June 16th, 2006

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Mixed Bag
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The Broken Leg Blog

My friend Heather recently broke her leg. Having plenty of horizontal time on her hands, she started an amusing blog about the recovery process:

During a multiple day hospital stay, it’s fairly likely that nature will come calling at least once. If you’re not mobile, this means your backside is about to become close personal friends with a bedpan. The nurse will ask if you’d like a small or a large one. Eschew vanity my dear friends and go for the large. Don’t ask why. Just do it. You’ll thank me.

I expect that ‘always ask for the large bedpan’ is a rule to live by.

Comments: 8 Responses so far

B
June 16th, 2006
5:06 pm

haha, having once been in the hospital with two broken legs for 2 months, i concur with her advice.

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melanie
June 17th, 2006
6:41 pm

Hmmn, I’ve done my time, laying horizontal in a hospital bed as a result of ski injuries. I don’t remember there being a choice of bedpan.

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Beth
June 19th, 2006
6:41 pm

Bummer on your leg. My baby, who’s soon to be 9, broke her leg on the LAST day of school. Yes, she is stuck in a leg cast (mid thigh to toe) until mid August. What a mess. She seems to be doing well on the crutches I just worry she’s going to fall…. YIKES.

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Sharon
June 24th, 2006
10:01 am

I broke my leg on June 8th, had surgery on the 9th to put a rod in. THe bed pan think was the hardest for me. Who can pee in a bed? I was grateful when they let me use the walker to go to the toilet.

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Sharon
January 5th, 2008
11:41 pm

Hello everyone, Last june I was in a head on collision and my brake pedal went through my ankle and over 50% of my ankle was gone once I got to the hospital, I had a ankle fusion in november and since I was bed ridden for 6 months my bones were softer than a woman with full blown osteoporosis at 85 years old. Now that I realize i will be in a cast or walking boot for quite some time I went looking for a replacement boot liner that had some fashion or class, I could not find anything so being a seamstress I decided to develop a line of my own, I have a website that is under construction at orthoboot.goshopper.net I have created a cast cover that laces up and have others that I need to get put on the website, if your interested please so see it I can produce in any color the one online now is suede with sheepskin but am working on more variations I also have the walking boot liner and straps in the same material if interested. I hope this finds everyone healthy.

I do have a question for others has anyone had an ankle fusion? I am experiencing periods of sharp pain that actually make my foot and ankle shake it is excruciation has anyone else experience this?

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steve
April 10th, 2008
4:26 pm

hey all i just broke my ankle, well when i say i did i mean, one for my mates fell on it drunk at my 25th birthday (happy birthday me) so when it first happened i didn’t think much of it i thort i had just twisted it and rather than ruining the celebrations i sat in my chair and kept drinking after about 1/2hr he left and everyone else was having a smoke outside i had to get my own drink, well as soon as i stood on it i knew that pain horrible pain and collapsed my friends saw me and came and gave me a hand they took me outside and i took off my shoe and sock to revel a ankle that had swallowed a grapefruit so it was of to hospital for me
after a 10 and a half hour wait finally a doctor saw me and told me i had split the base of my fibular and chipped a bit off it as well
so it needed a cast and i have never had a cast before hears a tip plaster of pairs (what the cast is made of) heats up as it sets now if you doctor is using warm or god forbid hot water to soak the plaster in run away, if its just a tad to hot then the plaster sets it will feel like someone is pouring hot to boiling water over you leg and there is nothing you can do about it. apparently is sets quicker but only by 30secs to 1min and its not worth the pain.
i go home on the morning with my new sexy accessory and some pain killers that the doc prescribed me which i gobble down and crawl into bed and go to sleep for a while.
when i wake up im a bit groggy but the first thing i notice is that my leg is now entombed in this heavy thing that i cant get out of or move in, i start freaking out and getting short of breath, i have to take my mind of it so i take some more pain killers and try to walk around a bit then go back to sleep. well it works the pills knocked me out but still i wake up and the same claustrophobic feeling again and again i went for a walk down the shops after 2 days to get my mined of it and do some other stuff (e.g get some fast food) well the doc gave me the crutches that go under your arm and into your armpit. just some advice DON’T USE THESES they hurt like hell and they give you tendon and vein problems down the track. after figuring all this out for my self i went and hired out some of the crutches that go around your arm 100 times better once you get used to them it took me about 5 to 6 days and i know they feel wobblerly but one good thing about breaking your ankle is you build your upper body strength up 10 fold any way back to the sickening feeling i was getting from havening my leg trapped all i could do is dose up on pills and try to do things to take my mined of it but there is not much to do when your house bound from sore wrists from the crutches. after 3 days i ran out of pain killers and that morning i woke up and i thought there was like biscuit curbs in my bed i was itchy all over but when i looked there was nothing in my bed so i thought it was my clothes but striping nude nothing was there no bite marks from bugs nothing but i was so itch and annoyed that i didn’t know what was going on well later i found out that the pain killers i was taking are highly addictive and i was just coming of them i was so pissed that the doctor didn’t tell me this, so the itching lasted all day but the next day no itching but now with my mind clear all i could think about was the cast and there was nothing i could do, the worst was at nite going to sleep i can feel the pressure of the cast on the base of my foot and i couldn’t stop it as little pressure as it was it still felt uncomftorbul and after a hour laying there staring at the ceiling not being able to sleep it starts to hurt and i try to move my foot to get the pressure of but i cant and then it just feels like someone has got there hands around my throat and i cant stop it so i get up and move around a bit after about 3 hours i finally get to sleep.
a week has pasted and its time to go buck to the docs to get the fiberglass cast on and once again after a lengthy wait we get see i try to tell someone about whats happening but every time i tell someone they say yeah yeah yeah and piss off somewhere els never to be seen again eventually a doc comes over and says the swelling has not gone down far enough to but on a fiber glass cast but they need to put a new plaster one on i try to tell the lady thats doing my new cast about the problem but she just said you’ll be rite. well i dint want to look like a sissy because there were 4 other med students watching, so i got the new cast but this time she used cold water for the plaster that was heaps better.
as it was setting i moved my foot as much as possible without being noticed a managed to make a bit of room but not much. they let me go and said come back next week for the fiberglass cast that whole week i struggled with the claustrophobic feeling i was getting from it it would take me forever to go to sleep and then i would have bad dreams about it and wake up thinking im being suffocated so its time to put a end to it all i was going to cut it off but i told my girlfriend and she got angry at me if i would so i didn’t.
the nite before i had to go back to the hospital to get the fiberglass cast i sat up all nite thinking , stuff it i will just cut it off no matter what anyone says and i was going to but then i remembered a while back one of my bates havening like this space boot that he wore for his leg o i got on the net and hunted one down but all i could find was ones in America so i went to the chemist down the road and asked them and they knew where to get them so after treaking half way across town and $120 later i had my new donjoy boot walker i went home cut off my cast and but the boot on and it is heaven i can take it off to have a shower and loosen it rite up when im watching tv and tighten it up when im going some where and i can was it and my foot so it dosn’t stink.
well im not stupid although i dint go back to the hospital i went to my local gp and he is taking care of me now so thats my story so far im only 2 weeks into my break but thats my experience so far will let you know if it is a good move i have made buy doing this or if my foot heals in a strange position and i have to get surgery.
just another thing i have experienced is the cramping of my calf muscle my god its bad but its going away now
thanks for reading and please don’t judge my story telling abilities to hard i know im no Shakespeare

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Alyssa
August 7th, 2008
9:13 pm

here’s my story.
exactly 7 days ago, i fell playing tennis. call me a clutz, yes. i fell right on my ankle. thinking it was just a roll on it i continued on, though unable to walk on it used crutches a family member had. with the swelling the size of a baseball and pain unbearable, i got xrays the next day. nothing broken they tell me!
so i continued on with an ACE bandage and crutches, still, days later not being able to bear weight.
after much frustration, pain, calling doctors, etc. i finally got into the local orthopaedic. more xrays were taken and though nothing shown, they beleve the break is in my growth plate (being only 15 they decided not to take any chances) and casted it. ugh! how uncomfortable this is! i have a cast from my foot right above my toes all the way to right under my knee. it itches soooo bad! help me with some ideas how to itch it if you know, thanks!

just remember, if you have a gut feeling, DO NOT ignore your pain or thoughts.

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naomi
November 7th, 2008
4:01 pm

you need to use an extra long crocheting needle or knitting needle, preferably 18 inches or longer, i had a broken fibula bone, same type of cast you had. The needle won’t tear your skin. Any fabric store carries them or craft store. Hope you feel better soon.

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