broken leg archive at FraudWasteAbuse

Archive for the 'broken leg' Category

Apr

Ditching the crutches

Categories: broken leg and crutches

After two months of hobbling around on crutches, I finally had my cast removed last week. The doctor gave me this huge removable walking boot which I am supposed to wear for another six weeks. Walking in the book took a little getting used to. I could actually get around faster in the crutches and walking on anything but flat ground is slow going. That aside, I wouldn’t go back to the crutches for anything. I only have to use the crutches at night after I take the boot off to go to bed.

This boot increased my quality of life tremendously. While on crutches I could neither carry anything around nor could I take a shower. Taking my first shower in two months was pretty much awesome, as I got to remove the thick layer of crusty dead skin that had formed underneath my cast.

From the picture you can tell that my right foot is still very swollen, even though it’s been two months since I broke my legs and six weeks since my surgery. Before the surgery, they had shaved my leg and it has mostly grown back by now. But since my leg was in a cast for six weeks, a lot of the hair was ingrown. I cannot describe the ecstasy I got from scratching my foot and leg.

That white fuzz on my foot is just some of the cast padding that got stuck to it. The rest is crusty skin. My not being able to wash my leg for two months, the dead skin just kept piling up. Please keep in mind that I took a shower right after these pictures were taken.

Here you can see the incision where they put in the screws and plate. There were no stitches to take out. I guess they must have glued the incision back together or something. You can see more of the nasty crusty skin as well. There was tape over the wound when the cast was removed. That’s why the area around the wound looks so clean while everything else looks to dirty.

Mar

Fiberglass casts can make your foot look fugly

By FraudWasteAbuse 17 Comments

Categories: photos, photography, hospital, gross, fracture and broken leg

Those of you who have been reading my site for a while may remember that I broke my leg about two months ago. Since then I’ve been on crutches and even had surgery on my leg. I’m the kind of person who likes new experiences, good and bad, and I considered a broken leg to be a new experience. For some strange and sick reason, the first few days after I broke my leg I thought that it was going to be cool. Well let me be the first to tell you that it gets old real fast. Probably the crappiest thing about crutches is that you can no longer carry anything. It really sucks not being able to even get myself a cup of coffee in the morning.

Getting lunch while at work is quite a chore. I had broken my right leg so I didn’t drive for the first month after it happened. Thankfully there was a sandwich shop on the bottom floor of my office building so I could carry my lunch back to my office in a bag. The sandwiches weren’t that filling so once I got a salad too. I put both the sandwich and the salad in the bag and headed back to my desk. After sitting down and looking in my bag I discovered that my crutching around had caused the salad dressing to leak out of the salad container and spill all over the bag, drenching my sandwich. This sort of crap continued until I discovered I could drive with my left leg and subsequently go to a drive-thru.

Most of the time I kept a large blue sock on my right foot to cover up my toes. I figured no one really wanted to see my fat and swollen (at the time) toes, nor would it be appropriate to have my toes showing while dressed up business casual. I only took the sock off to wash it because without it my toes would get very cold. I also was unable to wash my toes or my foot because of the risk of getting the cast wet. This resulted in my right foot being very neglected.

Now my left foot is not a thing of beauty, but it is here for purposes of comparison. That red mark under my left big toe is from wearing a sandal that was uncomfortable. But if you look at my right foot, it looks like it’s suffering from some flesh-eating disease. The toes are darker, it’s very dry, and all the skin is peeling off like after a bad sunburn. This might be a side effect of not washing my foot for two months. It also could be from wearing that blue sock nearly 24/7.

Here’s a picture of the bottom of my foot. Note that the skin is all cracked and dry. There also seems to be a long crack where my foot rests on the end of the cast. One nasty result of the skin peeling off is the prevalence of toe jam. This stuff collects between my toes and has the consistency of earwax, the color of Vaseline, and the odor of poo. Very disgusting.

Let’s just say that I can’t wait until I can wash this horrible reeking thing. I’ve been reduced to taking baths by lying on my back in the tub with my right leg hanging out the side to keep it dry. It’s very hard to get clean this way. I one tried to take a shower by sealing off the opening at the top of my cast with plastic wrap and then wrapping a plastic bag around my leg, but this ordeal took half an hour and I hadn’t taken my shower yet! Not worth the trouble. I suppose I should have gone out and bought one of those cast shower bags but I’m too cheap and lazy for that.

If my leg looks as horrible as my foot when they finally cut my cast off this week, I’ll be sure to post some pictures of that. Stay tuned!

Mar

How I broke my leg — Part II

By FraudWasteAbuse 0 Comments

Categories: humor, hospital, skating, surgery, ER, doctor, painkillers and broken leg

I’m really bad at following up on two-part posts, but here is the conclusion to my broken leg story.

After a brief ambulance ride, I was wheeled into the ER room at the local hospital. Fortunately, it was late at night and the area of the hospital that dealt with bone fractures was pretty much empty. So it was just my friends and me and a doctor and two nurses in the section where I was.

I have to say that this was probably the best hospital experience I have ever had. I was almost worth breaking my leg for. Almost. I could swear that the doctor and nurses were some kind of comedy team. They were hilarious and were cracking jokes and it really lightened the mood for everyone. They took several x-rays and concluded that my fibula was broken along with several tendons or ligaments that had been torn.

The doctor decided that I needed to have my bone set back into place, so they shot me up with morphine. I had never had morphine before. The feeling was a little like being drunk but a little less unpleasant. I think that I must have a very high tolerance to pain medication because I felt every bit of their attempts to set my bone back into place. Even the painkillers that they prescribed never really affected me that much.

They then gave me a set of crutches and showed me how to use them. Also, no driving or walking for six weeks, however I’ve started driving with my left leg.

Feb

How I broke my leg — Part I

By FraudWasteAbuse 2 Comments

Categories: hospital, skating, ER, doctor, Guitar Hero and broken leg

Since I’ve talked about what my life is like with a broken leg, I suppose it is only appropriate that I tell the story of how my leg became broken in the first place.

It was my wife’s fault. Well, sort of anyway.

My wife and my friend’s girlfriend got it in their heads that it would be a great idea to go to a roller rink and go roller skating. I was against the idea from the beginning, stating that roller skating is, “for kids.” Indeed, I hadn’t actually skated since I was 10 years old, when my elementary school classmates would invite everyone to the local roller rink for a birthday party.

But, eventually I give in because what the wife wants, the wife gets unless I don’t care much about being happy. We start the day off by going to my brother’s house to play a game called Guitar Hero. My brother is quite addicted to this game, and he loves it more than many things in life including his girlfriend and getting to work on time. I believe he even has a special spot reserved in his bed for his guitar shaped controller (I try not to use that one when I play). After playing this game for about half an hour, I can see how one can become addicted to it. For those of you who haven’t played it, it’s like Dance Dance Revolution, except that it’s with a guitar instead of dancing and it doesn’t suck.

After this, we meet up with our friends and have dinner at a burrito place and chat about various topics, including Guitar Hero. Since my brother wasn’t going skating with us and we were his ride, we all head back to his house to drop him off after dinner. On the way back I have this brilliant idea: Instead of going roller skating, we should play Guitar Hero for a while! Yes, Guitar Hero is a fun game but if someone had wanted to go eat paint chips instead of roller skating I probably would have taken him up on it. Unfortunately, my friend’s girlfriend was dead set on going roller skating that there was no avoiding the inevitable.

We arrive at the rink and walk in. The admission price of $9.50 was surprisingly expensive. Even more expensive than a movie. I had actually been to this particular rink before, many many years ago. Despite a recent remodel, the place hadn’t changed a whole lot. There were a few things that were different, such as the music. Instead of oldies and the Hokey Pokey, rap songs about sexy thighs and asses were played.

I got my skates and proceeded to get on the rink. There were actually a lot of people there and quite a few of them were going very fast. I, on the other hand, was more focused on not falling down. However as I approached the end of my first “lap” around the rink, I lost my balance and fell backwards on top of my right leg. I definitely felt and heard the bone break. A feeling of “I can’t believe that actually happened” rushed into my head. I was in extreme pain as I crawled off the rink. My wife and friends came over and my wife asked if I needed an ambulance and I told her yes.

After a few minutes, the paramedics came and put me on a stretcher. Everyone was clapping as they wheeled me out. I’m not really sure if they were clapping as a show of support or because they were glad the paramedics were finally getting me out of there so they could start skating again.

Next: My experience in the hospital ER

Feb

Painkillers

By FraudWasteAbuse 1 Comment

Categories: dreams, withdrawal, painkillers and broken leg

Right now I’m on some hardcore painkillers. Vicodin to be exact. Apparently this is some pretty hard stuff. In fact I believe that Vicodin, along with most other narcotic painkillers, are closely related to heroin, which is why it is so easy to get addicted to them.

I got my first prescription for Vicodin after going to the emergency room right after I broke my leg. I got a second batch after a visit with the orthopedic surgeon. He prescribed me a lower dosage which caused me to go through withdrawal. I typically only take the pills right before I go to bed. My leg doesn’t really hurt all that much, but it can get very uncomfortable at night. Taking painkillers helps me forget about that discomfort. However, when the doctor gave me a new prescription, the new pills were only about 70% as potent as the old pills. Apparently, my body wasn’t going to stand for that, so I started getting withdrawal symptoms a few hours before I usually go to bed. Unfortunately at the time, I didn’t know they were withdrawal symptoms. I thought that I had come down with a really bad fever. I ached all over, I had the chills and couldn’t get the heat high enough, and I was very irritable. I decided to go to bed, and of course, take a painkiller.

About two hours later I woke up, drenched in sweat. My wife had left the heat on that night because I was so cold before I went to bed, but now I was hot! I also felt completely better. All my symptoms were gone. It was at that point when I realized what had happened. I originally didn’t associate the way I was feeling with the painkillers because it had been nearly 24 hours since I had last taken them. I had read that withdraw usually happens after 8 hours, but then again, I’m no expert.

Another weird side effect of painkillers is the dreams. Occasionally I will have terrible dreams that wreck my sleep for that night. Now, I’m not really sure what makes these dreams bad, but I hated the. One dream was about a reality show about people who had broken their legs. Their legs had healed and the show was featuring what they were doing now. I remember one guy had started a pizza parlor, as if that has anything to do with breaking one’s leg. But nobody said dreams made a heck of a lot of sense. Another dream was about my dad. He was teaching my brother and me how to snort cocaine.

So bizarre.

Feb

Recovery

By FraudWasteAbuse 1 Comment

Categories: surgery, doctor, anesthesia and broken leg

I don’t know if you’ve ever had general anesthesia, but it is truly weird. Right before the doctor gave me the mask of pure oxygen (yea right) I made a conscious effort to remember myself falling asleep. Well, it doesn’t work that way. The next thing I remember after the doctor put the mask on was waking up in the recovery room. I don’t even remember getting drowsy. Weird.

Waking up is also an interesting experience. Apparently I had been awake for a while before I started remembering anything. From my wife’s descriptions, I was acting pretty much like a brain dead retard. She would talk to me but I wouldn’t even look at her. My first memories after waking up were of seeing my wife showing me my X-rays. I remember seeing them but not being really interested in talking back to her or anyone else. I was in a state of euphoria.

After a while, I was pushed out to the car in a wheelchair and my wife drove me home. It was then that I first noticed that my leg below the knee was completely numb. Actually, it wasn’t just numb, it was paralyzed. I tried wiggling my toes but they didn’t budge. It was a very bizarre feeling, but at least my leg didn’t hurt. I also had a bunch of vicodin that I had been on since I broke my leg. I took a pill before I went to bed that night, just in case the numbness wore off before morning.

Feb

Surgery

By FraudWasteAbuse 0 Comments

Categories: surgery, doctor and broken leg

Well, this past Monday I had surgery on my broken leg. For those of you who have never been to the hospital, it’s like going to the DMV. Be prepared to do a lot of waiting. I was accompanied by my wife because she had to drive me home after everything is all said and done with. Can’t drive while you’re all doped up. Or if your right leg is broken.

I check in and we sit in the waiting room and chat while I wait until I’m called. After a few minutes we start hearing these weird noises coming from behind the counter. I look over and see that the lady at the front desk is playing Space Invaders on her computer. The really odd thing was that she didn’t bother turning off the sound and it was really loud. Pretty damn funny.

After a while, I get called back. I have to strip down to my underwear and put on those stupid hospital gowns that tie in the back. Of course, most normal people can’t make a knot behind their back so the nurse has to help me with that, and of course check out my sweet ass. The nurse then proceeds to do all the usual doctor stuff like take my temperature and blood pressure. She then spends the next five minutes trying to decide where to stab my arm so she can pump some fluids in me, since by this point I haven’t had anything to eat for about 16 hours.

Next, the anesthesiologist comes in and gives me the option of having my leg numbed before surgery. That way when I wake up, i won’t feel any pain in my leg for a day or so. I agree to this and I get sedated while she gets started. She uses ultrasound to find the nerve in my leg she wants to numb. Then she sticks this huge needle in my leg while I writhe in pain.

“Oh, I must have gone through a tendon,” she says.

Great.

After this I get wheeled into the operating room where it’s off to dreamland.