Rant: Winter 2016/2017

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Gashouse
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Re: Rant: Winter 2016/2017

Post by Gashouse »

It felt like a really bad jam, and it wasn't a super gross thing where a part of my thumb was totally bent a wrong direction. but it was obvious that something wasn't right. so I don't think it was as bad as your toe.

I vented complaints about the winter as I felt sorry for myself. but on the bright side, there's a reasonable chance I can avoid surgery. I didn't break it so I'm not in a cast now.

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Swirls
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Re: Rant: Winter 2016/2017

Post by Swirls »

tlombard wrote:
Gashouse wrote:promptly dislocate my thumb
That sounds disgustingly painful.

I dislocated my toe the summer of 2017 and that was the worst pain I've ever been in until it finally got popped back in and I was terrified of doing anything more strenuous than simply walking for about three months because I was worried that I'd slip or my foot would land wrong and it would pop back out again. It ruined the rest of my softball season and even my boating season because I didn't feel comfortable climbing in and out of the boat while it was on the trailer to get it ready for the water and button things up after pulling it out. The boat thing sounds a little crazy but that's how I dislocated it in the first place, hopping out of a friend's boat after helping him get the boat back on the trailer.
One night in college some buddies and I were hanging out in our hot tub. I hopped out of the tub the wrong way and landed awkwardly on a step and promptly fell over with the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. It turns out that rather than dislocating my ankle I had actually torn a couple ligaments. In less than a day my ankle had swollen up so much that it was bigger than a damned graprefruit and uglier than homemade sin. No surgery was needed, but I was hobbling around for a couple months on crutches. The sad part is I wasn't even drunk - it was a rush weekend, so all fraternity houses on campus were dry. Talk about embarrassing.

At least I can perpetually pop my ankle on command now... So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

tlombard
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Re: Rant: Winter 2016/2017

Post by tlombard »

My only broken bone was my ankle in high school when I was 17 and this one actually involves winter. A girl that I ran around with at the time rented the ice rink in Webster Groves for her birthday (well, her parents) and then let her have a party back at home. Well, we were being dumb teenagers and seeing who could slide the farthest.

I won easily. I took enough momentum all the way into the corner that my left skate got stuck in the boards briefly and twisted around behind me as I slid around the corner and ended up behind the goal area.

Being wrapped up nice and tight in my skate, I figured I just sprained it and skated off of the ice. Then I went to the party. The next day (Sunday) it still hurt and was swollen but I still didn't think anything of it so I wrapped it up with an Ace bandage and took the girl to a movie. Finally on Monday morning I realized something was really not right when I woke up and literally could not get out of bed at first. It took about ten minutes to loosen up enough to hobble into the kitchen and tell my mom that something wasn't right with my ankle. Once I was on my feet for a few minutes it would either loosen up enough for me to limp around or I would just get used to the pain but I was eventually mobile.

She took me to the doctor that morning and after looking at the x-rays they took, the doctor said it was just sprained and suggested that I wrap it up and maybe rent some crutches and sent me on my way. Since he said it was just sprained I went to school the next day and hobbled around thinking it would be all better in a week or two. Then Wednesday I got called into the office right before lunch and told that my mom called to say that I was supposed to go straight home after school and that I needed to get a cast on my ankle the next morning.

Thankfully the standard process was to send the x-rays to somebody for a second opinion and they caught the fractures. That's right, three of them. My dad had picked up the x-rays from the first doctor to take to the orthopedic people so he whipped them out and held them up to the windshield in the van before we walked in and the fractures were clear as can be. I don't think my pediatrician even actually looked at them and figured it couldn't have been broken since I walked into and out of the office without screaming my head off about the pain or something. He clearly did not realize how stubborn males in my family are and how much pain we can tolerate if it means avoiding a doctor.

The nurse at the orthopedic place did the same thing as my dad when she came out to get me in the waiting room. She pulled them out of the envelope, held them up and then immediately made me sit back down. I told her I was OK to walk back to the room but she wouldn't let me and made me wait on a wheel chair.

And then of course when I went back six weeks or so later to get the cast removed and check the progress, the doctor just shook his head and told me that he really wanted to put another cast on because the fractures weren't fully healed but knew that it wouldn't really do any good. It's his own fault though. When I got the cast I asked about limitations. Other than the standard don't get it wet, he said I could do whatever I wanted as long as it didn't hurt. After walking around on a broken ankle from Saturday night until Thursday morning NOTHING HURT!!! I felt great. I even played basketball in the parking lot at lunch with the cast on. I couldn't run fast but I could get around well enough to have some fun. By the time I went to have the cast taken off that day the thing was split almost halfway down my foot from me not staying off of it. And I could move my foot up and down. The only thing the cast was doing by then was keeping me from twisting the foot or my ankle from going sideways.

I paid the price for my youthful stubbornness though. It took over a year before my ankle was completely right. I partially reopened one of the fractures about six months after getting the cast off because I hadn't taken care of it enough to fully heal and that hurt way worse than the initial break. I couldn't take the time to let it heal because baseball practice started two weeks after I got the cast off and it was my senior season. I wasn't going to let myself miss a single practice because of that ankle.

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