...um eating dinner. AT ages 4 and 6 they don't yet prepare their own meals or get glassed down from the cupboards.
I have considerably less bone pain after day 4, even after I fell straight on my heel...I did feel the screw though...I had to feel that...I felt something just dig straight through my foot. I also get some odd sensations where the screw went into my foot...it has to be what I am feeling. There's nothing else there.
I am extremely uncomfortable in my splint. I have had to readjust my foot several times inside the splint as the nurses forgot to replace all the padding in my heel when they removed all the bloody stuff a few days ago. It now forces my foot to sit all the way back in the splint and the area where it curves to protect my sutures...well, that now digs into my incision. I really should call my doc and have it rewrapped but I keep telling myself to suck it up and wait till the 13th when I get it all checked out by the surgeon. Plus...I cannot drive my own vehicle as it is a manual transmission...my husband gets rather ticked off when I request to go anywhere...he has practice during the day...he may need his vehicle...and heaven forbid he just take mine.
I have learned my lesson not to take any chances on the dorm steps and now resort to sitting and climbing up them backward. It takes a lot longer but I just cannot bear to fall again...I am out of pain pills. Week two I plan to start some exercising.
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