OMG, I hate being a cripple! I finally went to the ER to have my ankle looked at, because I finally had the co-pay money my insurance requires, and the injured foot was a little darker color than the uninjured one, and I got a little freaked out. Turns out I have a Jones fracture; they put me in a cast boot and told me to see the orthopedic surgeon. I saw him today, and he said it's already healing, so I have to go back in 3 weeks for another x-ray to see if it's going to need surgical stabilization or not. (Hopefully not).
I'm still suppose to stay off of it, so yesterday when I had to go grocery shopping, I used one of those automated shopping carts--I have a whole new appreciation for the physically disabled right now. You only get to see half the store in those things, and man do I hate being so short! It is NOT COOL having everybody else tower over you like that. I'm pretty sure, having had this experience, if I ever needed to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair, I would become suicidal. It's fine for skinning and all, but I have a whole lot of active life I live that I was unaware of until this happened that I NEED to keep me sane. Things like walking the dog, shopping, seeing things, going places, just standing in the kitchen and cooking, or doing laundry and stuff.
I just wanted to post this, because I know there are some of you here who are disabled, and I guess I took your conditions for granted. It's a whole lot harder than it looks, and I just wanted to express to you my admiration for the fact that you do it every day!
Things always look different from the 'other persons' perspective. I know a few people that could stand to learn some life lessons.
Karen...I'd trade your fracture 10 times over for my problem...but I'm sure it doesn't feel good either. I can hardly sit at my pc to get anything done...if I stand to long both my upper legs go numb and then my back feels like its going to snap in half. I spend most of my time lying in bed because I've yet to find any pain meds that do anything for me. All I can tell ya is that it's bad enough that I won't tolerate it for long if these doctors don't come up with something soon. Not a good thought but there it is.
Glad you were off your feet at least...
Sorry for the crappy luck, sweety.
p.s. - You're not a 'cripple'. You're temporarily disabled. In a few weeks you'll be fine.
Are you "Jonesing" to get out of the cast? lol... c'mon... laugh a little.
My poor bf is going to be in a cast for about a total of 5-6 weeks. Clean break on his ankle from skydiving. He even had to get surgery to put on this metal plate thing and 11 screws to hold the bone back together. Next time he thinks about jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, I'm going to show him the x-rays.
To make things worse...it's on his right leg (driving foot) and he lives in an upstairs apartment, gah!
I've been saying that for 6 years.
If it weren't for the fact that you all suck so much and keep me so aggravated, I would have given up a long time ago. It's all the contempt I have for all of you that keeps my fired up cause you all suck so much. I'm sticking around just to remind you...that you suck..all of you.
Karen, so sorry to hear about your foot. You still suck.
I was the same, not too appreciative of others situations, until I ended up in hospital with multiple fractures.. some in my lower spine.
That was 37 years ago, and having spent much time in a wheelchair while in hospital for 3 years, then 18 months on crutches while in various body casts, I am only too aware of how tough people do it when confined to a wheelchair and or walking aid.... and just how rude some people can be because you are not as mobile as they are and therefore slow them down/inadvertently get in their way. Oh, and ask someone to pass something you can't reach because yo can't stand... some are just plain ignorant, and others make out you've just asked them to pass down the entire shelf and 3 quarters of the contents of the store's distributing warehouse as well.
I went back to work after that and did some heavy duty stuff at that, like road building (the old fashioned way, manually), railway track maintenance (again the old fashioned manual way) and furniture removalist... mover to the uneducated, but my old injuries got the better of me eventually and I had to retire due to those and other health issues.
I'm not in a wheelchair as yet, and I don't use walking aids, either. I dunno, probably because I'm a stubborn old bastard, but I am of the opinion that if I can still walk I should. I can't walk great distances [shoot, not even moderately short ones some days] but I will not succumb to being totally incapacitated and riding in a wheelchair until the absolute last thing... when I CAN'T walk.
Much of that determination, I think, goes back to when I was confined to a wheelchair and some of the impatience and rudeness I encountered at times. In this bustling day and age of people wanting to be there yesterday, the rudeness and impatience seems to be worse than yesteryear, so naturally I want to avoid that as much as possible. The other advantage to being on my feet, say, in a supermarket, etc... when somebody bitches and abuses me for being so slow, I can turn around intimidatingly [@ 6' 2"] and say "well fuck you too". Hehe!!!! In a wheelchair that ain't so impressive... or intimidating, so I ain't gonna depend on one of those for yonks to come if I have my way.... cos I still wanna say "eff you" and not get spun around in one 'til I'm dizzy
We make a fine pair, don't we WG, and not being able to afford that busty blonde nurse doesn't help any, either. I've applied for a supplement to my DSP [disability pension] to be able to afford one, but the pencil pushers behind the counter say I need to be much shorter and 10kg heavier before that happens. I can see how that would be to my advantage... being eye-level with the cleavage, but c'mon.... I WANT one NOW!!!!
Seriously, mate, we are in very similar boats and I'm only too aware of how you feel. I too spend quite a bit of time laying down, but moreso for vertigo/travel sick issues that often dog my days. I have an inoperable spinal condition in my neck that causes this, and while travel sick pills help to some degree, they don't always provide the relief I need to get on with my day. Yup, the pain is excruciating at times, and then there is no... well, very little walking due to numbness and pins n' needles, etc, but I still won't roll over and get a wheelchair. Nope, for me that's the beginning of the end, so hopefully it's a few years off yet.
I am fortunate in that I have a great doctor and can get fairly decent and affordable pain relief medication these days, otherwise I don't know how I'd cope this well. The pain threshold is sometimes more than I can bear, however, but for the most part it is manageable and I am sort of functional. I know how chronic pain can be debilitating and cause depression, so hopefully you too can access affordable and effective medication to improve your circumstances. I know what you're saying and why, but please hang in there, mate, please hang in there....
... you're in my thoughts.
we do what we can....
you don't realise how lucky you are 'til you lose use of something or end up with 24/7 pain....
my brother now living in Seattle, bought a bike to make use of the beautiful bike tracks near him.....
the back brake seized.... broke his elbow.... 4 clean breaks and 25 fractures.... during the op... surgeon filled half a cup with bone chips
going to need two more ops... the first one cost $70,000 and having heaps of physio...
his great love, for the whole of his life... is golf.... been told he won't be doing that anymore...
the pictures are pretty horrific...
all I can say is... I hope you all mend and heal... even though it's a tall order for some...
There's always someone worse off than me--you guys are just having too much fun. I hope that things improve somehow.
hey Karen, we can hang together... what me with my fake leg and you with your bung ankle lol
I'd love to Po! But one of the problems I have is that none of the pain meds they've been giving me don't work a damn for me...they might as well have been giving me aspirin. At one point I was taking 70 mil of Valium and 1600 mil Neurontin together and didn't so much as yawn. Then it was Vicodin...fentanyl patches...Oxycontin and still nothing. And tonight I just got back from my second visit within 7 hours to the ER for kidney stones...and got a nice dose of Morphine...again...nothing...then they gave me some stuff called tramadol which finally gave me at least a little bit of relief...but I was told that this nasty stone is just sitting on the fence waiting to fall off...so I can expect to go though this all over again over the next dew days.
But the main problem I have wouldn't allow me to even kick my own ass let alone some hipsters. Actually I'd let them beat me up hoping it would knock something back into place.
Yeah I don't understand this system they have set up here at all. When this first happened I was still working 2 jobs 7 days a week making 3000 a month and because I had no health care they were falling all over themselves to give me Medicaid. Then after some time passed and things got worse forcing me to go on disability and only getting 944 a month...I was now somehow making to much money and they yanked the medicaid and kicked me to the curb. Now...a few weeks ago I was in the hospital when this kidney stone thing reared its ugly head again my bill for just a bit over 24 hours came to around 20,000 and suddenly I apparently qualify for Medicaid...go figure.
Bottom line is that this whole thing has been going on since August 27 2007 and I'm just getting tired of it all. As much as I want to I can't get another job...and if it weren't for this skinning thing I'd be laying in bed staring at the walls 24/7 since in my condition I'm pretty much useless and couldn't even defend myself if my life depended on it...and getting older here with the normal health problems that comes with age doesn't help either. So unless these doctors pull a rabbit out of a hat...I don't see any point in hanging around just to hang around. If you could actually feel like I do right now you'd understand. I know full well how that sounds...but I'm out of options.
K10w3...
I have had epilepsy all of my life and have since been diagnosed with MS in 2008. It's thought that I had it for about 15 years at least though. It is half way through stage 1 relapsing remitting. The epilepsy has gotten worse since the MS diagnosis. I just had my last grand mal seizure Monday night... split my lip open and had to have stitches in it both inside and out and had to go to the hospital. Right now I am on a portable EEG for 24 hours. If only I had been on it on Monday night. I am still finding new injuries. My big stuffed cheetah by the front door was all covered in blood when I woke up.
I right now have the relapsing remitting form of MS. I am half way through stage 1. Sometimes it feels like someone has thrown gasoline all over my left side and a little bit of my right and lit a match... and then taken a cooler of ice water and then thrown that on me. Other times I can't feel anything at all. I lose my balance all the time. In the later stages i could end up blind... deaf... or paralyzed and in a wheelchair.... but I look at it as that day is NOT TODAY. I can still hear... but I just can't filter out sounds. My sight is now worse... but I can still see. I can still walk... but I just sometimes need a walker. I will always have seizures.... but I will usually have Little Man around to warn me. He is one of my cats that just knows when these seizures are coming on... sometimes before I do. When he knows... he will start crying and follow me from room to room and when they are over he won't let me get up until he is satisfied I am ok. My other two cats have no idea. Little Man is the one in the picture I am using now. Next I will use Foofy.
The Cats Meow Mix
Well he's effed with the scanners at airport security.... they'll make him go back through over and over and take off this and that to stop the buzzers going off.... and that leg... it might have to come off if he ever wants to fly again.
Nah, seriously, I hope it heals well. As for jumping out of a perfectly good plane.... there's no excuse unless one's in the military and under orders.
Thanks, syd, that's nice. It's a tall order for me and probably not even possible after years of deterioration, but I'm always looking out for a surgeon who specialises in bionics.
well, since everyone is sharing.
I had my left hip replaced last year, the right's not to bad but my right knee hurts a lot, my ankles have damage and I use a cane to take the pressure off so that I walk somewhat normal. Went to Disney World in March and, from the walking, received a stress fracture in my right foot that required me to wear a walking splint for 8 weeks, which made my left replaced hip start hurting. I figured that something had slipped but it turned out to be only soft tissue damage. it's been a long year just to get back to where I almost was then.
I do understand. My Mom had diabetes, was in a nursing home and had to go to dialysis twice a week. Her quality of life was pretty low, I would have skipped the dialysis before being placed into the nursing home. I myself have a bottle of oxy just for such an emergency, hope I keel from a heart attack before I consider that alternative.
getting old sucks.
Karen, hope your recovery is swift and complete. Hope we haven't severely depressed you.
Oh, and Po`, so you don't feel neglected... you suck.
You suck so much, a jet engine would see you as serious competition to getting some decent air.
In fact, I'd tell you to suck off, but you'd only see it as a challenge and suck even harder.
So instead, suck sausages you old fart.
I had my left hip replaced last year,
I've been begging for my right hip too be looked at... seriously, but every time the surgeon [yep, different ones] tells me that I'm too young [I'm 58 now] and come back when I'm 65+. I'd rather have quality of life... well better than I have right now, sooner and not when I'm too effing old. Makes no difference... even though my sister is 3 years younger and has had both hips replaced [the first at 27], they tell me I don't qualify because of my 'young' age.
If I was a highly paid sports star they'd do it now, regardless of age... just don't pay to be a nobody with not a lot of money, does it.
Get outta my HEAD!
the doctors at UNC told me the same thing. they said that the replacement only lasts 10-12 years and they don't want to have to do more than once. Went to a specialist and had it replaced shortly thereafter. the docuemented evidence is that the hip replacements are lasting at least 20 years and possibly longer depending.... May be it has to do with your medical system??? but I'd go see a specialist if you can. good luck with that it really makes a difference.
ANother one in my HEAD!
Thanks for revealing the source of the quake, hurricanes and other natural and unnatural disasters.
666 must be hidden somewhere in that blog.
All I have to say is, "Go Cocks!".
And you suck, Smedley.
I won't laundry list everything thats wrong with me. I noticed most of ya are over 50. As we get older we tend to not be as agile as we were when we were 20. It pisses me off to see someone jusmp out of a 4 wheel truck thats 3 foot off the ground, parking in the handicap parking. I hate those that abuse the HCP slots, using some other family members sticker when they are not there.
Although you might be in a cast for a couple weeks it isn't what I'd consider "crippled", although that's a very pejorative term. You are temporarily inconvenienced. You should be thankful it isn't worse and you can look at it as an eye opening experience, like you've pointed to. It gives you a taste of what it's like for those less fortunate than yourself.
All you "cripples" should get together and have a good old Cage Match Cripple Fight to the death. The winner can take the name "The Crippler".
A cripple is a person or animal with a physical disability, particularly one who is unable to walk because of an injury or illness.
So I guess from the above and everuthing else I read using the word crippled is correct.
If I was close enough to support any of you, you would have my help anytime you wanted it. I'm well aware of what the work disabled and handicaped means. Took care of my wife with no help for 2 years before she passed. she couldn't walk, talk, go to the bathroom, etc. 100% depending on me. Again wish I was close enough to visit, help or support any of you that needed it. Very hard subject for me and my feelings run all over the place with memories.I'm with you all in thought at least.
If it's still too much for you, we could just go into Starbucks and insist they make us Choco-Late Oxicontin Grandes and whine real hard at them when they don't!!!
Ok PO...In that case I got your back as well! And that Choco-late Oxicontin Grande sounds awesome! With some tramadol sprinkles too.
And Karen...keep us informed regarding your progress.
I'll keep you updated, for sure, WG.
I'm pretty fortunate, because I heal fast. The orthopedic surgeon asked if I was Indian, because (apparently) Indians heal faster than Caucasians, and the healing that's already taken place was of an extent he would have expected from an Indian.
The other good thing is that I've realized health care here is a lot more working-poor-friendly than Florida. My daughter, who has chronic back pain and endometriosis and no health insurance, was treated in the ER, given a prescription for tramadol (which helped!) and given a list of the free clinics locally for her followup care. Her ER experiences in Florida were not nearly as caring (grilled from the moment she walked in the door about payment, treated like a lost cause and sent on her way with aftercare instructions for OTC ibuprofen).
When we first arrived here at the beginning of the month, I was not happy about being here. I felt trapped, I cried...had to have a friend of mine who lives 30 miles from here come over and talk me off the ledge. This is a severe down-grade in my lifestyle. It didn't help to break my foot the second day I was here. However, the longer I'm here, the more I realize this is good place for me to try to regroup.
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