Tibia mostly healed, Physical Therapy, out of bed, foot blister slowing up recovery, sadness and loneiness

Well I am out of bed and I would like to stay out of bed, except for sleep time, that is.  I am reading that it takes up to a full year for a tibia to fully heal, but three months to be able to bear weight.  After two months, my orthopedist gave me a boot to put on, but I couldn't stand with it.  Something was going on with the bottom of my right foot [the side of the fractured tibia], but I didn't know what it was.  Well, I was distraught thinking that I still couldn't stand and in the back of my mind I thought maybe I would never be able to stand again.

The next morning, the aide on duty went to clean the bottom of my foot and noticed a blister, right in the spot where the cast ended. So it seems that the rough edge of the cast was apparently rubbing against the skin.  I had an appointment already planned that week with my primary doctor and she looked at it, told me to see a podiatrist, and gave me a light antibiotic in case it was infected.  The day I finished the antibiotic, I saw the podiatrist who said the blister was not infected despite th pain and there was nothing serious doing under the blister.  But it would take a few weeks to heal.  He lanced and drained it and I had weekly visits for the next month until it totally healed.  Needless to say, I was in bed an additional month.

Finally, I am standing almost as well as I did before the injury but I have home physical therapy to exercise the leg to strengthen the joints around the tibia like the ankle and knee.  When you're in bed for more than three months, the muscles atrophy and have to be "woken up" again.  All in all, I was lucky that this happened during the cold winter and apart from doctor visits, I didn't have to go outside.  Going outside for the doctor was difficult, since my toes were exposed and sticking out of the cast.  One time, we missed Access-a-Ride because we were fighting with a too-small elevator coming out of the orthopedist's office.  There was no courtesy phone call; she just pulled away right in front of my aide.  And when the aide ran after and caught up to her at a red light, she [the driver] refused to come back around or wait.  So we walked from 66th and Second Avenue to 60th Street to catch the Q60 MTA bus and my toes froze.  Luckily we were near the Q60 that goes from Manhattan to Queens.  But then we had to walk/roll from the bus stop to my apartment, toes exposed again.

There's nothing that gets you thinking and reflecting more on your life than being stuck on your back in bed.  And there is nothing lonelier. I really found out who my friends were and they were few, but I consider myself lucky.  More on that later.  I also have certain emotional addictions [more like obsessions] that reared their ugly heads during this time, and I had to pull myself off social media in order to not feed into those addictions.  Social media can be very dangerous for me, especially when I can see the wonderful fun other people have and how they are surrounded by loving friends and family.  Not that I wasn't lonely in my healthy able-bodied days, but I could get out and do something about it.

2016 Started With a Bang -- to My Tibia , Cast Over My Knee, Bed Bound-- Forced to Sit Still for Three Months

It started with a box that came from Target.  It contained a 3-tier metal trolley that I could load things on, things that have been sitting on top of my dresser and causing ugly clutter; things like creams and cosmetics and nutritional supplements.  But I couldn’t find anyone willing and/or able to put the trolley together.  My building porter agreed, and I planned to give him an extra $20 to do so.  But then Juan was promoted to building super and found out what a busy job that was, and just didn’t have the time to do it.  So, in the meantime, my aide Cheryl found a cheap plastic trolley for $10, which I used for my BiPaP ventilator and there wasn’t any room for anything else.  So I would still find use for the Target trolley, but decided I would return it.  But when I checked the website for the receipt, I learned that the trolley was an “unreturnable item”.

So the box sat on the floor, where it still sits now.  And I went to get something off the top of the cluttered dresser and didn’t realize how fast the wheelchair was going and banged my foot on the box.  My knee bent and I heard what I thought was a crunch, but figured I just twisted my ankle and it would get better.

On Saturday January 16, I had some pain when I did my usual “stand and transfer”  but I assumed it would get better and it seemed to.  By Saturday night my aide was using a “u-sling” for transfers because it doesn’t require me to stand.  My leg was so painful I couldn’t sleep that night.  Because I am taking the blood-thinner Xeralto, I cannot take any NSAIDS [like Advil, Aleve, aspirin or Motrin], so that leaves Tylenol, of which two extra-strength caplets barely took the edge off.

By Sunday afternoon, I knew I had to go to the local ER [North Shore/Long Island Jewish Hospital in Forest Hills] about six blocks away from my apartment.  But I couldn’t drive there myself because I had to tilt the wheelchair back to raise the painful leg, and that’s not a good driving position.  So we called one of the volunteer ambulance corps and they referred me to another team because they thought I was going to Cornell.http://nyp.org/facilities/weillcornell.html  The second team brought me to the basement and we waited for one of the EMTs to come around with the ambulance.  Two hours later, after the ambulance wouldn’t start, we were ready to go six blocks.  We made the initial call at 2:00pm and reached the ER door at 4:30pm.  I was done by 6:30.  I had x-rays and the doctor [Dr. Rachel Morris, who was wonderful] told me I “broke a bone in the foot” and gave me the option of staying there overnight to be seen by an orthopedist the next day, or go home with painkillers and see an orthopedist of my own choosing.  Now I knew that the next day was Martin Luther King Day and there was no way I was going to be seen at that hospital by any kind of decent specialist on MLK Day.  I chose to take the painkillers and go home and call my doctor at Cornell on Tuesday morning.

My friend Debbie Wolfe called my primary care doctor -- Dr. Susana Morales -- at Cornell and I was referred to Dr. Craig Radnay,  an orthopedic surgeon on East 66th Street that Thursday.  Dr. Radnay’s office took their own set of x-rays and they showed I broke my TIBIA [pictured above]!!  As it is risky for an ALS patient to go under general anesthesia, he wants to see if the bone will heal without surgery.  So I have a hard cast up to just past my knee.  I am to be in bed as much as possible, and keep transfers with the lift to a minimum.  So here I write this with my limited time out of bed at my laptop.  I spend about half of my waking time in bed.  Those who know me, know that’s not my style.  I am learning how to watch TV on my mobile devices.  Truth be told, I am most comfortable in my bed covered by my warm comforter and with my legs elevated.  

I am scheduled to see Dr. Radnay again on February 11, and I am hoping and praying that the  bone is healing with the cast, which I am predicted to wear for three months. I am also in less pain while in bed.  Starting today, I reduced myself to ½ Oxycodone every 4-5 hours.  Oxycodone makes me very sleepy and one of it’s fun side effects is constipation.  So I will give regular updates; in the meantime, please keep me in your thoughts and prayers for a quick recovery without the need for surgery.

By the way, Chelsea is staying in a wonderful home while I am recuperating….More on that next time.  But so far, she has met a bunny couple and a very inquisitive cockatiel…….pics next time too.