I find it very hard to sit with both feet on the ground. I usually either cross my legs or sit on one foot. This means that quite frequently one of my feet or even a whole lower leg will fall asleep. Usually I notice, but on two memorable occasions in recent months I didn’t notice until I went to stand up and my foot totally twisted over on its side, refusing to go flat on the floor. I had to hobble along holding onto things and really concentrate to put the foot down properly before transferring any weight to it.
Both times I was amazed that I didn’t twist or even break my ankle, because that first doomed step, I was putting all my weight behind it. The first time I was alone in my office, but the second time I was getting up from the waiting area at CVS (drugstore) when they called my prescription was ready. At least 5 people in line saw me and witnessed my totally awkward staggering gait to the checkout counter.
Again, I’m shocked that neither event caused any kind of injury.
Was I lucky or is this not actually as dangerous as it seems? I mean the foot rolled completely over onto its side with all the weight of my step behind it. The foot isn’t meant to have all that weight on the side like that, with the ankle rolled over, right?
Has anyone here gotten a foot/ankle/leg/other injury (or fallen down?) from having a foot or leg fall asleep and then trying to walk on it? It seems like it would be pretty common.
My prompting to post this was that I just caught myself almost doing it again. Fortunately I noticed at the last minute that tingling sensation was coming into my foot, and realized it was asleep. Those other two times was before the tingling started, in the really-solidly-asleep stage.
The only time I’ve fallen was a few months ago. I was trying to finish something by a deadline and ended up sitting at my computer for most of the day without getting up to stretch. Finally stood up and my left leg just completely didn’t work and I faceplanted. Was a really weird sensation having a normally reliable body part just completely not respond.
Happily, just some light bruises, but I can see how if you were less lucky you could damage yourself pretty badly in a similar incident.
I once drank a slurpee type of drink in front of a guy I was trying to impress (8th grade) and I drank it too fast and threw up all over the sidewalk. He wasn’t impressed. [/hijack]
No injuries due to a limb that’s fallen asleep, but sometimes I sleep on my side with my face on my hand and I wind up scratching myself in the middle of the night (I assume that I try to move my hand in my sleep while it’s under my face). The scratches are shallow, but there’s usually blood and I have a noticeable mark on my face for the next day or two.
Like I do today.
I sprained both my ankles many times as a child and preteen and it was nearly always due to me sitting on my feet until they went into a coma. I still sit on my feet but I’ve learned to get up and move around before they felt like useless stumps.
I once had my left arm fall asleep in bed because I was sleeping on it wrong. Presumably because of the pins and needles feeling, I had a horrible dream that I was chopping off my own left arm with an axe. At the end of the dream, I started to emerge into half-wakefulness, and I thought to myself, “what a relief to wake up; my arm must be fine.” I tried to lift it to confirm, but it was still completely asleep, so it just flopped heavily across my face, deadened of any feeling. In other words, it felt exactly like a severed arm.
I sat bolt upright and screamed, “AAAUUGGH!” Thank goodness I was alone.
My right foot fell asleep one time and I went to stand up. My right leg is an inch and a half shorter than my left, and instead of standing on my foot and toes, I stood right on my toes and bent them backwards. Hurt like Hades, but luckily no breakage…
I’ve stood and had my leg fail to support me, including having the knee bend wrong-wise, but (thank Ghu!) never actually had any injury from it. It was very sore when sensation returned, but nothing worse.
(I also tend t0 “gray out” from posture hypertension – is that the correct phrase? – from standing up after resting too long either sitting or lying prone. I once fell right into a set of bookcases and got a lovely big scrape on my forehead!)
