Six days and 6-1/2 hours since breaking my &^%$#@! hecky-darned ankle, I’m going stir crazy.
I’m trying to be such a good girl. Aside from an itty-bitty pretty much token walk each morning and afternoon for Robbie (three or four doors down and back, wearing the fracture boot, of course), I’ve been sitting around with my foot elevated, applying heat, gentle massage, and just today a lovely cayenne-pepper cream MamaLiberty told me how to whip up.
Every book I have around the house is a deadly bore. I’ve developed computer vision syndrome (better known in the real world as eye strain). And I’m now on my second-in-a-row viewing of the entire Harry Potter movie series, which is the only thing keeping me from going bonkers.
Yesterday morning I woke up feeling half-human for the first time. I ventured a slightly longer walk in the afternoon — and paid for it today. (That pepper cream really helped, though!)
Tomorrow I need to fetch Ava from Furrydoc’s boarding kennel and that’s going to be interesting. She’s an energy hound who expects to walk/run at least two miles a day in addition to sessions of tennis-ball fetching and tug-o-war. Haven’t found anybody else to do that for her. Sorry, Ava.
But I’m not complaining. Really I’m not. And not feeling sorry for myself (though I’m unaccustomed to fussing over my health and dislike being babied, even if I’m the one doing the babying).
I’m feeling lucky it wasn’t worse. And lucky I have a job I can do while sitting around with my feet up. And lucky to have a little (or a lot) of help from my friends.
Besides, as a person who appreciates aesthetics, I find the colorfulness of this experience quite entrancing.
Don’t click on the “more” link unless you appreciate rich colors where bland color ususally prevails. This is what things look like six days (and 6-1/2 hours) after the event. The swelling’s gone down considerably but the colors keep “improving” all the time.
What a palette! And all on one ankle. Bartenders charge extra for drinks with that many layers of color 🙂
LOL! I hadn’t thought in terms of fancy drinks (except in the sense of possibly drowning myself in one). But it had occurred to me that Mark Rothko might have utilized this selection of colors in one of his famous paintings — which could make my foot and lower leg worth tens of millions.
https://celebrity.yahoo.com/news/2-mark-rothko-paintings-highlight-nyc-auction-155708925.html
Ah yes, how lovely! The pale green in particular. And I don’t understand the appeal of Rothko – at least the paintings I’ve seen pictures of. But hey, what do I know about modern art?
I’ve read about capsaicin as an analgesic. Odd how some things work, eh? There’s also bee-sting therapy, but I doubt it’s indicated in your case.
Good luck with Ava — and with the ankle too! She sounds like a handful, even without any other problems in the way. You need one of these. Yes, there are such commercial products.
“Ah yes, how lovely! The pale green in particular.”
Indeed. Now that jw has brought the subject up, I must say that the green is reminiscent of that favorite temptation (and ruination) of 19th century artists — Absinthe, the Green Fairy. If I’ve got to turn colors, that’s a good one.
I once sat in a large gallery encircled by Rothko paintings. Seen that way, the experience of them was almost cathedral-like. Meditative. But it occurred to me even then that they were good decoration, not great art.
Beats the hell out of Jeff Koons, though (http://www.jeffkoons.com/artwork/celebration/hanging-heart-0). Still, I can never get over the sense that most modern art is just pretentious fraud.
Anybody want to bid on my leg? It’s a one-of-a-kind original. I’ll even sign it.
You hurt yourself in the wrong place, and are the wrong kind of person: link
@Kent, yeah saw that, an immediately thought of Claire. My, how differently the entitlement class behaves, particularly if they’re among the terminally aggrieved.
Yeah, modern art, as in indistinguishable from trash. I don’t get it. It’s become a parody of itself.
Speaking of art, while searching for that article, I found that Sally Man is in the news again. As a big fan of black-and-white photography, I am of course aware of her work, and the controversy. Which makes me think what an odd culture we have, where apparent heaps of refuse are glorified as artistic statements, while Fotomat operators turn in parents for pictures of their kids in the bathtub. (Yes, I know, Fotomat is dead now. Substitute Walgreens, or whatever.)
Possibly, that’s one thing that’s happened with art. It’s become more about making a statement, than producing something beautiful.
(And I’m also thinking of Schönberg vs. Beethoven, et. al.)
Wow. Bummer of a foot.
Louis Awerbuck was a great fan of naturally improving your vision, specifically as advocated by Dr. Meir Schneider http://www.amazon.com/Vision-Life-Natural-Eyesight-Improvement/dp/158394494X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1431916965&sr=1-1&keywords=meir+schneider Louis, who had experienced encephalitis, was able to watch a student’s hits (or misses) as they happened even if there was already a bunch of holes on the target. It seems to me to only make common sense that eye muscles would benefit from proper exercise like any others.
what’s between you and reliving freedom is an electric medical scooter. vroom-vroom!
(three or four doors down and back, wearing the fracture boot, of course)
AAAGGGHHHH! Much too soon for this much activity!
A walk of ten feet is almost too much, even in the boot. The boot does not diminish the weight bearing aspect of walking, only the movement of the joint. It is weight bearing that stresses the healing bone.
Make haste less quickly, please!!
Owie! That looks just like my friends foot after her fall which tore ligaments but didn’t break anything.
“AAAGGGHHHH! Much too soon for this much activity!”
Amen!! Do not do that, Claire. (Now’s the time to write those damnable articles! :-))
And I’m not sure Ava is a good idea now, either. If nothing else, she’s liable to trip you up.
Pat and ML — I was afraid you’d say that. 🙁 I really don’t have much choice, though. I’m trying to do everything else right, but I can’t afford to board Ava any longer and I don’t have anybody who can take over care of the dogs less expensively.
KiA — Where does the money for a scooter come from and how does the scooter get down my mud-rut of a driveway without tossing me on my arse?
Karen — Ah feeel your friend’s pain! (And yours for having to take care of her when you have so much else going on in your life.) I’m glad the break in my ankle was so slight; I’m doing my best to keep it that way.
Shel — But the foot’s much more interesting than it used to be!
I remember reading Awerbuck’s S.W.A.T. column about Bates exercises for his eyesight. I don’t buy it. I tried the exercises when I was a teenager with zero result and after reading Awerbuck’s column, I looked them up again and found not one, single bit of evidence that they work. On the contrary, all the objective evidence is that they don’t work, despite passionate advocacy by a handful of people. I would love if if eye exercises could actually eliminate vision problems.
I do expect they could relieve eye strain. But then, so do a lot of other, simpler things.
“You hurt yourself in the wrong place, and are the wrong kind of person:”
Kent — Been trying to think of some clever, witty response to you and the egregious Ms. Sharpton. But … nothing. Just … wow. A $5 million sprained ankle. Who but a Sharpton could think of that? Next she’ll probably find a way to claim the broken street was racist, besides.
Here we go:
http://www.petbucket.com/blog/62779/the-wonderful-world-of-dog-carting.html
You could teach Ava to take You for walks!
When I needed a wheelchair, this was something I seriously looked into. You can find all kinds of designs out there, up to and including all-terrain dog carts!
Ellendra — I’ve seriously thought about that, too (and not just since the foot business). I’ve been very tempted and it’s something I’d consider for the future.
Ava, for all her energy, is nearly 10 years old now and her feet have started to go bad. So I’m not hitching her to a cart. Maybe some future dog, though. It’s a great idea I’m surprised more people don’t consider. I’ve known people who did dog carting for fun but nobody who did it for mobility.
So I decided — after being beaten up by nurses 😉 — that I’d try to be a really, really, really good girl this morning. I asked Furrydoc to board Ava for another week. I put Robbie out in the yard without a walk. And I went back to bed and put my foot up on a pillow.
Then the &^%$#@! cat decided that this was the morning to get the zoomies and stomp repeatedly on my foot while leaping on and off the bed.
Wonderful, Claire. Maybe some of us can send a few bucks to help keep Alva from wrecking your healing plan. 🙂
My advice for the cat is to toss it out in back with Robbie.
Remember that you won’t get any chance to go back and have a “do over.” If this thing heals wrong, you’ll live with it for the rest of your life.
Trust me… it’s worth doing right. Guess who walked on HER broken ankle a little too much, a little too early. Yeah… the voice of experience. 🙁
ML — Thank you, but I’ll be fine on the boarding fees. Furrydoc will give me a break on the rates and allow me to pay over time. Really appreciate the thought, but I’m good.
And the cat … yeah, she got booted as soon as I could get my boot on.
Ohhh. I knew you’d broken your ankle and I knew you had plenty of medical experience. But I didn’t realize it was the “doing it wrong” experience.
Back in the day, when my daughters were babysitter age, one of their clients broke her ankle. So she hired my eldest to be there for a couple of hours when the client’s kids got home from school and my daughter could start homework and cook supper. Much cheaper than alternatives.
Yes indeed, Claire. And I’m not proud of it either. Now you know why I’m so passionate about doing it right. There was no good reason for my impatience, just stubbornness and misplaced independence.
Good judgment quite often comes from surviving a lot of bad judgment… So if you can learn from someone else’s bad judgment, you’re sure to be way ahead of the game. 🙂
That poorly healed injury is one of the reasons I now can’t walk outside much, and have frequent pain there when I stand long or stress it, even after 10 years. I also have a bad back (another poorly healed injury, from when I was 15 years old), and poor balance from my hearing loss. The combination is pretty devastating to functionality, as well as the loss of so many pleasurable activities.