Walking downstairs this morning, about 6:30. Not paying attention. Then SHRIEK!!! SPLAT!!! and I’m sprawled on the floor at the bottom of the stairs.
I think I just flat out missed the last step. Banged up my knee (just bruised) but I was aware my foot hurt, roughly between the 3rd and 4th toes (the middle-finger and ring-finger toes), but back an inch or so. Basically, about where a Morton’s Neuromatends to occur.
Got ice on it before I even stood up, got ibuprofen on board, and it’s hurting even worse when I try to move around (with the help of a cane). This pattern (hurt followed by Hurt followed by HURT) reminds me of the last couple of broken bones (elbows, matched pair, not at the same time).
Got an appointment with an orthopedist this afternoon. Assuming they confirm my almost-but-not-totally-uninformed diagnosis, what might I be looking forward to? Surgery? amputation? cast? crutches? a knee-scooter? all of the above?
And an aside: how tough is it to get a temporary handicapped placard (I assume there is such a thing) in case I am gimpy for more than a day or two?
Sorry about your pain. Unfortunately I don’t know about foot injuries. But I did just confirm a broken ankle with my podiatrist last week. Which for me means an MRI next week, surgery mid November, 6 weeks in a cast, and physical therapy after that. I don’t know if that compares at all - but at least it’s one data point.
Life is going to suck for a few weeks, but it’s honestly not going to be a big deal. There’s not much they can do for you except give you a cane. Within six weeks you’ll be fine.
A few years ago I broke 2 toes in one foot and a tarsus in the other. That was on November 10thish. By Christmas I was jogging on a treadmill.
Of course, that was my experience, yours may be very different.
Definitely broken, the 4th metatarsal. Getting into the doc’s office was… fun. Or something. I’m basically in one of those stylish plastic removable boot thingies, plus toes taped, for the next few weeks. I was relieved they didn’t want to go in and pin the bone, phew!
So life is gonna suck for a few weeks, then hopefully gradually improve.
I asked for crutches, given how rough moving around was with just a cane. Hopefully in a few days I’ll be able to trade back down. One free hand is better than none!!!
Got a temporary placard for the car, which I hope to use very little but will trot out if I need to - like today I sure could have used it at the doctor’s office!
Broken foot bones are the worst! That stiff boot does a decent job of immobilizing it, but you really start to notice the inconvenience of “don’t put any weight on it” within the first day.
Not broken in the classic sense anyway. It’s probably more like a soft tissue injury with bone bruising.
Last time I had a broken ankle I just used duct tape instead of a cast. Doctor said it would heal anyway if I could stand it so I ran on it too. It took three weeks to resolve. I’d have to be crawling on my hands and knees before using a handicapped sticker or parking space. But that’s just me.
Nope, definitely broken - I saw the X-ray and even I could see that it was slightly displaced. Having had broken bones before, I recognized the pattern of “huh, this kinda hurts a fair bit but I can still move” followed by “hmmmm, it’s hurting more. I don’t like the way this is going” followed by “yep, starting to hurt like crazy” followed by “Golly, this is a trifle unpleasant”.
Yep, we’ll still come :). The kids will have to assemble the cheese ball tonight, the “chocolate-something” will come from a bakery instead of homemade however.
I’m very thankful for the removable boot vs a true cast - makes a lot of things easier and lets me air things out as well. Last time I had a real cast was at age 6 and mumblemumble years later I still remember how miserable THAT was.
I broke a bone near the top of the arch of my right foot a few years ago. Basically I got told to walk it off (I remember being told to wear two pairs of socks or, preferably, tight work socks to minimise the pain), stay off it where I could and it’d be good to go in eight weeks.
I left it eight weeks - the pain mostly died away after six - before I went back to footy training. That night the nice man looking at my new x-ray told me that I’d need to wear two pairs of socks to minimise the pain and I should wait eight more weeks for the new break to heal before I could go running on it again.
BigNik, I’m cringing on your behalf!!! Interesting that they said socks / walk it off - that would NOT be feasible for me!!
Your rebreaking it the minute you went back to sports… my brother broke his foot when he was 12 or so. Got the cast off one fine morning… and broke his HAND that afternoon (or it might have been hand first, then foot, but you get the picture).
IIRC, my parents were not terribly pleased. On the positive side, we knew where the orthopedist lived and it was a very nice house, and we figured we paid for a substantial chunk of it!!
I broke my foot about four years ago. It was an accident at work, so I got worker’s comp, which was good, since I didn’t have any medical insurance. It’s the only broken bone I’ve ever had. I too had the boot with crutches. The worst part was the only way to get to my apartment was up one flight of stairs. Just before I gave up the crutches, I got cocky in my descending stairs on crutches ability and fell. I didn’t reinjure my foot, but I got a nice bump on my forehead.
I went grocery shopping once and they asked if I wanted to use the motorized cart. I declined, but in the end, I wished I had taken them up on it.
Riding the bus or train and having people give up their seats for me was nice.
UGH!! I do the stairs at home once each day. I come downstairs in the morning, and I go upstairs at night. It’s too exhausting and painful otherwise. Glad you didn’t reinjure your foot when you fell that second time :(.
I wonder if you had, if you could count that as part of the worker’s comp claim since it was caused by the work-related disability???
I haven’t done grocery shopping yet. Might try the cart, or might not. I overdid things last night at Dweezil’s school (college fair) and the grocery would be a similar amount of walking. Not so sure I wanna do that again any time soon.
You’re lucky people gave up their seats. I once had a sprained ankle while I was commuting via Metro - and I could stand right in front of the designated “give it up, you ass” seats and people would look right through me.