Trimalleolar Fracture Week 1 & 2

I just wanted to warn all of you before you start reading this post there will be surgical pictures of my ankle.  Not actual surgery but the aftermath of the surgery.

OK.. so two weeks ago today was the initial accident.  I did not have surgery that day but the next day Friday.

I was told that I would need a plate and screws in my ankle to put it back together.  OK first of all I don't like surgery.  It's not really about the surgery as it is waking up.  I have a hard time waking up from anesthesia and then I vomit.  I do not like it. PERIOD!  Of course I have no choice in the matter if I want to walk again with a normal gait.  

The surgery itself took 2.5 hours a little longer than anticipated.  My family was a little worried when they thought it was suppose to only take an hour. The doctor came out an told them it was a little worse than he first thought and that I would have this hardware in forever.  So off to recovery I went.  This was by far the best surgery I have ever had!  I elected for the spinal only.  I woke up with no grogginess and did not vomit!  This anesthesiologist was awesome!  And not too bad to look at either!!! lol  He came to my room and checked on me throughout the day.  I was brought back to my room to finish recovering.  Now, there is a down side to having a spinal.  You can't feel mid abdomen down.  I could sorta feel my legs enough to get up to a bedside commode with the help of two nurses, BUT I could not feel that I had to pee.  Let me back up I could feel a pain in my groin HOURS later that made me think I had to pee.  So I asked to get up and try.  Nothing more embarrassing than as soon as you stand up your bladder starts to leak...ok open up... and pee runs down your legs.  So you sit on the bedside commode and keep going.  You apologize to the nurses one being male of course that you couldn't help.  They try to make you feel better but you can only think that a 40 year old should not be doing this,  Now I not only did this once but TWICE! UGH!!!! They ended up having to change my dressings because of the flood.  When they took the bandages off this is what I saw...

ewwwww.... my poor leg will never be the same... oh well I will consider it a battle scar... My foot is swollen as is my leg and ankle.  They bandaged me back up and I was given my Dilaudid pain pump back until Saturday morning.  My nurse was so good to me.  There were only two of us on the entire surgical floor so I got special treatment.  If I hit the nurse call light he would just come to the room instead of asking what I needed.  He would stand in there and talk with me.  But as soon as the 90 year old lady in the next room heard him she would hit her call button.  He would go see what she needed and then come right back.  He tried to make me feel better by saying that he loved taking care of great patients like me.  I guess it was because I rarely hit the nurse call light unless I had to pee.  I had to have an escort. LOL. The doctor came in Saturday morning and said that as soon as I got off the pump I could go home.  It was Valentine's Day and I wanted to spend it at home with Mark.  I already had to cancel our plans to go away for the weekend because of this whole mess.  So, I told him to disconnect it and I would try Norco.  Well, there was a mix up and I did not get any pain medication for several hours and the pain was so intense I couldn't stand it.  I talked to my nurse and he told me that he would call the doctor for another order for Dilaudid to get it back under control.  The doctor said no and since it was so bad I bought myself another night in the hospital. NOOOOOO!!!! Luckily Mark was a good sport and brought me dinner from a local BBQ restaurant and we sat and ate together in the room.  He even brought me flowers.  :-)  It was a long night, but I got through it.  My favorite nurse came back in Sunday morning and told me to get the heck out of the hospital.  I was calling Mark at 8:30 and waking him up to come get me.  He picked up my son and they came to pick me up.  

I got picked up with this little soft cast... I have to keep it up and not put any weight on it at all!!!

Skip ahead to the following Thursday 4 days later.  I was not allowed to remove this cast until I went to the doctor.  So, my son took me to the doctor and once the cast was removed this is what my leg looked like.  I took these after I got home from the doctor's office.  Pretty colors...  I am popping Ibuprofen every couple hours still and Norco at night.  Sometimes the pain is still unbearable and I can't sleep.

And this is what is in my leg... we counted 10 screws and one plate...

I was then sent home is this beautiful, heavy, annoying, crappy... boot  This thing is so cumbersome and rubs my leg wrong in all the wrong places.  That blue circle is a pump that I can add air to it to make it feel better.  Let me just say I have not used it and it doesn't make it feel better.  I am told to sleep in it and keep it on all the time unless I am watching TV or taking a shower then I can take it off.   

After a week of complete and utter inconvenience of trying to sleep with this stupid thing on brings us to today.  Today I was suppose to get my staples out.  Those darn things catch on everything and pull sometimes.  I am ready for them to come out.  I have never had staples so  I had no idea how it felt to have them removed.  I was a sissy and took a pain pill before I went.  Other than that I am down to taking only Ibuprofen at night.  Otherwise the pain has subsided quite a bit.  My ankle is very stiff at this point from not being moved.  So, after all 36 staples were removed this is what I ended up with.  Oh you are wondering what it felt like to have them removed?  Well there is a slight pinch when they put the staple remover under the staple, but that is it.  Plus there are still places on my leg where I have no feeling so it didn't hurt at all.  LOL.  I still had to have steri strips for awhile until the incision is completely healed.  Still some bruising, but much better.  The swelling is just about gone too.

I have an ankle!!!! woohoo!!!!  I still have bruising up near my knee which is really weird...

I know it's hard to see, but even harder to take a picture but you can see a dark spot that is a bruise.

I was told today that I can drive and put partial weight on my foot.  I am so thrilled.  I am going to do ankle therapy on my own to get it loosened up.  Yes, the doctor said that is fine.  LOL.  I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  Stay tuned next week for an update.

More Spring Goodies

I told you yesterday that I had been working on another paper mache figurine and eggs.  I finally got my son to bring up all my finished products from the basement.  Although don't tell him that I had been up and down the basement stairs 3 times yesterday.  I didn't figure out until the last time how to carry something upstairs.  I was determined to do laundry yesterday.  This makes me feel useful and non-lazy.  Going down stairs isn't difficult.  I just hop on my right leg down the stairs holding on to the wall and the hand railing.  It is then 8 one footed leg hops to the washing machine. Yes... I counted them. LOL.  I'm going stir crazy and have to keep my brain functioning. :-)  Where there is a will there is a way to get your laundry upstairs because your son is at driving school, you need a shower and need more sweat pants, and your daughter claims to not be feeling well.  Next time you do your laundry and your washer and dryer are in your basement try this... stand on one foot... fill your laundry basket with clean clothes... now bend over and push the clothes basket with your hand across the floor to your steps as you hop behind... now turn around sit on your butt on your steps... scoot all the way over closest to your hand railing... reach down and pull the basket up beside you on the step... use one arm and one leg to push and pull yourself up to the next step without letting your foot touch the step... reach down pull your basket up beside you... now do this all the way to the top of the stairs... at the last step push your basket all the way up to the floor... now try to figure out how to get up from the seated position on the steps using one leg and two arms and two crutches that are waiting for you.  I was one hot sweaty mess when I was done to say the least. LOL... I am sure there will be more adventures as time goes on so stay tuned...  I did have the adventure of changing my bed hopping on one foot. Try it and see how that goes!!!!

OK back to what I was working on... I got these items finished up recently.  I was working on a few more items today but my sister called and asked if I would go to lunch at Applebee's today.  It is the first venture out to a restaurant since my accident.  It went pretty smoothly and there was no ice or snow in the path I chose. I got home smoothly and my sister then made me some pickled eggs and beets.  Mmmmmm....

Alright... I quit talking and start showing pictures now... Enjoy!!!!

Still one available for immediate shipment!!! Check out my website to order $18 plus shipping

All of my eggs sold within and hour or so of posting them with additional orders!!!! I am beyond thrilled especially with being off work and not getting paid :-)

Large eggs painted like red ware and yellow ware 

Small pastel decorated Easter eggs

Small pastel plain Easter eggs

Small yellow ware and red ware eggs

So you can see the difference in size of the big and small ones.

So, I am now feeling better and spent some time painting today.  I have someone bringing dinner tonight from my parent's church for us and a meeting at the school for my son for his Spring trip to TN with his Earth Science Club.  The best part is I owe nothing for the trip.  He earned all the points and money to go.  Luckily they have an elevator as I don't really want to navigate that many stairs tonight.  

Come back tomorrow as I will hopefully be able to post after my doctor's appt. For those who have a strong stomach I invite you.  Those who don't you might not want to join me tomorrow. ;-)  I will have graphic pictures up tomorrow of my surgical scar.

Spring Time

I know I said I would post again about my injury over the weekend, but decided I would wait until Thursday.  That will be 2 weeks post fall.  Then I will try to get back on track.  There was one question one of you asked that floored me in a good way :-)  The question was asked if I hadn't injured this same ankle recently.  I was so floored that you remembered.  The answer is yes.  I sprained this same ankle very bad less than a year ago at work getting out of my work truck.  That is why initially I thought I had only sprained it again.

I looked back and saw that I didn't show you my finished paper mache items I painted for Spring.  I am so sick of this cold weather and snow that I thought I would share some bunnies, sheep, and chicks today.  You can still place an order for yours if you are interested on my website.  My supplier is busily making more for me as I have sold quite a few. Just go to my website Gettysburg Homestead.

I have one more chick I just completed, but need to take a better picture of him.  Hopefully I can get one of my kids to bring him up from the basement where he has been drying for a couple days.  I also painted some eggs for Easter also that will be for sale.

I hope this helps some of you who are snowed in like me.  I did get out to the grocery store yesterday and it felt great.  Little by little I'm doing more things for myself.  I just can't wait to get back to normal.

My Trimalleolar Fracture Day #1

This post is the first in a series of posts of my recover from a trimalleolar fracture.  I will be posting each week as I progress through.  It is a diary of sorts for me from where I started to where I end.  If you want to follow along that is great, if not, that is OK too.  I will also be blogging a lot more as I am off for what I was told is 12 weeks.  More on that later.

So let's start from the beginning shall we?

On Thursday February 12, 2015 my journey began.  That morning as we woke up it was snowing like mad outside.  It also happened to be trash day in our neighborhood. My son, who is 15 1/2, and I discussed that since it was snowing we would not be putting the trash out today.  There was already 5-6" of hard snow on the ground and since the trash company gave us these ginormous new trash cans they weren't full enough to put out.  Well, me being me, heard the trash truck coming down the road a few hours later.  I look out the window and it's not snowing now.  If  I hurry I can get it out there before he gets to my side.  Throw on your coat, head down the basement stairs, throw on your tennis shoes, and head to the garage.  Alright, which HUGE trash can should I take out first?  The trash is most important right?  OK, grab onto the can and push, grunt, groan, and it's not moving.  Let's regroup and try pulling this baby up the steep incline of the driveway.  Hey! it's a little slick out here. No problem.  Trash can has successfully been placed on the mountain of snow at the curb.  Woohoo!!!! The trash truck has not made it here yet.  Walk back down the driveway and behind the house to the garage for the recycle bin.  We must save the world one recycle piece at a time.  Whoopsie I just slid a little.  No problem just get the can and head to the curb.  Brrrrrr it's cold out here.  Alright let's grab the can and start pulling the can toward the driveway.  No problem we can still beat the truck.  Just keep pulling.... OH CRAP I'm falling... SNAP... OH MY GOSH my leg hurts!!!! Here I am on all fours in the driveway trying to figure out if I am OK.  Being a paramedic I know I am not OK.  It feels like I sprained my ankle...again.  UGGGHHHH... Now how am I going to get up.  It is really wet and cold out here.  I turn myself over and sit on the ice.  I really need to get up but my leg is killing me and I can feel it swelling by the second.  Now what?  I'll scream for help... HELP!!!!! HELP!!!!! Someone help me!!!!!  HELP!!!!! No one is going to hear me because everyone's window's are closed and inside for the winter and it's 11:30 in the morning.  Now what???? I didn't bring my cell phone because I was just taking out the garbage quick.  No need for my phone.  I really need to get inside it is so cold out here.  Alright, I need to stand up and get inside.  I pull the recycle can over to me and use it as a crutch to stand.  OOOOOWWWWW!!!! I feel what I thought was my leg "give" and was in severe pain.  NNNNNOOOOOOO!!!!! I broke my leg!!!!! Now I have to get inside and get to a phone.  Hop across the ice on my right leg using the recycle can as a crutch all the way to the garage.  I left a trail of recycling across the driveway but who cares.  Shew! Made it to the garage.  Now to get back upstairs to my phone.  I once again hop on my right leg through the garage and into the basement.  UGGGHHHH!!!! why do I live where there are so many steps?!?!?!?!?  How am I going to get up the steps??? I think I am going to pass out this hurts so bad.  I can hop... no way not with a broken leg hanging there.  So, I turned around and sat on the steps and used my upper body to push my way up the steps to the top.  Now where is my phone?  In the living room.  UGH!!! I need to stand up.  OOOOOWWWWWW!!!!! don't stand on a broken leg.   Hop over to the phone and call Mark.  I made it this far he can take me to the Emergency Department.  I will NOT call the ambulance!!!!  It really is taking too long for him too get here.  I can't look at my leg I know it looks horrible.  It hurts soooooo much and is getting bigger by the minute.  I am so tired.  There is no way I can hop out to Mark's car to go to the hospital.  Time to call 911.  Only I called the non-emergency number because this isn't an emergency. LOL.  The poor dispatcher probably could not understand me through the tears but I'm trying to tell her I broke my leg. Long story short the ambulance came to pick me up and took me to the hospital.  It was not a smooth ride and I was the highest card holder of the bunch and had to explain a few things to them.   The chief even showed up and told his crew to believe me if I said it was broken since I was a paramedic.  Anyway...

I went to the local hospital which is not very big.  There is only 8 maybe 9 rooms in the ER.  They are never busy and are considered a bandaid station.  They aren't prepared for this... they will surely transfer me to a bigger hospital to fix this.  I am crying my eyeballs out as the nurses come in and ask me what happened and take off my shoe and cut my sock off.  Thank goodness I had sweat pants on today.  I just love sweat pants. LOL.  The doctor comes in touches my ankle and gets his hands smacked by me.  He quickly orders some pain medication and Xrays.  In comes the xray tech and her helper.  They decide they can just do the xray as I'm laying in the bed thank goodness.  There is no way I would be able to move to another table for this.  This pain med is NOT working!!!!! Next thing I know the doctor pops his head in and asks when I ate last.  Well, that's a peculiar question I thought.  Well, I had Mexican leftovers for lunch. Why do you ask?  Well, you can't have surgery because you just ate. WAIT!!!! WHAAAAATT????  Surgery?????  Apparently I didn't break my leg.  I broke my ankle bad.  It is in alignment which I may have done when I stood on it.  Apparently I broke the lateral malleolous, medial malleolous, and posterior malleolous which are all apart of your tibia and fibula.  This is what I looked like in the ER.  Yep definitely is broke in there. 

Hmmmmm... there seems to be a lot of swelling and a little angulation going on.

Into a cast I go so that it gives it a little support and since I can't have surgery until the next day.  I was in the ER for only a couple hours before I was taken upstairs to my room.  I ask if they are able to handle a break like this at this hospital.  The nurse said absolutely we have a foot and ankle specialist on staff who will do your surgery tomorrow.  Best thing is he is "hot" she said. LOL.  Everyone was so nice to me despite my pain and crying.  My family was there the whole time and as soon as my son got home from school he was by my side.  My daughter was not so thrilled to be there.  Her OCD and autism were in high gear.  They kept me drugged up as best as they could with a Dilaudid pump over night.  It was still a sleepless night in anticipation of my surgery.  I hate surgery!  The anesthesiologist came in and explained a few things and gave me the choice of being knocked out completely or just having a spinal.  I chose the spinal as I vomit after surgery every time.  I also was informed I would be taken down to surgery at 7:30 in the morning and the actual surgery would start at 8:30-9 as the doctor had another case before mine.  The doctor then came in and explained that the surgery should only take an hour unless it was worse than he thought and it might take a little longer.  He wouldn't know until he got in there.  Why me???? Why did I have to do this??? At least 6 weeks recovery time... noooooo I can't do that... I won't get paid.  UGGGGHHHH   I'm a single Mom.... all these thoughts went racing through my head....  I had some wonderful nurses taking care of me.  One just happened to be a paramedic turned RN.  I felt very comfortable with him.  They of course had to help me up to the bathroom.  How embarrassing....

So as not to make this too long I will continue this tomorrow....