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I took a trip to the big city to see my kids for my 65th birthday and was having a great time. The day after I slipped on the curb walking my overwhelmed country dogs and heard a pop. I was wearing dumb slip on sketchers so I wouldn’t get my good walking shoes dirty. Thought I rolled my ankle but I broke my 5th metatarsal at the ankle bone, nice and clean, so no surgery. This is my first broken bone though, and I’m pretty cranky about my loss of mobility. I was in a weird place mentally before this happened, and now I’m just slogging through the next 8-12 weeks hoping I heal enough to get my old life of gardening and hiking back. I’m just feeling really unlucky lately, although I know how much worse things could be. Still, nothing is easy, and not having two functional feet is really not easy.

I am hating the boot, it is heavy and painful and is rubbing on the other bones in my foot, so I’m keeping it off as much as I can. I’m hoping my two bored Aussie doodles don’t jump on it or cause me to fall again. Who knew crutches hurt so much, or how much work it is to get around on a knee scooter. My arms and leg are all sore from the overcompensating and hopping about. I’m doing all the things now that I’m home, resting, elevating and icing. I can’t bear the slightest weight on it yet, but I was told not to try for weeks until the bone sets. I keep waiting for the ugly bruising and swelling to go away, but they are taking their time.

Anyway, if anyone wants to chime in with their broken bone or rolled ankle stories, or offer suggestions or just agree that this too sucks, I’m wide open. Doing nothing is hard work. Puzzles, word games, tv shows, reading, I’m trying to keep myself from going stir crazy in this forced slowdown.

Be careful out there, it’s the dumbest stuff that gets us sometimes.

Oh, man! I hope you heal quickly.

Not a broken bone per se, but I had attended an NFL football game this past September. Walking to catch the light rail, I tripped on some uneven pavement and BOOM! Bruised the knee pretty badly. I probably should have gone to the doctor but didn't. Nice bruising down the leg, swollen, etc.

Oh shoot! I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve done looong stints in the boot due to foot issues - months at a time.

I cannot recommend enough this contraption called an Even Up to wear on your other shoe. You can get it on Amazon. BEST THING EVER. It’s adjustable for height and made it so I could walk normally with the boot.

Also, tall, cushy socks and gold bond powder are your friends.

Get well soon!!

Bummer. Hope you are on the mend!!

Definitely use the knee scooter and try a walker M
instead of crutches. Crutches are for kids. Otherwise they are torture devices. It also may help to see a PT to show you some tricks on how to do things with just toe touch weight bearing. Boots are awful. Personally never had to have one but probably should have due to a severe ankle injury.
Maybe try some crochet and make an Afghan or something to show for your downtime.

That’s so unfair. I hope you heal quickly and well!

Hi all, and thanks for the sympathies and suggestions.

I bought myself a stool for rolling around the kitchen to give my knee a rest from the scooter. I’m super grateful my knee and hip bursitis aren’t more aggravated, but my bad shoulders are pissed. Tush nurse is right, the crutches are torture, it just takes a day to realize how sore I’ve made myself. I’m working on sitting more, but it’s not my best trick. No weight on the foot for another month at least. Also working on the positive thoughts and trying not to get too cranky. Not the Spring I had in mind!

Everyone stay careful out there!

What a terrible time for a gardener to be incapacitated! I’m so sorry! My recommendation is to flex your patience muscles and do what the doc says so that you don’t set yourself back. Focus on the lesson. Maybe it’s about patience?

I broke small bones in my feet twice, both times when I was doing inappropriate things in flip-flops. I’m probably the only 40-something ever with a somewhat serious tetherball injury. (The other was practicing soccer with my daughter.)

[This message edited by SacredSoul33 at 12:38 AM, Monday, March 31st]

Ugh I guess I have to have surgery since there is no signs of bone healing. I guess my age and osteopenia and the location of the break mean it’s not going to heal on its own. I’ll find out more next week. This is definitely not what I had in mind for this Spring. I’m working on patience for the process.

Stay safe out there!

Definitely take calcium.and vitamin D and if you already do double it. It can make a difference in how fast you heal. My mom broke a wrist 4 weeks before a trip to Mexico and wanted the cast off by vacation. She did the above and it was well.healed at 4 weeks and got the cast off.

Tushnurse,
Thanks for the reinforcement. At my X-ray last week he told me to up my Vit D and Calcuim, and another forum told me to slam protein. Well, at yesterday’s X-ray, no growth had turned to bridging that wants to heal. I am going to give my foot a chance, take all my vitamins, eat well and talk nicely to it and hope to avoid surgery. It was a tough call. Surgery could happen in 2 weeks and they claim 2 weeks after I could begin starting walking in a tennis shoe. It’s a big but clean Jones fracture, so I’m having trouble visualizing that quick return to walking time table. I am waiting 3 weeks for another x ray with the added supplements and rest and hoping I can do this without intervention.

Confusing to me was that they said if I wait the three weeks, then schedule the surgery, I will be non weight bearing for 6-8 weeks instead of 2. I waffled and asked what they would do for their own foot and they said they would give it a chance. And I have an intense aversion to any procedure, so I will wait.

I’m hoping for the best. I’m glad your mom healed so quickly. It’s amazing what our bodies can do. I felt less old and frail knowing I can grow bone, And I know from life here that a positive outlook makes all the difference as opposed to feeling defeated or weak in how quickly we get ourselves back.

Thanks for checking in and for all the feedback from everyone. My garden is taking a back seat this season, but I know I will have volunteer blooms galore. It’s the weeds that will bother me more than the seeds I didn’t get in the ground.

Next year. :)

Just checking in to whine a little about how much a broken foot can suck.

I am coming off 12 weeks non weight bearing due to delayed union at the break. I had been scheduled surgery to put in a hook plate and screws, but at my pre op visit, they decided based on the X-rays to wait and see if I can heal enough on my own. This week, they said enough union had occurred to stop wearing the boot, put on a shoe and start walking. Easy for them to say.

There is still mild swelling and pain at the ankle from the sprain, and between the nerve pain in my heel and the loss of muscle strength and flexibility, it is like learning to walk all over again. No PT prescribed, just told to take it easy and no big hikes. Hah! I can’t put full weight on it or get across the kitchen yet.

I am using a walker or crutches to stay under 50% weight until the nerve pain is under control and my foot has enough range of motion for a real step to occur. I look forward to graduating to a cane. I am researching on other ortho sites strategies to make progress without causing any setbacks. I guess I am making my own guidance here, since I didn’t get much from the doctor. I am trying to be patient and accept that this is my new normal for now, but it has really taken a toll on my mindset. I’m sure the lack of physical activity and having to let my garden go this year have not helped my mood, so I am trying to find glimmers of happiness where I can. I am very grateful to be able to put enough weight on the foot to stand unassisted, it is a huge upgrade and my other leg is happy to have some help.

I am focusing on healthy eating and supplements, and doing range of motion and band exercises to get flexibility back. I think the ankle and tendons will take a while to get back to walking normally, they do not want to stretch at all right now, but I know I can get them there.

Anyway, 12 weeks is a long time to go without walking and I know I have a long road ahead getting back to something that looks like normal. I have set my sights on this Fall for unassisted walking, which may be optimistic, given the lost time and atrophy. If I could just stop falling, I would really like that - I have had three incidents since I broke my foot. I am currently researching how to fall without injury, so I don’t break my wrist or ruin my repaired rotator cuff with the next one. I am a klutz on a good day, and have always been accident prone, so trying to slow down and be careful is as hard as doing nothing! I have completed more 1000 piece puzzles than I can remember, caught up on all my mending and sewing, and managed to read a bit, as well as binge watch an obscene amount of television. I’m impatient to get back to normal life.

Before this incident, I felt incredibly young for my age, all things considered, and I was a very busy, active outdoorsy person. Now I am fighting feelings of frailty and hoping I am done hurting myself for a little while. This too shall pass, right?

Hope everyone stays safe out there, and watch your step!

Glad to hear you are healing, albeit slowly. I know what a lack of exercise can do to the psyche, particularly if it's part of your overall self-care.

Have you given any thought to water classes, like aerobics? Or just water walking somewhere. Now that it's summer, perhaps your local pool offers hours for water walking - I think most of them do.

And I absolutely would do PT! In our state, you don't need a prescription for PT - just find one that comes highly recommended, and they will do the assessment. I recently came off an extended injury to my foot (from wearing new Hokas of all things - ask me how Hokas can be really bad for some people). I tried the podiatrist route, the orthopedic route, the PT route, and the PT almost immediately referred me to an outstanding PT who just does feet. She's the one who gave me exercises that eventually made a difference. She also had some shoe recommendations that made a huge difference, and told me once my foot was healed, I could go back to my regular shoes with no problem, and I have.

Those cute garden scooters might be your best friend this gardening season. Take it easy and let it heal properly (and yes, I get how hard this is to do when all you want is to be moving!) Hope you keep mending and are back on (both) feet soon :-)

I'm sorry it's been such an unfun healing process. Be patient. Listen to your body. And if yiu have trouble ask the dr for orders for PT.