Life on Crutches

 The most irritating thing about moving around on crutches is that you can't carry anything.  

Want to read a book?  The reading part is fine, but I still need a crutch in each hand - fortunately, I am married to a marvellous man who is willing to go and pick things up for me!

I'm making reasonable progress on the foot.  The swelling is going down - probably won't be gone entirely for a couple of months, but it looks a lot better than it did two weeks ago.  I've still got some very interesting coloured bruising, but nothing like the initial balloon.  I've got a large beetroot coloured splotch on the instep which is fairly tender - I suspect there was some muscle damage there, as it's actually more painful than the two fracture points!

The beetroot blotch makes it too painful to wear the support boot, so I've been going around barefoot at home (luckily the hospital physio confirmed this was okay).

Added  few days later..

 

It's now three weeks since the accident.

My metatarsal is healing slightly slower than predicted, but I think the ankle is healing slightly quicker.  I'm still using the crutches if I'm moving around the room or between rooms, but I can do one or two very basic Tai Chi routines without the crutches. The big advantage of Tai Chi is that all changes in balance are very slow and controlled. Thus, I can control exactly how much weight shifts onto the injured foot.

The most unexpected thing is that I'm sleeping far better than normal.  I have to sleep in a different position than normal in order to have the injured foot on top, but because I'm finally free of the various problems that were causing pain on a pinched nerve in my leg (sciatica type pains have at least three different causes - and I've had all three in turn over the last few years).

Hopefully in a few more weeks, I'll be able to walk through dance moves, but step-hops will probably have to wait a bit longer, as they put far more stress on the joints.

I'm going to attempt what I suspect will be a very short swimming session tomorrow - I did a test run yesterday, so I know I can get up the entrance steps on crutches, use a lift to the lower floor, get my shoes off in the changing room and use crutches to get to the pool.  So, back tomorrow, for the quietest swimming spot of the day (8:30) and we'll see what my body thinks of non-weight bearing exercise that moves the joints in different directions.

I ran both swimming and the Tai Chi past the physio at the hospital - just in case you're worried :)