I borrowed a very small open trailer maybe 8X 4 and put lightweight chair in that and then used crutches to get to the car or short hops…The small trailer can be pulled by a car.
I have seen dogs pulling chairs on local trails. They love it.
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My outlook is a little brighter:). I think a lot of it was being exhausted after going back to work. Just mostly had to vent. For 12 more days to quote Gloria Gainer “I Will Survive”. My boss OK’d me doing another week of 6 hrs instead of 8hrs which should help.
My itty bitty car (Prius C) does not have a hitch of any kind. It would probably fit through the double doors at the store but I doubt the management would go for that (however, I do drive right into the barn):lol:. It wouldn’t fit through the checkout stand however.
I managed to get to the store yesterday. Someone left an electric cart right at the parking space. It did take me 5 trips to get all the sacks in the house at home but I did it and am not any MORE sore and now I have food:encouragement:. Of course I had “help” this morning like a juicy hairball to clean up and I knocked my cellphone off and under the bed but amazingly, it is pretty easy to get down on my knees as long as I have something to brace and hold onto to get up.
Hopefully there is not a next next time but if there is, I have lots of ideas to scope out. I should have posted this the first week in, not the 4th.
Thanks for all the ideas.
Susan
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Just to update…I made it! Last night I swear my right shoulder was going to fall off. I entertained taking a pain pill in the middle of the night but decided that non-pharmacological means would better serve me so I used an ice pack and it helped a lot.
Today the cast came off. I saw the PA but he was very pleased with the x-rays and gave me to OK to walk (of course in a cam boot). My shoulders have breathed a sigh of relief. Even weighting that foot 20% really helps the shoulder. I am having trouble remembering that I can now stand on it.
My Frankenfoot looks rather gruesome. Probably about 10 inches of incisions (in 4 different spots) and all the old crusty crap on them all because it has been encased in a cast and about twice the size of the other one:p. I will need to work on the incisions gently in the shower. I am going to arrange PT tomorrow that will probably start in a couple weeks. Hopefully within the month I can hit the pool and start walking in pool (without the boot).
Again, thanks for all the suggestions.
Susan
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I’ve been on crutches for about 7 weeks…one more to go. Got bucked off my 23-year-old steady-Eddie who decided it was springtime!!! (A week later he was in turn out and pulled off both front shoes. Go figure.) My shoulders were never the problem, it was my hands that gave me trouble. I replaced the handles with gel-filled ones, which made a world of difference. However, now I have calluses on the heels of my hands and I have to watch that the skin doesn’t start cracking, again.
Room for a Pony…only one to go…woohoo. I have spongy rubber hand grips on my old crutches and they work pretty good. My wrists are sore and stiff but nothing like the grinding on my shoulders. I bought some newfangled crutches that have springs in the legs but they were harder on my shoulders for some reason and although they claim ‘ergonomic’ handles, I had a pressure sore on the heel of my right hand in very short order (like 10 minutes). I could wear bike gloves that have padding there but that was a hassle so I went back to the old standbys.
Jingles that this week flies by.
Susan
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ETA: please ignore–I didn’t see the update before I posted.
Are your crutches fitted to you correctly? When I broke my leg in 2017 the hospital fitted mine, but very badly and after two days of using them my arms and shoulders hurt more than the leg did. My PT guy took one look at them and went “OMG those are ALL WRONG” and re-fit them and suddenly life was much easier.
Ecileh…that’s OK. I am still using them and just partially weighting the foot. It isn’t too happy yet. I thought they were pretty good (ones I have had just for me since some knee surgery 15 years ago) but who knows. I haven’t had a professional look at them. I will google correct fit in the meantime. Just weighting my foot about 20-30% has helped a lot. My shoulders haven’t woken me up In several days:). I think I am just older and more decrepit:sigh:.
Thanks, Susan
Susan, how is the weight bearing going? I basically broke my knee and see the MD tomorrow. I am assuming that I will be weight bearing at some level, but I am very apprehensive. I don’t want to mess anything up…I’ve got a plate and screws. I’m not a fan of pain, but I’m pretty stir-crazy at this point. Stir-crazy and jealous of the people who are out riding at horse shows!
Room for a pony, it is going…in baby steps. It really isn’t very comfortable so I am still using the crutches and doing 20-30% weight bearing on the left, although at work tonight, I am able to walk (limp) around the end of the counter and back to my chair. Strangely, it feels better in the evening than in the morning but looks like a blimp when I take the boot off to go to bed.
I am being pretty cautious. I start physical therapy on the 13th and figure I will let the physical terrorist…oops…therapist give me some guidance.
I hope you get the OK but yes, it will be a process. Good luck.
Susan
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Susan, Boy can I relate to baby steps and limbs that look like a blimp. I was okayed to walk, “as tolerated”…but tolerated is a relative term. Combine fear of falling, a stiff knee that looks like a grapefruit, an ankle that has a lime attached to it, and muscles that are about as strong as a rubber band and hey, I’m all set!
Good luck with your physical therapist/terrorist. I’ve actually worked with mine on other horse-mishap injuries, so it’s like old home week here.
Tracy
Room for a Pony…yes, as tolerated. I made it to the barn last night and actually, using only one carrot, was able to brush my horse. She has a fear of the crutches and I took this as great progress…both on my part of being able to actually be around her and her attitude adjustment. My friend stopped by and rode her…she looks so good and it makes me want to get with the program so I can get back on:D.
Susan
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When I destroyed the soft tissue in my left ankle (shredded the connective tissue in a fall. No broken bones but the only reason my foot stayed attached to my leg was that my boots and chaps prevented my skin from breaking. It was insane and the surgeon still talks about it almost 6 years later as being one of the craziest injuries in his career so far) I was 100% non weight bearing for 4 months after having it surgically repaired, partially bearing for a few weeks til we discovered that walking with the screws in was basically sawing through the bones with each step, then 100% non for another month after the hardware came out, then gradually worked back up to full weight bearing after the hardware was out. Did about a year of 3x-weekly physio for that one.
I was unable to use underarm crutches comfortably. I was in between two holes and the upper hole made everything too high and strained my shoulders, but the lower hole was too low and killed my back.
After futzing around with my physiotherapist, I ended up with regular old forearm crutches, and used them with the grips perpendicular to me (so the ends pointing sideways instead of front to back), which worked better for the alignment from hands to shoulders for my body, and I had MUCH less shoulder pain unless I was on them for too long.
I had a folding wheelchair for longer outings, with my crutches strapped to the back in case I needed to be upright.
i had to trade vehicles with a family member for more than 6 months because it was my left ankle that I destroyed, and my car is a stick shift so I couldn’t work the clutch.
When I started to transition back to weight bearing, my nerves were messed up and pressure on my foot felt like I was being stabbed with hot needles. I couldn’t touch my bare foot down at all for quite some time.
I discovered that memory foam alleviated most of that discomfort, so i had a pair of memory foam flip flops for showering, slippers for around the house, and wide fitting shoes with thick memory foam insoles for going out. This made a world of difference for me and helped make the transition to full weight bearing a LOT easier.
I hope your healing is still going smoothly and that your horse continues to accept your temporary four-legged state! Mine hated the underarm crutches, but did learn to deal with the forearm crutches. He didn’t like the cane I had for a year after healing though, but that could be more because I wrapped the cane in the most god-awfully blinding duct tape I could find, haha!
I broke my left ankle, my left collarbone and my right knee. It was very frustrating because I was non weightbearing on my right leg for 8 weeks and also non weight bearing on my left shoulder. You might consider a walker. Yes, it makes you feel like a granny, but it’s much less stress on your shoulders. I started with a wheelchair, graduated to a walker, then was able to move to crutches, then to a quad cane. My gelding was terrified of the wheelchair and crutches; my mare figured out that I could still give her carrots. Forearm crutches might also help. Good luck! The recovery process seems to take forever but you will ge there.
Thanks all…making progress ;). Most of the time I am down to one crutch and can putter around the kitchen or at work with no crutch. I did break the walker out for a bit but between it killing my right shoulder (it has to do with the arm bone pushing up into a shoulder capsule that has arthritis and bone spurs) and how wonky it makes your gait, I put it away. The horse is actually settling down about the crutches…as long as you have carrots with you:lol:.
I started PT on Thursday working on range of motion and muscle strengthening. Work was interesting last night. The foot wasn’t real happy but that is totally expected (damned concrete floors). Luckily, I still have my scooter at work so I can ‘cheat’. At least now, I can ice it when I get home. Retirement in 18 days…that will help so many things:yes::D.
Susan
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Ceylon Star…yikes:eek:. I guess you could almost call that internal amputation (similar to internal decapitation). I’ll bet your surgeons are still taking about that. I know what you mean about walking on bare floors. I have had trouble with that for years (both feet now have had surgery). I am glad you finally became functional again. Yes on the memory foam for shoes. I don’t know what I am going to do for the left one. It is still pretty massive. Because I am working, it doesn’t get much of a chance to go down. Men’s shoes would probably be primo but men’s shoes don’t come small (short) enough so I will probably be stuck buying 2 different sizes. Oh and my feet are already wiiiide:dead:. Oh well…don’t have to worry about that for a few more weeks.
Susan
