Broken a limb over Xmas? Metaphorically climbing the walls? Support thread

[duchesse]

Me: broken ankle on Xmas Day, operated on 4th January, now climbing the walls trying to keep DD3 entertained (with help from au pair and lovely friends dropping in), looking forward to being able to walk again some time in February...

Come and join me on my 6 week wait...

I hope they realise it is now forbidden for you to iron/cook/wash-up

Seriously - Ouch! Poor you. (Did you slip on the ice?) Are you able to get around on crutches or are you Housebound? Such a pain when you can't drive.

Take care of yourself.

Duchesse, I thought my boxing day broken ankle incident (2 years ago) was bad enough but Christmas Day - blimey!

How did you do it? I fell down the stairs at 6.00AM after a dreadful night with DD1 aged 2.8 at the time. I was carrying her but she was OK.

Did you have to wait for ages with your leg up in the hospital whilst the swelling went down? I wish I knew over Christmas as I would have come to give you some virtual support. It was miserable I remember. New Year was spent in the trauma unit with a load of old biddies with broken hips and a box of maltesears.

Have you got a removable cast? If so (and obviously if your physio has said it is OK), it is worth trying to get a bit of movement in it.

It is frustrating but the time will go. And apart from beeping when I go through airport security I haven't had any problems with it at all. Bio oil for the scar was brilliant.

Anyway, I know you are probably just trying to get through each day at the moment and stop the DCs from tripping over your leg 10 times and hour, trying to hop around the kitchen on your crutches trying to get tea ready, working out how to have a shower and wash your hair without a) falling over and b) getting anything wet, worrying about having to call on so many people for help/entertainment, dropping and then swearing at your crutches about 100 times a day and generally coping with the boredom and frustration!

It will pass. It will heal. Hang in there!

Poor you you have my deepest sympathy I understand the frustration only too well.

I broke my ankle in 5 places on 8th December, have a permanent plate & a temporary pin. I can't bear weight for 10 weeks & then have to have another op to take the pin out.

At first I simply couldn't care for DD1 (4) & DD2 (22 months) Dh had loads of time off & now I can take care of their basic needs & am getting by on generous helpings of cbeebies & arts & crafts.. So DH has been able to go back to work.

We moved house last weekend (planned months previously) which was a nightmare, dh worked like a trojan! The plus side is that we are now in a bungalow, the negative is that there is so much to sort & I can do barely anything :(

The mums & staff at dd1's preschool have been fab collecting her & dropping her off - stopping her going stir crazy at home & it is so much easier to look after just dd2 rather than both of them. DD1 has been a trooper - she helps loads & her following instructions is greatly improved. Infact both girls have adapted to what I can & can't do amazingly well!!

I sympathise on the houseboundness too we are very rural & I cannot wait to get my freedom back. Its amazing how much you take walking for granted until it is taken away!!

Another broken ankle here! Slipped on New Years Day when out walking with family. No pins or plates so far- another x ray to check next week- just a cast. My dcs are older - 12,10, 8 and 5 but it's still frustrating when you can't look after everyone and have to rely on help.
Sympathy to everyone who's stuck in the same boat!

My sympathies to you all. I was just saying to my friend back in November that I wanted nothing more for this winter than to spend it by the fire reading novels. And guess what I'm doing? Whatever deity or being is out there sure has a sense of humour... I am very lucky to have a lot of help in the house, so that I do not have to do anything at all apart from look after myself and entertain the baby when she climbs onto my stomach. She's feeding far more than she- opportunity I think- I'm a sitting lying duck.

Loony- that sounds bad! 10 weeks?? Poor you. Can you get an au pair to come and help? I'm finding even with the help that I have that it's difficult to keep the foot elevated for the 23.5 hours a day it requires. The ankle lets me know very quickly that it's objecting. So they don't take out the plate as well even if you are having the screws out? Interesting. My surgeon friend says they remove plates and whatnot in Germany- I wonder why not here?

Asinine- yours sounds like my husband's that was treated with a walking plaster after very little time. Sounds like it could have been a whole lot worse. My DH's is entirely back to normal- he hasn't had any bother with it at all since a few weeks after the plaster came off. Hoping yours mends as well as his has.

twofalls- I slipped on ice that had formed from metled snow during the day on Xmas Day on my mother's drive. I hadn't realised that there was a slope of melt water at the bottom of the drive when I started carrying the baby home to bed at 10pm. Didn't bother with a torch as was a clear light night iyswim. Big mistake. Luckily baby unharmed.

That sounds awful. Very scary. And cold waiting for help. A few mins can feel like a lifetime. I was also carrying a toddler and the whole time was just grateful she was ok. She still remembers it clearly (and the bit where she got a her medical set to try and "fix" it -ouch!

I am glad you have help in the house, I remember being so grateful to ANYONE who would have dd for me at teatime!

Hope you start to feel better soon. Here they do the least surgery that is required and belive that generally you can cause more complications taking metalwork out than leaving it in, although this is obviously not true in all cases.

Luckily I had my mobile phone in my pocket and called the house- my brother came straight out and fetched the baby, then he and my sister carried me back into the house. Just as well as it was about -6C or -7C by then.

Does anybody know if it's normal for the operation wound to still be weeping inside the plaster after ten days? It feels constantly damp in there (which is a worry since they tell you not to get the plaster wet!) and it's stinging quite a bit.

duchesse -feel for you. I broke my tib/fib with an ankle dislocation a while ago.

I got myself a light rucksack to carry around the house and kept bits in pieces in it for the day like books, medication, phone, glasses, etc. and this made life easier.

Try and get a waterproof cover for the plaster so you can have a proper shower. I also got a piece of wood and used it as a plinth across the end of the bath so I could still have a soak and keep my leg out of the water.

Don't have plates but I have a few screws which will remain.

Not sure about the wet feeling in your plaster -perhaps enquire at the hospital.

Also, a covered insulated cup is a must -I found I couldn't walk with a coffee cup and crutches.

indeed not scurry- that's whats so frustrating- you can't carry anything, can you? I discovered the other day when everyone was out that I could knock up a hot drink in a thermos flask and push it with the crutch along the floor to my sofa, where I poured it into my cup.

Duchesse, your accident sounds a lot like mine - I slipped on the ice walking around the back of the car - on my own with the girls with engine running to defrost. Had to crawl through the pain & snow to get dd1's door open & her in car & the round to drivers door to turn engine off. Thank god I had my phone in my pocket too - DH was 20 mins away & not a car came past in all the time I was waiting for him.

My wound was weeping for a while but I would give your fracture clinic a call & ask. When are you due to have it looked at next?

I have a bag I can put round my neck to carry stuff around - works fairly well- I'm not a fan of hot drinks so haven't had to solve that, dd1 & I are using giant sigg bottles & dd2 is back to sippy cups as I can't carry a non sippy one nor supervise properly the non spilling of it. I feel often that I am impacting badly on dd2's development - confined to the house, potty training virtually on hold, virtually no stimulation apart from endless books & cbeebies

Meant to say poor you carrying the baby when you fell - immediately when I did it I was thanking god it was after I had put dd2 in the car & not before - it must have been a huge fright.

Due to go back on Tuesday to have the stitches and fibreglass cast on. Crawling is actually rather difficult with a newly broken ankle I discovered! The thing that is positive is that since the op I've had a lot less pain and can no longer feel the bone bits clicking as they shift (not so pleasant, that). Apart from the damp feeling from around the incision site it's mostly virtually pain free.

Another broken ankle story however was done 2 years ago when I did not have children so not as bad as everyone else. Did mine in the most unglamorous location of Bethnal Green tube station by falling down one step, felt like a right prune. However last November I had my plate removed as it was causing me so much pain and was out of action for a couple of weeks while looking after 8 month DD, so can sympathise with you on that front.

I found tupperware invaluable as would make my lunch up along with snacks and put drink in a flask shove it all in a rucksack and hop my way back to the sitting room where I would take up camp.

duchesse - I found bottom shuffling much easier then crawling (foot at angle seemd to get in the way)and hardly ever used my crutches round the house. I found it much easier when my stitches came out and less painful - Good Luck.

kipling, that's interesting to know that you had your plate out. Do you have very slender ankles may I ask? I ask because I usually have virtually nothing between the bone and the outside and I really suspect that the plate is going to bother me long term- I think it may well rub against boots and cause me a lot of soreness. Were they OK about taking it out or did you have to badger them for ages?

duchese - I do have very slim ankles and they had to put in a thinner plate for that purpose, however it meant I could not weight bear for 3 months. They never mentioned anything at the time that it would be a problem.

However after being pregnant my ankle got more painful and I lived with it for ages thinking it was one of those things but in the end thought I better talk to the GP. He referred me straight away to an orthopedic surgeon and as soon as surgeon looked at it he said we will whip it out. I queried it and asked if it would be safe and he seemed to think it was a fairly routine operation. Touch wood I have not had any problems since and no longer feel like my ankle is the a conductor for cold.

You may be fine and I never found it rubbed against footwear as the skin above it sort of toughened (sorry TMI).

Hi another ankle story here! I broke mine in 3 places while pregnant with DS2 15 months ago! On wed I had another op to remove plate and 8 screws so am laid up again. Two of the screws on the ankle bone were sticking up & irritating me, so I had them removed - apparently the whole lot had to come out though. Its quite common apparently as its such a thin layer of skin between your ankle bone and the outside of your leg.

Its nothing like as painful as the first time, can put weight on it but have been told to be careful as it will be weaker for a while and there is a hole where the screws has been . I havent looked at it yet, will change dressing later and have stitches out next week. I had staples the first time. I was quite surprized when they gave me a load of dressings and said change it in 48hrs! My mum is coming round to help as DP is too sqeamish!

Oh yay, people who will understand my boredom. No broken limb for me but I do have ruptured archillies tendon and am one week into a eight weeks of a cast, then onto a moon boot.

I did the injury on the 11/12 and did not go into a cast until last Thrusday. Basically the long wait is because of my stubborness to believe I'd actually injured myself so badly and because I didn't want to let down my clients. I'm self employed and now because I can't work have had to let down the client I was with and also the client I was booked for in Feb.

I don't have children (although I do work with children) and I don't have a partner - just a rather helpful, thankfully, flatmate. Also because I not orginally from the UK I don't know a lot of (any) people to help with the boredom. So can I join please am so bored I've been counting the cracks in my ceiling, any longer doing this and I'm going to crack!

oh duchesse and the others - sorry for your broken bones/achilles tendons!! glad your baby wasnt harmed tho when you fell duchesse!!

I'm another one with a broken bone - but in my right hand! and i'm right handed!!! i slipped on the ice last thurs and think i'm in plaster for another week or 2! I'm in a backslab up to the tips of my 3rd,4th and 5th fingers but thankfully i've got my index finger and thumb free. i've got 3dc (9, 6 and 4) - the oldest one is a bit of help but the other 2 arent much use! and my dh is out at work all day! thankfully i can drive (just) since we live in a village in the sticks with no shops!

But loads of other things are a nightmare - i've got really long hair which i've tried to wash myself today! it had gone a week but it was too manky and dh wasnt in the mood for doing it for me! and cooking is a nightmare - its been fish fingers, chips or pizza in the week since the dc arent much use!

But my big moan this week (and its way TMI) is i got the heaviest period i've had in years and i had the runs! i wished i had magic shoes on tues to transport myself away from all of it!

but the pain is a bit better today (and my other problems have stopped) so life doesnt seem to bad! and dh is off at the weekend so maybe we can eat a bit better!

sorry for the big moan!

MrsW- you really have to rest an achilles tendon injury, you naughty lady! They are even worse than a broken bone and it will take longer to heal than broken bones I shouldn't wonder. Can your helpful flatmate hoof down to the library for you and get a stack of decent novels every week? You must be very bored now if you're used to being out seeing clients most of the time. I'm self-employed too but luckily work from home, so am taking gap in novel-reading to do some translation. Speaking of which...

Canella- deeply that you can still drive. On the other hand that doesn't let you off the hook anywhere near as much as a broken ankle does, so poor you- I imagine you're having to carry on as before more or less.

ohnelly- you and kipling are at the same stage of recovery from plate removal I think. The race is on!

canella -can you take yourself off to the hairdresser to have your hair washed? Old ladies are always having their washed and set aren't they?