Pink cast

It's the wild and crazy life I lead these days. Get up, eat breakfast, read paper, email, Lileks. Elevate leg, read, fall asleep. Wake up, watch Judge Judy lambaste someone, work in office, wait for Keith to get home, read mail when he brings it in, eat dinner, elevate leg, watch TV, read, sleep (or not, then get back up and poke around on computer.) I feel like the goldfish in the Mutts cartoon!

I did get a new cast - was kindof bummed about the whole deal, that's why I haven't blogged it. Good news - it lets me bend my knee and that makes me feel a lot more mobile - at least I don't have that leg sticking straight out in front of me keeping me 2 feet away from everything. It is bright pink! And I mean bright! Bad news, I do have a pressure sore on my heel - looked scary as crap to me, but doc didn't seem too alarmed. All black and about the size of a silver dollar. I have been doing a lot of research on pressure sores and one of the things they do is cast the foot to keep pressure off it! She says it has to heal from the inside - and it will now that it is not being rubbed. It mostly doesn't hurt - just a couple of positions that I try to stay out of. That is good news too, at least I can have a couple of more positions, I can lie on my side to sleep now.

Keith just got me my cast boot, so I will be starting to put some weight on that leg - she didn't want me to until I got the boot, the fiberglass isn't quite as sturdy as the old plaster in that regard, so it has to be protected and cushioned. So, I will be trying the crutches again, I reckon. Putting weight on it will help it build new bone faster. She says she can see some calcium formation on the latest x-rays - just a slow process for a bad break like this one.

Panic under control - sortof like a mad dog kept on a strong leash with the Xanax. I really feel once I can get at least in and out of the house by myself, I won't feel so trapped. The new cast makes me feel more mobile and that helps. I have no stamina, I guess it is all going to the leg. Doc has started me on leg raises, lift and hold for 5 sec, then repeat - up to a whole whopping 7 on each leg! She wants me to work on the quad to help the knee. Boy did that knee complain when it had to bend again after 6 weeks of being immobile! But I spoke sternly to it and we are reaching an agreement. The new cast is cut high on the sides to limit rotation, but lower in front and back to let the knee bend.

I am mostly off the pain pills - one oxycodone every other day or so. Mostly when It starts to hurts, I lie down and elevate it and that seems to help. The attachments are the xrays taken on Sat night - by the time I had gotten to the doc on Mon, the bones had separated a little more - very icky - I don't recommend it!

So it goes - in this cast for 6 weeks at least - then maybe a walking cast like I had before

Generator Rant

Last summer we got one of the LAST generators that Lowe’s had. They got a shipment of 100 in that morning and by noon all were gone. This was with the hurricane wayyy out there, but scheduled to visit us. We did use it, and it was great to have the fridge, TV, DVD, fan and a light working!!! But next morning - doom. It had a leak in the engine block and had to be returned. And of course they didn't have any more, and weren't willing to hold one for us should another come in - we could just call every day and see if they had any. Anyway, we limped through the rest of the summer and once we reached Nov. 1 (no hurricanes allowed past then) we figured we would buy one later. Like January. Like my mother did. But we didn't - procrastination reigns supreme. So, last month (June, for heavens sake - barely the beginning of the hurricane season) my dear husband starts evaluating the various merits of all the generators ever built, ever to be built and once again the decision is made to go get the same one from Lowe’s that we got last year - well, technically, not the same one, but you know what I mean. Au contraire! All generators are being shipped to the Panhandle where they actually have a current lack of power. No generators for North Florida who just might lose it. Sigh. Cross our fingers. Since I broke my leg and am in a thigh high cast, if I have to live in 90+ degrees and 90%+ humidity, we are going to a hotel - somewhere - anywhere - I don't care.

Or, I could go stay with my sister, who wisely bought a whole house generator that runs off a gigantic propane tank (the great white whale) and if the power takes a powder, she is all set. No muss, no fuss, just an automatic switchover. Of course since she lives in the wilds of the Florida interior (so to speak) and her water is from a well - no power, no water - she has to have power.

Or we could order one on-line … hmmm. I don’t know about that. Seems like shipping would eat your lunch, but he is checking into that.

Leg getting better

Leg getting better and better - slow process though. I see doc in two more weeks to cut this cast off and get new xrays and a new cast.Some of the gauze inside of this one is bunching around and there are a couple of tiny pieces of fiberglass that have broken off and are floating around down there. I am like the princess and the pea ... one grain of salt in the bed will bother me, so I am really having to work on ignoring it.

The swelling has gone down so much that there is a good inch around the entire thigh part of the cast and I can scootch my foot up and down. I was rather hoping that perhaps the swelling would go down so much that I would be able to just sort of slide my leg out of the cast rather than having to endure "THE SAW" again. I was whining to my sister (who is an artist and a nurse) and she said she has had to cut windows in casts before and that the saw really isn't that sharp. To her I said. "Right - it cuts through that fiberglass, which seems impervious to any other substance on earth and it's not that sharp???" I keep having visions of being mutilated, blood running down my leg, my foot falling to the floor as she has accidentally cut it off - no worries here mate!

I am down to one oxycodone a day and I figure I will be off of it completely in a few days. Most of the actual pain I have now is just discomfort from having my leg down for too long, then fluid accumulates, it swells and hurts. To really elevate it, I need to lie on the bed, me flat, foot up on wedge. I can only lie like that so long before I fall asleep - so Missy (my tuxedo cat) and I spend most days together sleeping!




One bright spot - by the time this is over the dang left ankle should be as strong as iron with all the hopping and one legged standing it is getting. I don't think that is the most efficient way to rehab one broken leg, by breaking the other, however. Seems like cutting some off the bottom of the too short sheet and sewing it to the top.

Hurray for Doc

Went to Doc today and she fixed my cast. It will take a couple of days for me to really tell if it is totally fixed as the poor irritated heel has to recover. She came at me with a saw - YIKES!! - I know she knows what she is doing, but dang is that scary!! I was really putting trust in her. When she was done, I said to her it must have been scary to learn how to do that. She said, "You were the one who should have been scared." I assured her I was!!

I thought she would cut a square window, but she said that sometimes causes problems with the edges irritating. So she cut what she called a "rose petal" hole. Since I can't see it, I don't really know what it looks like, I will have to have Keith take a picture of it.

Oxycodone down to two a day and I imagine one a day pretty soon. But, lest I forget that the bone is far from healed, I accidentally put a little bit of weight on it during a bathroom hop and holey-moley it hurt!!! I will really try not to do that again!

Just heard from a dear friend who wasn't able to drive for TWO YEARS due to her medical problems - makes my pitiful few months hardly worth whining about. That is one of the real dangers of illness/injury - it makes you so self absorbed. How do I feel, what is going on with me, ME ME ME! I know I need to really get back into my reading (stuff other than mysteries!) but I am just in a stagnant place mentally. Keeping up this blog has forced me to at least THINK some - maybe I will get back into learning and growing someday soon. Just in a slump - know it isn't permanent.

Stupid hurricane heading up to Florida panhandle way, it looks like. Poor things, they just got swamped with rain from the last storm and here comes another. I just pray it skips us - I wouldn't want to handle the 12 hour trip to Atlanta we always have to take because of Keith's job. I have to sit in the back seat with my leg stretched out - cast won't let me get in the front seat. But, on the lighter side, I am a really good backseat driver!!! Just ask my sister who had to put up with me telling her what to do for 3 hours on I-4 through downtown Orlando and then I-95 to Jax, in a strange car, and she didn't even snap at me once. She is part saint, I tell you!

Pain relievers?

Pain is so darn weird! Here I am taking oxycodone for my broken leg, and it relieves that pain, but it won't relieve the pain from what I fear is a pressure sore on my heel inside my cast! How can that be? How can it be pain selective??? I imagine the oxycodone saying to the little pain signals as they go by, "Nope, not my job - I am only hired to deal with broken leg - you guys just go on up to the brain and have a party." And they do.

When my doctor put my cast on, she had her 16 year old daughter helping her and daughter didn't know not to press in at all. Doc saw her doing it and cautioned her not to, (daughter was holding my foot) but I think she did press on my heel before she knew not to.

Anyway, I have a couple of bumps on the inside of my cast in the heel area and it feels just like a blister formed by wearing new shoes that aren't broken in. I mentioned it to Doc during last Thursday's visit, but told her it seemed I could shift around and relieve it. Since Saturday however, it has been getting more and more painful, and no position really relieves it now. All this was complicated by the fact that Monday was a holiday and Doc is only in the office on Mondays and Thursdays. So, I go see her tomorrow and see if maybe she can cut a little window for my heel to heal. (Love the homonyms!) I'm sure if I had raised a fuss she would have come in earlier, but I don't think necrosis has set in (although it may be just the Xanax keeping me from catastrophizing and it really has set in - necrosis, that is. Or maybe the flesh-eating virus!!)

Anyway, that's my whine for the moment! Now off to search the web for vital information!

Update on leg

I went for a checkup July 1, and I will be 3 more weeks in this cast, then she will take it off and see what is what and whether I need another full leg cast or we can go with an up to the knee cast. This break was a pretty bad one and I will have a hard cast on through August it looks like, then maybe I will be able to start having a weight bearing one in Sept (I hope!!!). Until then I am in a wheelchair and using a walker to hop to the bathroom.

I am off the Oxycontin now and the doc is happy. Personally I didn't get any thrill out of it, so can't see why people would take it for fun, but maybe if you don't have a broken leg it affects you differently. In addition, nothing affects me like it seems to other people. I need 4 shots of Novocain to get a tooth filled, like that. I am very resistant to anesthesia and none of the over the counter meds that make other people sleepy affect me at all. Anyway, I’m off the really hard stuff, now down to a couple of Oxycodone a day and Flexeril at night to keep the dumb leg from spasming.


The new and latest addition to my travails have been panic attacks! I had never experienced one before and it really threw me for a loop – as I guess it down everyone who suffers from them. I talked to my counselor and he agreed with me that it was probably a temporary situation resulting from being so restricted in movement and being so dependant on a wheelchair, a walker and other people. Anyway, better living through chemistry came to my rescue and I am on Xanax temporarily. I imagine as soon as I can get out of this cast and be able to at least go outdoors on my own, and drive somewhere on my own, like that, that the attacks will pass. It was interesting, in a third person sort of way, to experience it. Many people have told me they felt like they couldn’t breathe while it was going on, but for me, I felt like the walls were closing in and I had to do something and I couldn’t do it (but I have no idea what “it” was). All I could do was cry, and panic. Not fun, and my empathies to all who have ever felt that way. And a big raspberry to Tom Cruise – he should stick to what he knows how to do, which is saying lines other people wrote and pretending to be someone else. Just my opinion!