I was so sure my ankle wasn’t broken.
It’s broken.
Not a terrible break. Hairline. Now instead of hobbling around in a pressure bandage I’m hobbling around in a fracture boot. Which helps — as long as I don’t trip over the stiff old thing and break something else.
As always, I get by with a little help from my friends. Friends who pushed me to take this more seriously and friends who know much more than I do about dealing with such things. Friends who gave generously of their time and expertise.
I hate going to doctors. The prospect of limping off to be potentially manhandled, misdiagnosed, over-tested, over-treated, over-medicated, financially depleted, and otherwise abused by the medical system freaks me out to the point where I cussed and cussed when I realized I had a break, not a pulled or torn something-or-another. When I told friend Y. how I swore, he laughed and said, “Oh, I can see you cussing like a Marine DI. ‘Hecky-darn!’ ‘Phooey!’ ‘H. e. double toothpicks!’.”
I assured Y. that hecky-darn is not part of my cussing vocabulary. On the contrary, I may have taught some new words to a few of the young women who were around at the moment.
It’s been very educational, though. In comments the other day, a couple of people mentioned fracturing their malleolus bones. I had no idea such a thing as malleolus bones existed, let alone that we all have them in our ankles. Actually, melleolus is only a name for the bottom parts of more familiar leg bones. You may have known that since you were in the sixth grade. I didn’t. Now I know I have a fracture of the lateral malleolus.
I could quite happily have gone the rest of my life without ever having any reason to learn that.
Oh no! Good thing you were keeping off of it, right? Hopefully it will heal up quickly and you can get back to diagnosing car problems 🙂
LibertyNews — LOL, yes, that’s just fabulous motivation! Cannot wait.
Ouch!! Hope you feel better soon!!!
I’m glad you had it checked out, Good luck with the healing.
Youch! Sorry to hear that. Glad you got it looked at, though.
I hate going to docs too, Claire. I feel about them like Baron Von Munchausen does. And I believe there is a reason that probably 98% of the folk who die in this country do it under a doctor’s care. Besides, we can cure ourselves of most things people normally see a doc about without the doc is we just pay attention to medical protocols and make a trip to the drug store or ‘feed & seed’ store. (Most vet meds were people meds first).
High top (8-10″) boots will help a lot for the next few months. They might look kinda odd is you’re wearing a dress, but they will keep you standing with minimal ankle pain or stress, and you can always claim it’s a prepper fashion statement.
“Besides, we can cure ourselves of most things people normally see a doc about without the doc is we just pay attention to medical protocols and make a trip to the drug store or ‘feed & seed’ store. (Most vet meds were people meds first).”
True, I think. OTOH, it really helps to have people who are knowledgeable — but not necessarily people who have the power, position, and education of M.D.s — to help. People with practical knowledge and common sense. Normally I say gods bless the Internet, but in this case, the ‘Net was of little help while people with medical experience pointed me in the right direction.
About Munchausen, though … I don’t know what, if anything, the fictional baron thought about doctors. But aren’t the people named after him the type who love and crave going to doctors to the point of craziness?
And thanks for the good wishes, guys. As broken bones go, this break seems to be a pretty benign one. Lucked out, I did.
Still shakes me up how much can change for the worse in the course of a single step on uneven ground.
“a prepper fashion statement.”
Never explain. Leave ’em wondering.
I do have to laugh, though. Yesterday evening I picked up some groceries while wearing that big clunky fracture boot and I noticed several strangers giving me friendly smiles. Well, this is a friendly place in general, but this felt different than the usual casual nods. People, especially women, seemed to be going out of their way to make eye contact with me while fixing smiles on their faces. It was as if they were trying to reassure me or show me how nice they were or something.
Just had to be because I looked like (and — gulp! — am) some poor, feeble gimp.
I almost bought one of those boots when my ankle was hurting a few months back. Got an ankle-only aircast instead (nothing under the heel). Worked great for my problem, which may have been gout (no idea, and haven’t asked a doctor to test for it), but the boot may be better for a real break.
I was aware of the Von Munchausen syndrome, but never before bothered to look up the origin. I had believed he was a real patient. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munchausen_syndrome
Fracture boots are pretty comfortable; at least I think so. The great conveniences over a cast are that you can wash and also SCRATCH. The most important thing to do is to find whatever of your footwear best matches the lift of the fracture boot and wear it only. It might seem at first that leg length discrepancies aren’t that big a deal (up, down, up, down) but after several thousand repetitions they really, really are.
I generally avoid doctors. If I go to the doctor, you can be sure it’s because I am incapacitated to the point I can’t put up much of a fight. That was the case years ago when I had rat bite fever, and it was the case in February when I was writhing on the floor with a kidney stone. A few years ago I even put up with horrible, constant pain for a year and a half simply because it never became unbearable- only to have it cured in less than a week after I finally carelessly mentioned the pain to someone who then dragged me to the doctor.
Ah, the life of the stubborn, doctor-phobic person.
Heal quickly!
Been there, done that… Took a couple of days before I had it looked at because “Mr Know-it-all” (me) thought it was a strain. Turned out to be a hair line fracture. During that time before I had it looked at I was hobbling around with a tensor bandage on it making thing worse. Oh well you live and learn or you don’t live long.
From personal experience I strongly suggest Claire that you be gentle with it. Don’t rush things and expect it to heal overnight, it’s gonna be a while.
Been there, done that as well. Bad step and down I went. I was stubborn enough to not go to the doc for it, not from a doc phobia, but the ones available were lousy (Army medics actually) so I preffered to take care of it myself. Kept it elevated when not walking around, wore lace up boots every day. Still it took a very long time to heal and dealt with pain for a couple years. Current doc mentioned proper care would of stopped the pain much sooner.
Gads, are we an unusually doctor-avoiding group, or what? Maybe so; I expect that’s a side effect of distrust of authority.
Yeah, writhing on the floor with kidney stones would certainly be an incentive to avoid avoiding doctors.
And Matt, I hear you on the lousy doctors, too, though maybe ours are a cut above military medics (dunno). I’ve had to go to small-town docs three times. Was misdiagnosed twice — once no big deal, once very seriously. The third time I had to be stitched up in the emergency room. The charges were outlandish and the friend who removed the stitches later said the doc had done a terrible job and made the stitches way too tight.
I’ve heard too many ugly stories about the local docs — and have heard them from other medical professionals. Since inability to read xrays seems to be one of their notorious flaws, I really did not want to have to go to them now.
Shel — Thanks for the tip about shoes. The up-down took about two minutes to become really tiring. I can see that it’s important to develop a rhythm and style of walking with the fracture boot and not change it. For safety’s sake.
I live in the S.E. corner of AZ. The local docs at best are average. We do have the reputation of being a place where doctors go when they have failed everywhere else. Emergency rooms are generally staffed with rental docs. It does not give one much faith in medicine.
it is unclear to me how you realized it was broken. did the witch doctor come to you in your dreams? some sort of backwoods xray machine?
maybe you’ll get this stuck in your head in your spare quiet time. hehe.
KiA — Many years ago, I wrote that if things got really bad in the world and free people could no longer get medical care under government rules, communities of freedomistas might have to hijack trucks carrying MRI machines between rural locales.
It was nothing that dramatic. 🙂
For some reason, the sound didn’t play on that video. And you know, watching those guys gyrate, I expect that’s just as well, thank you.
Shel has a great idea. And, related to that, all the limping, hopping and uneven stepping is going to stress all of your leg and hip muscles. When the ankle heals, you will likely find yourself with lots of aches and pains elsewhere.
A visit to a physical therapist would be most wise. They can help you put together an exercise program to re-balance and strengthen your muscles, and help you see where you’ve developed bad habits of movement and such… necessary for coping with the ankle problem, but very counterproductive afterwards. You’ll need to do stretching exercises to regain full mobility in the ankle too.
Seeing a physical therapist a few times will not be a luxury, but a necessity if you want to avoid long term or even permanent disability and pain. I never met a PT I wouldn’t trust… 🙂
Claire, the women were just relieved that you were less able to chase after their husbands (not that you would, anyway) than usual. 😉
6 to 9 weeks (pretty much inversely proportional to age) to heal, i.e.:convert the “jelly” which is now filling that crack to bone. Unfortunately, that bone is comparatively (to the what’s around it) porous, and so, weaker. 6 months to a year to fully recover to original strength.
How I know this is an interesting story:
A broken collarbone put me under the care of a almost-ready-to-retire orthopedist at the now-closed Bess Kaiser hospital. I wish I could remember his name. At any rate, he was one of the authors of *the* paper on how bones heal. Like most surgical advances, this knowledge came from war. He was part of survey team of orthos and pathologists in Japan in 1952 who had their pick of fresh corpses from the Korean War; bodies with broken bones who had died over the entire range of healing time after the break. They used this data to plot exactly how bones heal. We had a good 30 minute conversation about all this.
The advice to look for a PT is good: let them tell you what exercises you can do, and when. The requirement to keep weight off it will produce muscular degeneration (pencil leg) that will recover much faster with proper, controlled exercise.
I hope you heal quickly & easily, Claire, and that you receive no more medical surprises in 2015.
I can remember the last time I went to a family doc. Well, actually, the last time I called the doc’s office. That was years ago, and they irritated me so badly, I haven’t been back. And I hear stories. Health care isn’t what it once was, at least for GP / family doc visits. Back in the 80’s, I had a great doc. Old guy, he’d do minor surgery right there in the office. Now, you get referred to a surgical facility. No doubt rising malpractice insurance cost is to blame for some of that. I also remember the last time I went to a surgical practice – also years ago. Doc was a great guy, but his office staff sucked. So I didn’t go back, and they didn’t follow up either. So it’s no wonder people don’t want to go to the docs. If I could find someone like old Doc Hayes again, I’d go. (No, my last visit to the eye doc doesn’t count – that was just a routine exam. Same for the dentist.) But as far as I know, nothing is killing me yet. I just put up with the various little things.
Good that you got it properly diagnosed, and hope for a quick recovery.
Also, goodbye, B.B. King.
A good doctor is hard to find. When you find one, treasure them!
“communities of freedomistas might have to hijack trucks carrying MRI machines between rural locales.”
I live near a university/research hospital conglomerate. They often sell their used equipment online, including MRI and xray machines. Along with lots of other cool stuff 🙂
Glad you got it looked at — here’s to you being back on it ASAP!
Thanks for the good wishes, guys. And bud, thanks for the fascinating (if rather gruesome) info on bone healing.
Yup, PT is probably a good idea. Just a couple of sessions, I hope. But the combo of idleness and lopsided walking is already having an effect after just a few days.
Owie! I’ve been wondering how you were doing. Sorry I didn’t check in and ask sooner.
Bad news that it’s a break, but good news that you got it checked out and will be getting appropriate treatment to speed up the healing process.
I guess I’m extra lucky to have a regular doc that I like and trust, although I only see him every 3 to 5 years. The one hard part about going to see him is that he looks just like Jerry Lewis in The Nutty Professor. Straight face, straight face….. 😉
Karen — Thanks for the sympathy! Today is actually the first day since Monday that I’ve felt half human.
Wish I had a doc that I trust. Well, I do. But she’s a veterinarian and not allowed to treat us two-leggeds.
Well that’s crap! These things always seem to come in a package deal with other unfortunate life events huh?
I wish you a speedy recovery!
“Wish I had a doc that I trust. Well, I do. But she’s a veterinarian and not allowed to treat us two-leggeds.”
Yes! Overall, I’ve had much more confidence with our veterinary experiences than with most of our doctor experiences over the years. At least you do have furrydoc for guidance, confirmations and first or second opinions.
Before it became a normal human medical technique, our vet did offer to treat DH with his cold laser(after hours and off the books, of course). I think vets are better diagnosticians because their patients can’t tell them what’s wrong.