This is going to be a somewhat personal post, as I recently broke my foot and I was thinking that it would have been nice to have received some advice on what to do. This isn’t going to deal with any medical advice- obviously if you have broken any bones you should seek emergency medical treatment. But what you may not realize is that if you’ve broken your leg or your foot and you are in a cast and hobbling around on crutches, a lot is going to change in your life over the next six weeks. So here is some advice if you’ve suddenly gone from being bipedal to one-legged.
First of all, you should know that being on crutches is a major pain in the butt. It’s physically very uncomfortable to try to get around on one leg and two arms. We’re obviously not built for that, and you are going to be sore for the first few days. My arms and shoulders were sore from suddenly having to bear my body weight, and I guess I actually expected that. What I did not expect was that my stomach would get sore. At first I couldn’t figure out why it was sore, but then I realized that having to hold up the leg with the cast is actually a strain on the stomach muscles. After a few days that went away too. So you may actually develop some stomach, arm, shoulder and back muscles as a result of your injury. And don’t worry, the aches will go away after just a few days.
In the past week since I first broke my foot, I’ve bought a few things that have really helped, so I thought I’d share them with you as well:
- Amazon Prime- I signed up for Amazon Prime and it’s one of the best things I could have done. For $79 a year, you can get free two day shipping on Amazon items. Why would you need this just because you’ve broken your foot or leg? One thing I didn’t realize is that when you’re using crutches, you can’t carry anything. This is not only a problem when wanting to carry a cup of tea into the living room to watch TV, it makes shopping virtually impossible. Even if you are able to go to the store, push a cart around and get your items to the car with assistance, now you’ve still got to get them inside when you get home. It is exhausting and can be dangerous if you are trying to lug items into the house on crutches and end up falling. With Amazon Prime I’m getting everything delivered straight to my door, and I don’t have to pay shipping! Love it! One thing to note when doing searches on amazon.com is that you can check a box to include only vendors who participate in Amazon Prime and will ship for free. This is an important note as not everyone on the site will ship free.
- Knee pads- I’m still too scared to use crutches going up and down my stairs (maybe because that’s where the accident happened). It’s actually not that hard to go up and down the stairs on my knees, but I did notice that my knees were starting to hurt. So, I ordered some knee pads, and problems solved! Mine have Velcro on the back so I can easily fasten and unfasten them. You probably don’t want knee pads that you slip over your foot because you might not be able to get them over your cast.
Shower boot- Although your broken appendage will be locked inside a cast for six weeks and won’t be able to be washed, there’s still the rest of the your body. But of course you can’t get your cast wet, so what’s an injured person to do? Buy a shower boot to put over your cast. I got mine at the local drugstore (the last one!) but you can get them online too. It’s a plastic bag that fits over the cast and has a rubberized top to prevent water from leaking in. You can shower or bathe with, but if you take a bath, I wouldn’t recommend submerging the leg with the cast. It is waterproof, but let’s face it, this is no time to scuba.- Rolling stool- Standing around the kitchen trying to cook, clean or even make a cup of tea was getting very hard on my standing leg. I ordered a little rolling stool on wheels and it’s made a huge difference. I can now scoot around the kitchen easily and preparing meals is a breeze. I got mine for about $60. It can be listed as a massage stool too. By the way, Amazon prime came in very handy here. I had called around to over 15 stores to try to go pick one up, but no one actually had it in the store. There are plenty of online stores that carry it though and I got free two day shipping on it.
- Local produce delivery- I was actually already getting a local produce delivery from a company called PlanetOrganics, but it was every other week. It’s a selection of organic, local produce that gets delivered to my house. I upped the delivery time to every week, and I’m adding items to it like my milk and even meat. Having my groceries delivered to my door every week is a tremendous help.
- Temporary handicap parking pass- If one of your lower extremities becomes incapacitated you are eligible to receive a temporary handicap parking pass. For anyone who is learning to hobble around a new set of crutches, this can be an invaluable tool in helping you try to live as normal life as you can. You’ll need to get the form from your doctor and have him or her sign it. Then take it to your local DMV and they will issue it to you on the spot. I didn’t even need to make an online reservation- I just went to the DMV. They let handicapped people use the same line as people with a reservation, so just walk right on up!
- Cleaning service- getting a cleaning service to help around the house is essential during this time. It’s just not feasible for me to drag laundry and sheets up and down my stairs, so I need someone to help. Also, trying to clean my house right now is just impossible. Happy to spend the money to have someone help me.
I hope that all of these tips and tools help anyone out who has recently broken a foot or a leg or anyone who finds themselves on crutches. Unfortunately my accident wasn’t caused by anyone else- I just slipped and fell down the stairs. But if your accident was caused by someone else (like a car accident or you slipped an fell on something wet in a store), you may actually want to call an accident lawyer. Happy Thanksgiving everyone and let’s be thankful for the health that we do have!