Oh my goodness that looks bad. It is hard to see the breaks in the x-ray but just looking at your leg gives me the same reaction I had when Rosie broke her collar bone this year. Both are cringe worthy. I am shocked they sent you home without surgery, but, I can maybe sort of understand after my experience with Rosie. She broke her collar bone about 1:30 on a Sunday night. By the time we got her home, showered, and horse put away we did not get to the hospital until almost 3:30 am. She had her x-ray about 4, my sister actually did them. She risked her job by telling us as soon as she took them that her collar bone was broke without Rose hearing. 3 hours later the ER doc finally comes to talk to us and officially tell us it was broke. Me and mom and by this time my sister who was now off shift and sitting with us had gotten a peak at the x-ray. If you looked at it, you knew it would require surgery. Keep it mind I have a 14 year old in various stages of panic attacks the entire time as she still thinks it is dislocated as the er doc first thought. He told her before the x-ray that if it was they would sedate her to put it back in place. Rosie is terrified of needles so she is ready to bolt, there was no way I could ease her mind by saying it was broke before he came back in because she would have had a full blown meltdown. Which she did when he came back in with the news. What had taken so long was he had been in contact with the orthopedic surgeon. They had decided since the bone had not broken through the skin not to do the surgery that morning. Instead we were sent home with instructions to show up the following morning at the clinic in the hospital by 8 am to see him. The doctor whispered to me out of ear shot of Rosie to make sure she had not eaten after midnight that night so we knew surgery was going to happen even if Rose did not. The next morning I have her there, she is sort of calmed down as she came home and read about collar bone fractures and saw that in most cases they did not require surgery just a sling and time. Yes I let that child believe that for her own peace of mind and my sanity for under 24 hours. The doc walks in, pulls up the x-ray and asked if she had eaten anything that morning. Rosie on her own pipes up she had not eaten anything as the pain meds were making her sick. He was like good, Operating Room will be ready in about 2 hours head down to the 2nd floor they are waiting on you in pre-op. Again, resume panic attack and meltdowns but it had to be done.Warming, graphic injury post.
So, it seems 2023 is off to a pretty bad start for me. This morning we were outside getting all the critters taken care of, and then were going to go out for breakfast and to run a few errands. When I left my office building after taking in the eggs laid today, I was walking on the plastic pallets we have out to have an area to walk when it is muddy. It was a little slick from morming dew. As I tried to step from one pallet to the next, my back foot slipped and went between the pallets, and I fell backwards. Which snapped both bones in my right leg, just above the ankle. My foot was dangling and facing the wrong direction.
We managed to get me into the car and to the minor emergence clinic. They had me snort some Fentanyl as the fastest way to start getting some pain relief. (That was a new experience, I am a good girl who has never snorted drugs.) Then they put me under “mild” general anesthesia to be able to remove my clothes, take better X-rays, reduce/manipulate the fractures, and put on a temporary splint. Not sure if it was the Ketamine, or the combination of that with the Fentanyl and then Morphine they gave me to control the pain, but I had a hard time waking up and had horrible nausea and vomiting. When I first started to wake I felt like I was in a science fiction movie, everything looked digital/aliased, and I was having double/triple vision. I felt like Max Headroom (for those old enough to get the reference). And was still in pretty bad pain from them repositioning things.
Finally I stabilized enough to go home. I have been communicating with our family doctor who will get a referral placed first thing tomorrow to a good orthopedic surgeon, because it will definitely require surgery. I can feel things grinding and moving every time I move my leg even just a small amount, even with the splint on. So now I am in my recliner, where I will stay until I can get in to see the doctor. Can’t manage the three steps up to the bathroom/bedroom. Not even with crutches. I am not strong enough and too wobbly. And the Norco (Hydrocodone) I am taking doesn’t help steady me either.
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My foot should be pointed almost straight up in this next one:
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Picture of one of the X-rays (kind of hard to see)
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