u/Aierra

Okay I'm officially 2 weeks and 1 day post-op/ 2 weeks and 2 days post accident. Had my follow-up appointment where splint was removed yesterday and took off the boot and ace bandage for the first time today (been hesitant). Here's how everything's looking lol little swollen because I spent 10 minutes sitting foot-to-foot like I used to and pretending my life hasn't been ruined and derailed by all of this. Also featuring my pug who has been maintaining near constant contact with me since I came home from the ER.

Getting down my stairs is doable and fairly easy. Getting up the stairs (crawling) scares me because I feel anxious about putting weight on my right knee since my right ankle is the broken one. My mom says it's fine, I forgot to ask the doctor, but I don't have other options since crutches and me are not working out together. But I'm very very tired of feeling trapped in my upstairs, just bedroom and bathroom repeatedly, so I'm probably going to start venturing downstairs at least once a day now.

My pain has been manageable with just OTC ibuprofen for a few days. I've been thirsty and craving milk like crazy today, drank an entire gallon, which is wild since I usually want a glass of milk maybe once a month. I've also been eating a lot of carrots the past few days, thanks to my mom for bringing over a giant bag. Fun fact about me- when I was in 5th grade, I got a slight orange tint from eating a bunch of carrots every day. Whether or not that'll make a return is what she's looking probably out for haha.

Overall, my leg looks gross imo but I'm doing okay and reading other posts on here to alleviate anxiety. I'm worried that I'm not healing fast and that my foot is too inflexible, but as a person with hEDS maybe I'm just used to an abnormally flexible range of motion.

Looking for any anecdotal advice, tips and tricks, observations, opinions, etc. I've never broken anything before, nobody in my family has broken anything, and I have no friends who have either to ask about what little things are normal, concerning, or things that can help.

Background: 30f, obese at 5'2" and 245lbs, family history of hEDS, no bone related dx in family, labs normal, personal hx of gallbladder removal 01/2019, lifelong excessive daytime sleepiness/ idiopathic hypersomnia, and migraines since puberty but now managed on Effexor XR 75mg. Previously had a Mirena IUD from 03/2017 to 07/2021.

My concerns: I keep feeling the bones shifting slightly as I fail to find a comfortable neutral position to keep my leg in. I had to get the splint re-wrapped today, 4/29, because it'd loosened overnight and was digging into the outside of my ankle. Is there a bad way to rest my leg, or is it all fine as long as it's not hurting and upright? My go-to for the past few days had been to use the splint to rest against and have the weight of my leg pulling back/down on it, but I'm worried that's what caused me to need the re-wrap (which was painful and I do NOT want to do again). I'm generally just very anxious that I'm going to twitch my leg wrong in my sleep and break something, or tap my toe against the floor while I'm adjusting on the toilet and snap something, or my stitches are going to split open because i wiggled my foot to adjust splint position.

Injury occurred while my husband and I were out at a local Metropark, walking our dogs to lose weight and be healthier. The dogs wanted to sniff some trees a little off the path, in the muddy and slightly sloped creekside. My husband and the dog he was walking went first, then my dog, and finally me. When i stepped over a small stick that was about a foot off-path, my right foot immediately slipped out from under me and I heard a disgusting snap noise as I fell to the ground screaming. Ambulance was called, I got lifted in a cloth gurney up to the path, placed on a regular wheeled gurney, and transported to the hospital. The attending ortho doc was impressed by how kind I still managed to be with all the staff and decided to squeeze me onto the end of his surgery schedule the next day. 4/23 I got all the hardware in the last picture placed and I've been at home with my leg as high as I can comfortably have it at all times except when going to the bathroom. Fortunately and unfortunately, this happened when my husband and I are both unemployed and uninsured. I choose to see the bright side- he can take care of me 24/7, I don't have to do anything but recover, and maybe we'll get medicaid. I didn't know we qualified for medicaid, so it'd be nice to see if it could cover my hypersomnia medicine that costs $650/mo without insurance and I'd been going without.

If you got this far, thank you for reading. If not:

TLDR: Slipped, did those injuries, surgery the next day, and I'm an anxious mess.