I was out running three weeks ago and slipped on some cut grass on a local footpath. After a bout of nausea and a few deep breaths I somehow managed to make it back home with a rapidly swelling leg. Although I thought my ankle felt a little floppy, I assumed since I could walk on it that it wasn't broken - but likely a bad sprain.
After nearly a week, I was finally persuaded by one of my bosses to go and get it checked out. They tactfully suggested that swelling all of the way up to my knee, an ankle that was twice its normal size and being unable to stand or sit vertically due to pain from blood pooling was probably more than a simple sprain.
The next morning saw me somehow clamber onto my bike and pedal/scoot it to my local clinic a couple of miles away. My GP suspected a fracture of the fibula but I'd need to visit my local hospital for an X-ray to confirm. All of the staff I saw there were impressed, but not necessarily in a good way, that I'd managed to cycle the four miles there. They confirmed a broken fibula and gave me some crutches and a Darth Vader boot to hold everything together. I was allowed to go by the nurse practitioner in A&E on the strict understanding that she didn't want to see me back in there on a stretcher after crashing the bike. I gave her a grin that suggested more confidence than I actually felt.
Week two saw steady improvements - especially once I bought some compression socks to help reduce the swelling related pain. The first night of wearing those resulted in what looked at least a litre of water in the bucket doubling as a night time commode. Impressive, most impressive - as Darth might have said in during his own recovery after being boiled by larva.
A follow up visit to the hospital was sobering as the break looked rather nasty and I narrowly missed surgery.
Week three has brought considerable improvements in mobility (I can walk around the house avec boot - and outside with a single crutch), pain (this might be my first painkiller free day) and swelling (much reduced on everywhere except the break area). But surprisingly, it's also been a week of exhaustion. Monday was a near wipe-out and I had to take the day off and Thursday started off utterly dreadful with my normal morning activities taking at least four times as long to complete - but I did begin to feel normal towards the end of the morning. Sometimes I've been to bed as early as 6.30pm. Apparently, it is not uncommon for bone healing to be extremely tiring.
Week four is supposedly the last full week of Darth's boot before I can wean myself off it. We shall see.
So what have I learned from the experience so far?
My habit stack routine has really helped. Sure, I've not always been able to complete it due to mobility problems, pain or tiredness - but it has helped give some momentum and sense of progress to each day.
It probably also helps that the stack includes things which can be with little or no physical effort or mental overhead as they happen semi-automatically.
Finding a non-physical displacement activity has also helped. I've picked up my Duolingo Welsh course again and am enjoying making progress on that. It also feels easier to focus on it than previously.
Unfortunately, I haven't managed to keep up momentum on the CreativeLive challenge. Perhaps one new habit was enough.
Headspace, those purveyors of fine mindfulness activities, have a 30 day guided meditation course on pain management which has started to allow me to consider a different relationship to it. I'm into around day 20 now and feeling somewhat of a fraud as most pain has gone now. But it has been an interesting exercise.
Treating it like an adventure. I generally avoid doctors and hospitals like the disease ridden places of death that the Daily Mail would have us believe they are. As it turns out, my local NHS is startlingly good. I was seen by my GP within half an hour without booking an appointment and haven't waited for more than ten minutes at each hospital encounter. Every contact I've had has been friendly, professional and efficient with even the odd flash of humour.
Substitution. I've managed to find manageable alternatives for most of my physical activities except running e.g. floor yoga rather than weight-bearing.
I'm obviously keen to get back to running, but between walking with crutch, cycling and chair cardio from Caroline Jordan - I am not going stir crazy.
Friends. It's been wonderful to have friends visit, sympathise and offer help as well as via the wider social media community and neighbours. I met one neighbour in the local supermarket at the checkout - and they kindly drove me home complete with bike and shopping - which while it wasn't necessary was certainly appreciated.
Similarly, young people have regularly offered to help while I've been stumbling around loading up my bike with shopping - and older ones have given me plenty of sympathetic looks.
No comments:
Post a Comment