My broken ankle tears and cheers

All cheers this week,  I had my fracture clinic appointment and after another xray I have been signed off hooray. 

Still have some swelling doctor said i could get it for another 4 or 6 months.

Walking has been getting better still have a limp and very slow, even managed to drive the car this week. 

So really happy 6 weeks today that I broke my Ankle had lots of downs over the weeks worst was while in the tight cast,  just didn't recognise myself with all the crying and panic attacks. 

Life is slowly getting back to normal,  taking it slowly walking getting easier each day. 

The worst time is the evening find i still need to elevate my leg and rest

The first parts of my story are

Here http://wendyscraftingtimes.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Broken%20ankle

Broken Ankle my tears and cheers part 8

Here I am up to date its the 4th May
yesterday it had been 4 weeks since my fall. 

BIG BIG CHEERS this week,  over the weekend I slept for the first time without the boot on,  was a bit nervous that i might jar or knock it in my sleep but everything was fine,  swelling is still there but gone down a lot and I no longer need to use the ice pack. 

Over the weekend i still put the boot on to walk and big cheer here no crutches yeah, 

While sitting I removed the boot and did regular little movement with my ankle,  up and down is fine side to side is still locked so need to work on getting mobility over the next few days

Monday i made the decision to leave the boot off and start walking on it,  so back to two crutches,  no longer death sticks but my friend's lol.

Ankle hasn't been hurting for a few days unless i knock it,  but standing is fine. 

So gently steps feels really funny and strange to not have the boot on,  but im doing it slowly walking on the bad foot,  so spent Monday learning to walk and resting up on the sofa in between,  everything went well

Yesterday woke up ankle feels even better stronger,  so up with the walking sticks make myself breakfast. 

Sun was shinning so I took a walk down the back garden to look at the fish in the pond,  getting faster on these crutches,  my foot still doesn't have its full range of movement still a little stiff but pain free. 

I even felt well enough to get my journal notes out and do the posts on my blog. 

Im finding in the afternoon that I'm getting cramps in the bad legs calf's,  so when these start I'm needing to sit down quickly and massage the pain away, but im doing it more cheers. 

So happy so happy extra big cheers last night I walked up, yes WALKED UP the stairs using one crunch to the bathroom ran a bath got myself in by standing on the bad leg while I stepped in with the good leg,  had a nice long soak exercised the Ankle in the warm water,  did need Jeffs help to get out,  it's still a bit hard to get out of a slippery bath using one foot,  I didn't feel ready to push up using my bad foot. 

I also managed to walk down the stairs using one crunch and hand rail.

I was so pleased with myself when I got to the bottom of the stairs

This has been the best day yet

This morning I'm up and walking around using just the one crunch again,  so moving forward

Earlier posts

Here http://wendyscraftingtimes.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Broken%20ankle

Broken Ankle my tears and cheers part seven

I've been in the air boot for a week now,  what a difference it has made,  gone is the hysterical weeping women that i had become,  and I'm coping much better and so much more mobile. 

The fist day with it on I did nothing just rested with leg raised and used the wheelchair to get around,  foot was still very sore from the night before where it was caught in the cast,  also I was shattered from lack of sleep and still a little tearful. 

Next morning foot felt a lot better,  so I restarted my mission to get walking again. 

First I started just resting my foot in the boot on the floor with out putting any pressure on the leg,  I gradually increased the pressure until i was standing on both legs,  this felt much more comfortable in the boot than when in the cast. 

Next day i tried a few steps,  this had me laughing because there is a learning curve to walking in this boot,  you don't just step the bottom of the boot is curved so it's put heel down then roll forward and move your good foot in front,  its also like walking on a platform shoe when you only have the one on,  come on girls smile we've all done it tg3 the up and down walk lol.

Well the Ankle felt fine no pain,  soon got the hang of this and was getting around on two crutches,  then I found i could do it with just the one crunch. 

Yeah another cheer, can can now carry a cuppa tea into the room using the one crunch,  these milestones mean such a lot. 

The best thing about the air boot is that when you have overworked your ankle and it starts to swell you can get on the sofa open the front of the boot and pop an ice pack straight onto the swelling works instantly now waiting for the cold to get through the cast, and I did a lot of ice therapy to reduce swelling. 

After the first week i was able to remove the boot and sit with my leg up,  this is wonderful takes away the trapped feeling that you get in a cast. 

I could even get upstairs going up on my bottom,  Jeff helping me up when I was up the top. 

Oj one of these trips I decided to have a bath with lots of help from Jeff,  a computer chair at the side of the bath,  I was able to take the boot off swing legs over the bath,  balance on my good leg,  im an expert at standing on my right leg these days and lower myself into the bath. 

This was pure heaven,  my first bath since the break been strip washing in the downstairs loo, the warmth of the water supporting my bad ankle was lovely,  I even managed to do a few up and down ankle movement's in the water,  because your ankle does become stiff in the cast and boot,  so you do get a little pain when trying to move it and get mobility back into the join. 

So in the week I've had my boot I can see a lot of improvement

You can find my earlier posts

Here  http://wendyscraftingtimes.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Broken%20ankle

Broken Ankle my tears and cheers part six

In my journal it says.

April 17th 12 days since accident,  been in full cast a week tomorrow,  

So going to try walking on the cast

Photo I put on my Facebook,   today im going to try walking on this with my death sticks.

I have my cast walking shoe on, so nervous. 

I've been standing and getting my balance resting the cast on the floor and getting used to putting my weight on it over the last few days,  I've not had any pain in the Ankle so that's good,  my injections of clexane are nearly finished so need to get more mobile. 

So i stand up out of wheelchair get my sticks let's do this. 

I gently take my first step,  good no pain,  take another whoo hoo still ok feels a little weird but no pain,  another step oh what happened now, my foot has slipped deeper into the cast and my toes are poking out more,  it actually feels more comfortable now. 

Tried another step then another,  big smile on my face,  I've got this walking in the cast how good does this feel,  a few more steps even quicker got a rhythm going with the sticks now. 

Another few steps, then screaming in pain calf has gone into a painful cramp,  trying to keep foot off the floor stretch out leg calf cramping, my wheelchair on the other side of the room,  pain spasms in my calf, shouting the F*** WORD over and over again   somehow I manage to get over to the chair, sit down can't rub the protesting calf muscle,  not nice. Painful

I sit and cry in frustration,  I must of looked really funny hoping around the room swearing trying to get back to my chair , after the pain stops I can laugh about it. 

So after a rest and a cup of tea,  im ready to try again.

So a day of steps hobble forward, step,  when I feel the calf is about to spasm i stop lift my cast leg and bend back and forth at the knee,  managing to walk to the toilet on the cast so happy with my progress today. 

My foot is still jammed down into the cast and won't slip back up into the position it was before,  it's starting to feel a little uncomfortable pressing on my heel and top of foot in this position. 

I find I'm need to use the ice a lot more today because the tight cast is causing swelling again. 

Oh my another helish night,  the cast feels so tight,  im in agony again,  cant get the swelling down,  feels like it's rubbing on my heel. 

The only way to describe it is like breaking in new shoes when you get a heel blister and still have a few miles to walk home. 

We phone and are told to go to A&E , see a nurse who look at my toes say that they look fine,  so no restrictions there, , , my heel that's in pain from resting on it in the cast. 

They don't want to cut it off because it might cause more problems. 

Advice is to take ibuprofen and just get to fracture clinic as soon as it opens in the morning and a plaster nurse will see me first thing .

This is much worse than the other two nights, , , rolling on the bed crying asking jeff to get it off, taking the painkillers again,  the pain in my heel and top of foot is so bad, I want to cut this cast off myself. 

I am literally sobbing, Jeff doesn't know what to do,  because he's never seen me in such a state. 

He phones his work early in the morning to say he's going to be coming in later became he is taking me to clinic at 7.45 in the morning, 

Another night in pain and no sleep,  hate this cast. 

At the clinic they check the cast say it needs to come off again, its removed and my heel is red and also the top of foot,  luckily the skin hasn't broken. 

They say the doctor will come and look at it and I will have another cast put on afterwards. 

Well I don't know what happened to me, I think i had a panic attack.

I burst into tears started shaking begging them TO NOT,  put me in another cast,  nurse was trying to reassure me that the next one will be fine. 

I was in such a state crying that i couldn't go back into another cast, saying to Jeff "please don't let them put me in one".

Doctor arrived,  looked at me in such a state and asked if the break was causing my distress, 

Jeff and the nurse explained that I'm a bit panicked about going into cast number 4.

Me I'm still crying, feeling like such an idiot but couldn't stop

 doctor looked at my xrays took my hand and said i could go into an air boot. 

That i had to keep it on for two weeks sleeping in it and walking on it,  he said its not as secure as a cast but it's been nearly two weeks since the break, I could go in one and see how i got on with it.  

I was so relieved,  just couldn't face being confined in another cast.

So here I am in my robot boot as the grandchildren call it

The other parts to my experience can be found 

Here http://wendyscraftingtimes.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Broken%20ankle

Broken Ankle my tears and cheers part 5

Good few days in the cast,  ankle not feeling as sore, swelling not happening as often,  elevating leg does help, , still using ice therapy to help swelling go down

Still using the wheelchair,  but standing up and resting the cast on the floor as often as I can,  not put any weight on it yet but it's feeling better every day. 

It's a week and half since I broke it, feeling positive that it's slowly getting better. 

We have brought the bed down into out front room,  because I just couldn't face getting up the stairs,ahd everything so painful at the start. 

I  cant sleep in the bed just can't take the weight of the quilt on my cast, so sleeping on top of the duvet with a fleece blanket over me. 

So hard to get comfortable with this cast on,  using a pillow to rest leg on and off my good leg.

Having strip washes using the small sink in the downstairs loo, so missing my bath times, would love a long soak with bubbles. 

My good leg has been aching over the last few days up the front and knee,  I suppose it's because it's doing all the work supporting me , so taking painkillers to help the pain from this leg. 

Doing some hand stitching using my English paper piecing  hexies, started this before christmas so all this sitting and resting my leg has given me a chance to work on my topper project

Part 1 http://wendyscraftingtimes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/broken-ankle-my-tears-and-cheers-part.html

Part twohttp://wendyscraftingtimes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/broken-ankle-my-tears-and-cheers-part-2.html

Part 3 http://wendyscraftingtimes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/broken-ankle-my-tears-and-cheers-part-3.html

Part 4 http://wendyscraftingtimes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/broken-ankle-my-tears-and-cheers-part_3.html

Broken Ankle my tears and cheers part four

So started off happy with my new pink cast,  moving around was much easier even though i was still not able to put weight on the cast.

In the early evening my ankle likes to swell up a little, I usually put an ice pack wrapped in a tea towel helps a lot as well as elevating my leg while laying on the sofa. 

First evening in my new cast I just couldn't get any relief from the pain. 

The painkillers were having no effect, the pain was not coming from my ankle but from the cast pressing onto my little toe , , tried to sleep, but was in agony. 

My foot was swelling even more than usual with the pressure of the cast on my toes,  after lots of tears I phoned the out of hours number that was on my appointment card,  

It was 4am in the morning,  I was put through to a trauma nurse.
 I explained the pain i was in,  she said that I could come into A&E and they would just cut off the cast put me back into a temporary cast like i had , had removed the day before,  they said if my toes weren't turning blue or white could i try more painkillers and phone plaster clinic in the morning. 

So spent the next few hours laying on my back leg up in the air higher than my heart with wrapped ice pack on top of the cast,  no sleep, in pain, until I could phone the plaster clinic in the morning. 

They gave me an appointment to check the cast later that day. 

At plaster clinic the nurse looked at my toe said that the cast was a little high,  she got the cutter out that they use to remove the casts and cut away the part of the cast that was pushing on my small toe,  instant relief , she cut down as far as she could go,  the toe area still felt sore but we put it down to the pressure of the cast that had now been cut away,  she felt sure that it would ease over the next few hours,  so home we came. 

Throughout the day my toe area still felt very uncomfortable and had a mark where the cast had been. 

In bed that night my foot around the toes began to give me pain again, as it did its evening swelling,  so another night up in pain on the sofa leg up trying to get swelling down until I could again phone clinic. 

10am next morning back in the plaster room they could see how tight the cast was around my toe area this time they decided to remove the whole cast and redo another one. 

So my first experience with the cast cutter removing the whole cast, they again explained how it works and that it wouldn't cut my leg,  this time it cut down both sides of the cast so they could get it apart to remove it.

I must admit to being a little worried that cutter is very scary. 

This time when I looked at my foot it was much more swollen than two days earlier when I first had the cast put on,  and I had some pressure marks from the cast. 

So cast number 3 was put on,  this one was much more comfortable  than the last one,  no pinching of the toes, they said to give it a few days to settle down after the tight cast,, then to try standing and build up to walking on it.

Got a good night's sleep swelling was manageable at last

Part one http://wendyscraftingtimes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/broken-ankle-my-tears-and-cheers-part.html

Part two  http://wendyscraftingtimes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/broken-ankle-my-tears-and-cheers-part-2.html

Part three http://wendyscraftingtimes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/broken-ankle-my-tears-and-cheers-part-3.html

Broken Ankle my tears and cheers part 3.

Monday morning sees me at the hospital nice and early. 

We hired a wheelchair from the red cross on Friday im finding this such a help as still can't put foot down so hopping and we have a little dog that likes to walk by your feet, so im really nervous on the crutches.

Wheelchair makes it much easier to get to the hospital appointment and for £1 a day so worth it 

Meet my doctor who sends me for another xray,  yup ankle still broken lol.

He sends me to be put into a new full cast this one will be a walking cast, but said i have to leave it another week before try to weight bare and walk on it. 

It will be a week ago tomorrow since I broke it. 

At the plaster room they cut off the old cast this is easy because the front is just bandage. 

See my ankle for the first time in a week,  still swollen and very bruised. 

My foot is gently pushed up into the right position and held while the dressing and cast is applied,  this doesn't hurt so all well. 

In had a choice of what colour cast I wanted so that was fun. 

I have an appointment to come back in 4 weeks with instructions to try and weigh bare and walk on it in about a week time. 

This cast is so much lighter than the first,  so finding it easier to hop around on the crutches or as im calling them the DEATH STICKS. 

Still using the wheelchair a lot because don't feel confident on the death sticks at all, not with Savvi rushing around underfoot

Pretty Pink cast,  so much lighter than the first one

Part one http://wendyscraftingtimes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/broken-ankle-my-tears-and-cheers-part.html

Part two http://wendyscraftingtimes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/broken-ankle-my-tears-and-cheers-part-2.html

Broken Ankle my tears and cheers part 2

Flight home. 

Well today the Ankle really wants me to know it's broken,  been hurting all night so taking the painkillers, , I also have to have a daily injection into my tummy of clexane to stop the risk of blood clots because I'm not mobile at the moment. 

There was no way I was going to be able to hop up 3 stairs to get on the airport coach with this heavy cast still not being able to put weight on it and the pain my ankle was now in, , so we ordered another taxi 5th taxi in two days. 

At the airport the taxi driver got the airport assistance for me they help you get onto the aeroplane.

I must say they do a wonderful job,  got me and the family our tickets through customs and onto our flight using wheelchair,  one bonus of a broken ankle we didn't have to queue lol.

The doctor said that I need two seats so that my leg could be rested up on the 4 hour flight back to the uk, luckily the flight wasn't full so had the row to myself. 

Leg was throbbing so more painkillers  found it hard to get comfortable on the flight and YES your leg does swell in the cast.

At Bristol there was airport assistance to help me off the aeroplane through customs and out to the arrival exit. 

I wouldn't of been able to manage without these people and am very thankful for them and all their help.

Hour and half drive home in the car, had to go in the front seat because there were 5 of us in the car .

This has been the longest that I have had my foot down and not raised up, , so ankle was getting very swollen and painful,  so relieved to get home on the sofa and put leg up more painkillers. 

Can get up the stairs so sleeping on the sofa,  we're lucky to have a downstairs toilet, that makes things so much more bearable. 

 still not great on the crutches,  having to hop everywhere with them jars my ankle and causes pain,  starting to hate this. 

Friday morning phoned our fracture clinic,  I have an appointment 8.30 am Monday morning

Broken ankle part one http://wendyscraftingtimes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/broken-ankle-my-tears-and-cheers-part.htmle

Broken Ankle, My tears and cheers part one

I broke my Ankle on 5th April 2016 while on holiday in Lanzarote. 

I made a few notes on how I was feeling and my progress to heal , I thought I would share with you in the hope that it may help fellow suffers. 

It had been raining not a heavy down pore just a light shower, so hubby and I decided to take the grandchildren on a little walk down to the harbour to see the boats. 

As we were nearing the harbour a it started to rain lightly,  not too much and it was still warm,  there is a flight of steps to the harbour,  the hand rail was wet from the rain,  almost at the bottom i felt myself slip off the damp step,  I suppose I was lucky I didn't actually fall,  my foot slipped and went under me and I was sitting on the next step, , as I went down I felt something happen in my left ankle that I knew wasn't right. 

Dear hubby Jeff came straight to me as I brought my ankle around from under me it was huge so swollen I was in shock to see it, because it didn't actually hurt just a dull throbbing.

My 3 year old granddaughter was in tears when she saw it,  so trying to calm her down saying nannies fine im ok.

A couple were passing and they went for help at a nearby cafe.

A lovely waiter came to tell us that he had phoned a taxi because an ambulance would take to long. 

I managed to hop to the taxi and the waiter and Jeff got me in the seat. 

We had to go to the hotel first to drop the grandchildren with my daughter , my granddaughter was still crying and very distressed didn't like to see nanna hurt,  but was being looked after by her brave 6 year old cousin,  he held her hand put his arm around her and kept her close while we were waiting and getting into the taxi, a good boy. 

It was a 40 minutes drive to the hospital,  when we arrived the taxi driver got me a wheelchair and helped us get signed in at reception,  because no one spoke English. 

I was assessed and sent for an xray,  doctor confirmed that i had a fracture to my left fibula and would need a cast for 3 or 4 weeks. 

We were due to fly home in two days so I was put into a temporary half cast,  it was solid at the back and sided but the front was left open wrapped in bandage,  this is in case of any swelling on the flight home your not allowed to fly in closed casts,  we had to take another taxi back to the clinic next day to check the swelling and get the ok to fly home. 

First temporary cast,  

So heavy and I'm rubbish on the crutches,  I have to hop around and not put foot down at all