Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Farewell 2024
Welcome to (in all likelihood) the final post of the year!!! I had a few others in me, but they're not ready for prime time as of yet. So, what do I now have in common with my cat???
In 2024 we both have broken a bone related to walking!!!
On Saturday, 4 days ago, I was coming down some stairs, and on the last one I rolled my foot to the inside, and I swore I heard a pop (and, yes, I swore). It was painful, and I was limping around afterwards, but the pain wasn't in my ankle as I would have expected. I went to a local urgent care (which I'd been to once this month already, I had a cough that wasn't going away, and it turned out I had a bacterial infection. The stuff they prescribed did a fine job clearing it up!!!) and was told there was around a 3 hour wait. I expected as much, being a weekend, it wasn't anywhere near that long when I went on a Tuesday. Of course, I work in the evenings on Saturdays, and it was going to be close at best.
After a wait commensurate with the time estimated, they took me in and took my vitals and my story. After a quick visual inspection they took X-rays, and a bit later the doctor comes back and tells me I broke it. Displaced 5th metatarsal fracture, to be exact. They put on a splint (which feels loose to me) and gave me a pair of crutches and referred me to an orthopedic surgeon for further evaluation. Oh yeah, they told me before they put the splint on that I may have to cut off my pants when I got home. No thanks, I'll just take those off now!!! My surrogate son had been driving us around, and I know he had his windbreaker, and I figured I'd fashion it into a kilt. I never did, but that's what I was thinking of doing.
Ended up 45 minutes late to starting work that day. I tried to contact the orthopedic surgeon they had referred me to on Monday, and it put me on hold forever, then put me through to a message machine, which told me it was completely full after it beeped. At any rate, I had been looking them up the day before on the map, and they aren't very highly rated. My wife happens to know a place that does some orthopedic surgery, so I contacted them. The soonest they could get me in is this coming Friday.
I never saw the X-rays, so I don't know exactly the location or extent of the fracture. Most of the information I found was it'll be 6 to 8 weeks if no surgery is required. It honestly doesn't feel that bad, unless I try and walk on it or put pressure on it. There are a few types of fractures it could be, avulsion, Jones, or dancer's. I found a couple of images of them, and one of them was actually from another guy on Blogger, and it sounds like his injury came about similarly to mine, but it looks like his was worse, with some swelling.
This is now my second broken bone, the first one I referred to when it had happened, back in 2005 around when I'd started blogging. I have a couple of mentions and links to the picture, but they were hosted on Geocities (now defunct, if you didn't know), and if I'd posted about it, it was probably on MySpace. You remember MySpace, don't you??? Maybe I'll post about it at some point, I tell people it's where my newest tattoo came from (they injected numbing agents in my knuckles through my greasy dirty hand, and the mark remains) and it's one of my many tales that my younger likes me to share with his friends.
I was thinking of making this into a random post with several bits of the aforementioned possible future posts, but not tonight. One of the things I would have had that carries over is my wife had broken some of her back rods again, and had surgery at the beginning of November to repair and reinforce things. She got out the day before Thanksgiving, and thankfully she's got a good amount of her mobility back, which works out since I now can't drive. It was on my right hand foot.
Still holding the title of Titanium Queen!!!
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3 comments:
Side note about the cat, he sneaked into our room this morning (he's not supposed to be in there) and once he got done sneaking around, he got up on the bed and laid himself on my injured foot. I've heard of the healing effect of a cat's purr, I wonder if he was helping???
Aye-yai-yai! You broke yours the same exact way I did. Stairs should have the bottom step painted in blood red. Also, the cat is key to recovery. Not sure why, but I'm sure it helps. That and not trusting yourself on crutches. Not sure how coordinated you are, but even the kneewalker got tricky, with me sometimes not putting my knee on the pad and ..those things have a tendency to tilt forward. Hopefully you have a good support system and health care is being reasonable. Make sure it's very clear from your insurance company that everything is preapproved, so you don't get a bill of tens of thousands after you recover. You're welcome to use my X-ray.
Thanks, Scott! I wondered if you still blogged anymore or monitored follow up replies, and it looks like you at least the latter! One of our friends had a foot surgery a while back and she loaned me her knee walker, and I'm dangerously quick on it! I like it much better than crutches, but most of the house is too crowded to use it there so it's crutches around the house. Oh, and the house? It's in the foothills, and originally was on stilts until the previous owner (my grandpa) dug out underneath and made a full basement that's at ground level in the front and buried in the back... anyway, the main living area is up a flight of stairs, and every time coming up I'm reminded of how out of shape I am! Not to mention 4 steps up from the slanty street, I'm glad I put rails in for both of them! My younger son and wife are a great help, and back during the stupid times my job transitioned from walking ~6 miles a day in a warehouse to desk work that could be done remotely (contributing to my out-of-shapeness) so at least they'll accomidate me at work. The ortopedic surgeon said it's about 95% of these he doesn't opt for surgery, and gave me a boot and we'll see how it's going in a couple weeks. The X-ray looks a bit like yours, with a good sized gap, I'm sure I'll post it later. Funny about the cat, a couple of days after, he got in the bedroom while I was still in bed with my foot elevated laying on it's side, and he climbed up on it and layed down and purred! I've heard before the purr harmonics have clinically proven bone healing effects, I wonder if he instictivly knew and was helping out?
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