I already do wear Easy Spirit and SAS as my go to walking shoes. It is my left foot and the PA said I can drive and touch my injured foot airboot toe down when I use the crutches. Will see what the ortho says. I do notice the swelling is much reduced from the first and second day, as long as I elevate but my back gets tired of the resting and then I have to learn to sleep on my side NOT my back after resting on it during the day. An ibuprofen taken at night helps me sleep without the pain twinges.
I am HOPING I will not need any surgery and expect this doc to definitively say what is going on–fracture or “just soft tissue.” Will be calling him when his office opens in 29 minutes.
My internist orders a bone density dexascan whenever anyone has any fracture. He ordered one when my brother had a bad fracture and my sister broke her ribs. I believe both had low bone density. Mine is normal to excellent.
HImom, if you go on the trip, you might decide that it would be practical to rent a wheelchair and use it during your travels.
If you do this, tell your doctors. Using a wheelchair might increase your risk of dangerous blood clots, and they might want to prescribe medicine to reduce your risk of that problem.
Eight years ago, thanks to extraordinary clumsiness, I broke my leg badly enough to need surgery while simply trying to go down the two steps from my house to my garage. Then, while in the hospital, I sprained my wrist while trying to learn to use crutches in PT. (Did I mention that I’m extraordinarily clumsy?) I had to go home with a wheelchair as my main means of getting around, and because of this, I had to take an anticoagulant medication for several weeks.
Your injury seems much less severe, and you are probably more coordinated than I am, but still, if you’re thinking of using a wheelchair, talk to the doctors.
So far, I am doing pretty well with the air boot and crutches. I am thinking of using a wheelchair to get to and from the gate, but it will depend on how I am feeling. I would only do what I clear with my docs, but thanks for the reminder!
@travelnut I didn’t think about SAS shoes. We have one by the mall. I ordered New Balance sneakers in a 2E so well see when they come if they wok if not I will visit SAS. The problem I am having is I am on FMLA and I really need to get back to work. I work at the hospital and of course that means walking on my feet for 12hr shifts. Dr. has me out for another month. Hopefully swelling will go down. Gotta go to work @Hlmom glad you are doing better today. Did you get an ortho appointment?
Yes, am scheduled to see one of the top ortho docs in our state on Wednesday morning; he’s supposed to be good with feet and ankles & has even written journal articles on the subject. Also got a 6-month handicapped parking placard, so I can hopefully park nearer to where I need to go and reduce the use of the crutches and hobbling. The foot is turning black and blue and stil quite bruised.
One other nice thing about the parking placard is that I don’t have to pay for metered parking while displaying it for 2.5 hours.
@hlmom didn’t think about get a handicapped parking plate. Since I couldn’t drive (right foot) either my children or husband had to take me places…So them drop me off at front door. Now that I am driving again (very carefully) that sure would come in handy while I am still hopping around
When my relative fractured his pelvis, do remember he got a temp disability parking placard that he found very helpful. When I saw the PA, it was in the same building as my internist–I went upstairs and had them complete the form & took it in to satalite city hall today and we had the permit after a brief weit in line. I have been told by the PA that I CAN drive. So far, H has been happy to be my driver, but having the placard will be handy so he can park closer and assist. Hobbling distances IS tiring.
Well, I do mean to travel quite a bit over the next six months and some of those locations MAY be snowy–likely WILL be! Our state of 1.1mm people has 90,000 handicapped placards in circulation, so not sure if having one is really all that helpful compared to the # of parking spots available to handicapped folks.
The ortho confirmed that while it IS a hairline fracture, it should heal fine BEFORE we go on our trip and no need to take boot or crutches on trip (tho maybe a cane). He was nice, as was his Nurse Practitioner. They said use Tylenol instead of ibuprofen, since the latter MAY slow healing of fracturea (I never knew this & the others never mentioned it). Will return to Ortho’s PA next week for 2 week xrays, to be sure things are healing as they should. It’s a relief to finally have a definitive diagnosis and plan of acton.
Was approved for partial weight-bearing on injured leg as well. They’ll talk about physical therapy after full healing.
Glad you have the input you need to proceed with confidence. Bones are often predictable, which helps with planning. Wishing you comfort and dodging a surgery is huge!
I knew about the ibuprofen thing. I was told not to take it after breaking my leg 8 years ago. I was very displeased.
You can’t take a higher-than-OTC dose of Tylenol. So I found it necessary to continue taking a narcotic pain reliever at night for a lot longer than I would have liked. But if I had been allowed to take ibuprofen, I probably would have been fine with the prescription dose (twice the OTC dose), and I could have ditched the narcotic a lot earlier.
I don’t like narcotics.
Definitely a cane. It signals to the people around you that you have a problem and that they should be careful not to get in your way. My mom’s orthopedic surgeon told her this when she was ready to get rid of the cane after her broken hip was mostly healed. He suggested continuing to use it in public for a few weeks longer even though she didn’t need it at home. She found this to be very good advice.
Ok. Will be going to the opera with boot and crutches on Friday. H says we may leave early. It’s Flying Dutchman, which we both have seen. I’m not sure how long I will last without leg elevated.
May leave at 1st or 2nd intermission. May call box office and see if we can switch seats from our center one to aisle, so don’t have to go so far to sit–on the other hand people don’t pass over us often.
Contact the opera folks. They may be able to move you to an aisle seat where your left leg is on the aisle…and can be elevated. We did this when I broke my foot. The theater even had some milk crates we were able to use to elevate my foot.
There may be other options, too. The front row of a section, perhaps, with an extra chair for the foot. Or the seating usually reserved for patrons in wheelchairs (with two chairs brought in, one for sitting and one for the foot).
Concert halls can be amazingly accommodating. I think it has something to do with the large number of elderly patrons.
