This brings up a good point that I was going to mention after reading Eva Luna’s post. My parents had a walker they brought me soon after my surgery. I ended up sort of wedging it into my shower as a handhold. It made things so infinitely easier when trying to shower with a cast on. I never thought of a shower stool, that would be even better.
And yes, crutches are hard work. I joke that the best weight loss program I have ever seen was humping my butt around on crutches in 100 degree heat. Instant sweat. I don’t know where you are, but if it’s going to be warmer than mid 70’s there while you are on crutches, be prepared to sweat, with all the attendant issues that involves.
As for doors, I’m a big guy, so I just kinda turned around and went through them backwards, using my backside to hit the door opener bar, or if need be, opened the door, stuck a crutch in the opening, then pivoted and pushed through backwards. Not too hard once you get the hang of it, but 10x the effort it would normally be. You’ll find that a lot, moving around is going to be hard, whether to the bathroom, or to get groceries, or whatever.
I was playing softball when mine let go. I’d passed second and let up on my way into third for an easy stand-up triple. Then pop, I hit the ground. I honestly thought the opposing shortstop had kicked my foot out from under me, as I had just passed him. It was that quick. Everyone on the field heard it. I ended up with road rash on my knees, palms and chest from hitting the ground.
I knew I had done it well since I did it on a friday, went to ER on sat morning(I’m a bit slow on things like that), saw the podiatrist on monday, was in surgery on thurs am, because that was his next scheduled surgery day. And yeah, took him all of 3 questions and a 30 second look to say “surgery,” it’s a pretty clear injury.
And monday is probably too soon. Narcotic pain meds leave me in a fog, and it was several days before I could even think straight, so I waited, but don’t rush it, even if you aren’t zoned out like I was. My doc authorized 4 weeks off.