After 9 long weeks my appointment to see the consultant came around finally! I went to the hospital on Thursday and had an xray and then had the cast removed, my appointment this time was not with Mr Shah sadly, who was my surgeon and has been my consultant on my 2 previous visits to the Fracture Clinic. I saw a different consultant this time, in fact I don't even know his name! He was very pleasant though and showed me my xrays, which I hadn't seen since being in Plymouth hospital. He explained about the healing and physio and asked if I had any questions, I asked about timescale to get back to normal, but he explained everyone varies. I go back in 3 months time, at which point he explained I should be back to normal activity. But what is normal activity? For me that means running 2-3 times a week, which I doubt! I also wanted to know how often physio would be. Once a week on the NHS unfortunately! Not a lot really!
When I first tried to walk on my newly released leg, I couldn't put my heel down so was walking on the ball of my foot, and was told to use crutches again until I readjusted. As soon as I got home I got straight in the bath to exfoliate and soak off the unbelievable amounts of dry skin which was peeling off in sheets all around my ankle and foot. Not to mention the hair that had grown, in fact I have some ingrowing hair follicles as the hair was obviously struggling to break through with a cast on, horrible!
I went straight to Nuffield Health & Leisure centre from the hospital and booked into their 2 month health & physio programme which gives me 5 physio sessions plus gym membership. The physio may take place in the pool or gym so should be quite varied. It will be interesting to compare NHS to private treatment! I will get a contribution to the Nuffield physio package from my employer health plan, so that's a bit of a bonus.
I am now limping around the house with no crutches and doing the basic exercises that the NHS gave me , 3-4 times a day and trying to walk on it and put it through its full range of movement (with pain!). Its pretty much painful all the time and also swollen all the time, and I also need to keep elevating it as I did in the first 4 weeks.
I am very impatient and want to see instant improvement but I know now that this is going to take time, to repair the soft tissue, stabilise the bone and metal work and reduce the pain and swelling.
I know a few things for sure, no running or heels for a long long time, if ever....
Showing posts with label cast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cast. Show all posts
Sunday, 24 June 2012
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
Nearly time to see my ankle!
I thought it was about time I updated my blog, it was easy to keep up with whilst I was sat on the sofa for the first 5-6 weeks with my leg elevated to find the time, but since I have been more mobile and working from home I just don't find the time!
I am 2 days away from hopefully having my cast removed for good. I visited the fracture clinic approximately 3 weeks ago and the consultant said he could still see a slight fracture line on the inside ankle bone, so thought it best to put it back in a cast to protect it and to be safe. He also said the cast would be slightly different in shape and I would get a boot to wear with it which would allow me to start weight bearing. I asked him about using crutches and he said within 3 weeks I needed to go from 2 crutches to 1 and then to none by the time I returned. I must admit I flinched with pain at the thought of putting weight on it, but within a day I was walking on 2 feet using 2 crutches, and within 3 days using 1 crutch, which actually slowed me down. I was nervous the first time I put weight on it and it was little more than a shuffle. However nearly 3 weeks later I am able to walk well on 2 feet, with the boot over the cast to give me a flat sole to walk on. I still need to take it easy and rest it regularly but I have been able to start working from home full time now.
It was great starting back to work as I had got very bored, even though I enjoyed my coffee mornings and cooked breakfasts with friends, I missed making a contribution to Training for Travel and have managed to agree terms to work from home until I can drive again, so I am now enjoying working on some interesting projects such as designing resources and training material for the new Functional Skills qualifications which start this year as well as assessing learners by telephone.
Its been a long 9 weeks and I like to think I have done everything right. I rested well at the start, and I have also eaten healthily. I have taken Vitamin E supplements to help skin and soft tissue healing, which as worked wonders on my face too! I have also take calcium/magnesium supplements for my bones and also collagen supplements which help with soft tissue growth. I have tried to do some exercise from home both upper and lower body but its no replacement for what I was doing before! I cant wait to swim at the end of this week, in actual fact I am happy to just float around the pool, its the full body immersion in warm water I am looking forward to most!!
Returning to running is bottom of my list at the moment as I have read about metal plates on leg bones causing stress risers above and around the metal work, which can cause stress fractures. Back to square one almost! I will try walking on the treadmill at the gym, but will probably start on the cross trainer as its non impact on joints. First of all though lots of swimming, and pool walking!
The physio will start next week, and am looking forward to the progress, however not so much the pain, as my mum informs me! My mum is now 2 weeks out of her cast/boot and walking on one stick, and having regular physio in Portugal.
I will update the blog once I have been to hospital this week and then put monthly progress as I know other people have read this that have suffered trimalleolar fractures and similar.
Bye for now :-))
I am 2 days away from hopefully having my cast removed for good. I visited the fracture clinic approximately 3 weeks ago and the consultant said he could still see a slight fracture line on the inside ankle bone, so thought it best to put it back in a cast to protect it and to be safe. He also said the cast would be slightly different in shape and I would get a boot to wear with it which would allow me to start weight bearing. I asked him about using crutches and he said within 3 weeks I needed to go from 2 crutches to 1 and then to none by the time I returned. I must admit I flinched with pain at the thought of putting weight on it, but within a day I was walking on 2 feet using 2 crutches, and within 3 days using 1 crutch, which actually slowed me down. I was nervous the first time I put weight on it and it was little more than a shuffle. However nearly 3 weeks later I am able to walk well on 2 feet, with the boot over the cast to give me a flat sole to walk on. I still need to take it easy and rest it regularly but I have been able to start working from home full time now.
It was great starting back to work as I had got very bored, even though I enjoyed my coffee mornings and cooked breakfasts with friends, I missed making a contribution to Training for Travel and have managed to agree terms to work from home until I can drive again, so I am now enjoying working on some interesting projects such as designing resources and training material for the new Functional Skills qualifications which start this year as well as assessing learners by telephone.
Its been a long 9 weeks and I like to think I have done everything right. I rested well at the start, and I have also eaten healthily. I have taken Vitamin E supplements to help skin and soft tissue healing, which as worked wonders on my face too! I have also take calcium/magnesium supplements for my bones and also collagen supplements which help with soft tissue growth. I have tried to do some exercise from home both upper and lower body but its no replacement for what I was doing before! I cant wait to swim at the end of this week, in actual fact I am happy to just float around the pool, its the full body immersion in warm water I am looking forward to most!!
Returning to running is bottom of my list at the moment as I have read about metal plates on leg bones causing stress risers above and around the metal work, which can cause stress fractures. Back to square one almost! I will try walking on the treadmill at the gym, but will probably start on the cross trainer as its non impact on joints. First of all though lots of swimming, and pool walking!
The physio will start next week, and am looking forward to the progress, however not so much the pain, as my mum informs me! My mum is now 2 weeks out of her cast/boot and walking on one stick, and having regular physio in Portugal.
I will update the blog once I have been to hospital this week and then put monthly progress as I know other people have read this that have suffered trimalleolar fractures and similar.
Bye for now :-))
Friday, 18 May 2012
Purple casts are the way forward
It is now 3 weeks since I broke my ankle, it seems like a lot longer, but this week it feels like I have made some progress with my visit to the fracture clinic, which I will come back to later.
I had a proper night out this week with my group of lovely friends, I managed to venture as far as my friends Nics house and had a couple of drinks, it was so nice to chill out, get out the house and have a laugh and a gossip. We were discussing our trip to Las Vegas in October to celebrate 4 of my friends 40ths birthdays. Lorna decided it would be a good idea to ring the hotel in Vegas to tell them to expect us in October and to ask about the White Night parties at the Nikki Beach Club which is in our hotel! We have previously done 2 other trips, the first one was to New York in April 2008 and we went skiing in Morzine in February 2010, this is our final 40th trip so we will have to find another excuse to go away over the next few years!
The weather has been miserable most of the week, so much rain all the time. When I do get to leave the house Andy makes sure I wipe my crutches before I come back in! I managed to venture to Next this week and treated myself to a new pair of pumps, which is about the limit of my footwear at the moment. I should have got a discount as I only need one at the moment! I cant wait to be able to wear some different footwear and look forward to the day when I can see my 2 feet properly.
This week looks as though me might get a high of 16c woohoo! At least its not showing rain every day!
I saw a guy on crutches when we were out and without thinking I said to him "Ooh, a crutch man!", Andy said I didn't need to acknowledge everyone else on crutches, like VW Beetle drivers do! Maybe I could invent some sort of greeting where we bang crutches, like a version of the All Blacks haka. OK maybe not.
Its been a sad week in the news with the tragic events in Barford and the father and son that were killed when their boat went over the weir, how the mother will find the strength to carry on is beyond me, but she has 2 children thankfully that made it out of the river alive, only just. It puts things into perspective when you hear about tragedy and sadness in the news, especially when its close to home. The awful weather we have experienced definitely played a part in the events on the river that day, its too sad to think about.
This week I have been busily searching the Internet looking for deals to Florida for Christmas and New Year, once our insurance claim for our cancelled trip is underway we can rebook. We did consider going next Easter but its this years holiday so we may as well go the whole hog and spend Christmas & New Year away. I have found some great flight deals, and the villas we have been looking at are absolutely amazing, with everything you need for a fantastic holiday, Pool, hot-tub, games room and lots more and they are all massive 5 bedroom homes, so I am looking forward to spending my first Christmas out of the UK with my family and the Fitzmaurice family. We are seeing the Fitzmaurice family this weekend so will hopefully decide on dates/villas etc so we can rebook. It would be nice to have it booked before we were originally due to go on 1st June as it will take my mind off it.
I had my appointment at the fracture clinic this week, its so busy in there. Who knew so many people fractured bones! Admittedly a lot of them had a fractured finger, so I think they should have gone to the back of the queue as I quite clearly had the most serious fracture in the clinic that day, only kidding! (I did though). The nurse cut off the temporary plaster and removed the dressings with no discomfort felt. She then left the room for a while which gave me a chance to take a look at my surgery wounds for the first time (photos below, but only scroll down if you have a strong stomach). My ankle shape didn't look too bad, still a bit swollen but no bruising at all. The wound on the inside of my ankle is approx 6cm long across my ankle bone with 11 stitches in, this is where the screws are holding the bone together that was broken in 3 places. This wound was quite tidy and neat compared to the other one, the wound on the outside of my ankle where the plate is inserted is approx 12cm long with 14 stitches in, it was sutured together tightly so was a bit puckered and looked like Frankenstein's neck if I am honest! I had a bit of a cry when I saw them as I have no other wounds on my body and now have these 2 horrid scars in a very obvious place on my body, it just brought it all back to me what a horrible injury I am dealing with. The nurse removed the stitches, which I didn't feel as my foot is pretty numb around the ankle, which the nurse said was due to the nerves being cut in surgery. I was then sent for xray and then Mr Shah, the orthopaedic consultant looked at them to decide the next course of action. He said the bones were all aligned correctly and were showing good signs of starting to knit together, this was the good news I wanted as I know of other people who have had to have further surgery to correct the bone alignment when it hasn't worked the first time. The consultant then put pressure on the sole of my foot to start moving my ankle up!! OUCH!! I expected major pain but again it felt quite numb and all I could feel was some pulling and slight pain near my Achilles tendon. He managed to move it a couple of inches altogether, although it wouldn't go anywhere near 90 degrees so getting my heel to the floor will be the job of the physio and my exercises at home once I am out of plaster. I was sent to the plaster room, where I chose bright purple to cheer me up, and again my foot was pushed up as far as it would go so it could be set as close to 90 degrees as possible to stop the Achilles tendon from shortening too much. This plaster is so much easier to be in, as its lighter and better fitting so makes it much easier to move around in and sleep in too. I am back in a few weeks when I will find out whether I am in another cast or a splint boot, and this depends on the bone healing at that stage.
I have been out for coffee again this week, this is still a very exciting event, believe me! I have also been to the hair salon again for a new colour and I had my colleagues here from work this week for our monthly meeting which I offered to host as I thought it would be a chance to catch up on what was happening. It was lovely to see everyone, but by 2pm I was brain dead and I slept for 90 minutes as soon as they had left. I am hoping to return to work (from home) in 3-4 weeks, but it will be a long while before I can drive, so return to normal service will be a few months yet.
I am getting quite good on crutches now, my balance is better and its definitely strengthened my core. I am more confident on the stairs now, Andy even dragged me round Sainsbury's this week but I did sneak off and find a chair when I got too tired! I am getting a bit impatient now as I am keen to get to the next stage in recovery, and start some physio but the consultant said it wont start until I am out of plaster, logical really!
Anyway, keep smiling, pecker up, best of british etc etc etc :-)
(only scroll if you want to see the pictures!!)
DISCLAIMER. - I will not be held responsible for anyone fainting or throwing up, I warned you!
I had a proper night out this week with my group of lovely friends, I managed to venture as far as my friends Nics house and had a couple of drinks, it was so nice to chill out, get out the house and have a laugh and a gossip. We were discussing our trip to Las Vegas in October to celebrate 4 of my friends 40ths birthdays. Lorna decided it would be a good idea to ring the hotel in Vegas to tell them to expect us in October and to ask about the White Night parties at the Nikki Beach Club which is in our hotel! We have previously done 2 other trips, the first one was to New York in April 2008 and we went skiing in Morzine in February 2010, this is our final 40th trip so we will have to find another excuse to go away over the next few years!
The weather has been miserable most of the week, so much rain all the time. When I do get to leave the house Andy makes sure I wipe my crutches before I come back in! I managed to venture to Next this week and treated myself to a new pair of pumps, which is about the limit of my footwear at the moment. I should have got a discount as I only need one at the moment! I cant wait to be able to wear some different footwear and look forward to the day when I can see my 2 feet properly.
This week looks as though me might get a high of 16c woohoo! At least its not showing rain every day!
I saw a guy on crutches when we were out and without thinking I said to him "Ooh, a crutch man!", Andy said I didn't need to acknowledge everyone else on crutches, like VW Beetle drivers do! Maybe I could invent some sort of greeting where we bang crutches, like a version of the All Blacks haka. OK maybe not.
Its been a sad week in the news with the tragic events in Barford and the father and son that were killed when their boat went over the weir, how the mother will find the strength to carry on is beyond me, but she has 2 children thankfully that made it out of the river alive, only just. It puts things into perspective when you hear about tragedy and sadness in the news, especially when its close to home. The awful weather we have experienced definitely played a part in the events on the river that day, its too sad to think about.
This week I have been busily searching the Internet looking for deals to Florida for Christmas and New Year, once our insurance claim for our cancelled trip is underway we can rebook. We did consider going next Easter but its this years holiday so we may as well go the whole hog and spend Christmas & New Year away. I have found some great flight deals, and the villas we have been looking at are absolutely amazing, with everything you need for a fantastic holiday, Pool, hot-tub, games room and lots more and they are all massive 5 bedroom homes, so I am looking forward to spending my first Christmas out of the UK with my family and the Fitzmaurice family. We are seeing the Fitzmaurice family this weekend so will hopefully decide on dates/villas etc so we can rebook. It would be nice to have it booked before we were originally due to go on 1st June as it will take my mind off it.
Harry Potter Land Universal Studios Orlando
I had my appointment at the fracture clinic this week, its so busy in there. Who knew so many people fractured bones! Admittedly a lot of them had a fractured finger, so I think they should have gone to the back of the queue as I quite clearly had the most serious fracture in the clinic that day, only kidding! (I did though). The nurse cut off the temporary plaster and removed the dressings with no discomfort felt. She then left the room for a while which gave me a chance to take a look at my surgery wounds for the first time (photos below, but only scroll down if you have a strong stomach). My ankle shape didn't look too bad, still a bit swollen but no bruising at all. The wound on the inside of my ankle is approx 6cm long across my ankle bone with 11 stitches in, this is where the screws are holding the bone together that was broken in 3 places. This wound was quite tidy and neat compared to the other one, the wound on the outside of my ankle where the plate is inserted is approx 12cm long with 14 stitches in, it was sutured together tightly so was a bit puckered and looked like Frankenstein's neck if I am honest! I had a bit of a cry when I saw them as I have no other wounds on my body and now have these 2 horrid scars in a very obvious place on my body, it just brought it all back to me what a horrible injury I am dealing with. The nurse removed the stitches, which I didn't feel as my foot is pretty numb around the ankle, which the nurse said was due to the nerves being cut in surgery. I was then sent for xray and then Mr Shah, the orthopaedic consultant looked at them to decide the next course of action. He said the bones were all aligned correctly and were showing good signs of starting to knit together, this was the good news I wanted as I know of other people who have had to have further surgery to correct the bone alignment when it hasn't worked the first time. The consultant then put pressure on the sole of my foot to start moving my ankle up!! OUCH!! I expected major pain but again it felt quite numb and all I could feel was some pulling and slight pain near my Achilles tendon. He managed to move it a couple of inches altogether, although it wouldn't go anywhere near 90 degrees so getting my heel to the floor will be the job of the physio and my exercises at home once I am out of plaster. I was sent to the plaster room, where I chose bright purple to cheer me up, and again my foot was pushed up as far as it would go so it could be set as close to 90 degrees as possible to stop the Achilles tendon from shortening too much. This plaster is so much easier to be in, as its lighter and better fitting so makes it much easier to move around in and sleep in too. I am back in a few weeks when I will find out whether I am in another cast or a splint boot, and this depends on the bone healing at that stage.
 |
| looks quite normal here! |
 |
| my skinny leg :-(( |
who said coloured casts where just for kids!
I have been out for coffee again this week, this is still a very exciting event, believe me! I have also been to the hair salon again for a new colour and I had my colleagues here from work this week for our monthly meeting which I offered to host as I thought it would be a chance to catch up on what was happening. It was lovely to see everyone, but by 2pm I was brain dead and I slept for 90 minutes as soon as they had left. I am hoping to return to work (from home) in 3-4 weeks, but it will be a long while before I can drive, so return to normal service will be a few months yet.
I am getting quite good on crutches now, my balance is better and its definitely strengthened my core. I am more confident on the stairs now, Andy even dragged me round Sainsbury's this week but I did sneak off and find a chair when I got too tired! I am getting a bit impatient now as I am keen to get to the next stage in recovery, and start some physio but the consultant said it wont start until I am out of plaster, logical really!
Anyway, keep smiling, pecker up, best of british etc etc etc :-)
(only scroll if you want to see the pictures!!)
 |
| this is where the plate is inserted along the bone |
 |
| Inside ankle bone where screws hold bone together |
DISCLAIMER. - I will not be held responsible for anyone fainting or throwing up, I warned you!
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