Those of you that follow this blog know that I broke my wrist back in June this year, there was nothing special about it, I tripped over the kerb put my hands out in front of myself and landed on wrist and knee. Result was a fracture of the Radius in the wrist.
From then on I was sporting a foam padded brace around my right wrist the only outwardly sign of any injury. By under my trousers was a different story, first my Knees start to swell up, they took a hefty knock when I landed on them so it was to be expected. After nearly two weeks I was getting concerned, my knees were not going down and in fact it was spreading and my legs were now swelling up. And then started the blisters on the legs. Now I have been down this route before. Turns out they were leg ulcers only instead of only being on one leg as they had been before they were on both – and very painful.
I went to the Doctor and showed him what was happening and he promptly arranged for an appointment to have my legs dressed. It was at the second of these appointments that I noticed a small red rash coming up on my left leg above where one of the ulcers was. The nurse called in the duty Doctor who confirmed that I had mild cellulitis in that leg and immediately supplied anti-bionics. Now this is where I start panicking – I have had cellulitis before and I ended up in hospital for three days the first time. My husband drew pretty black ink pen lines around the edge of the infection, this was suggested by the doctor so that we can easily see if it is growing or shrinking. Fortunately it started to clear up within three days and within 10 it had completely gone.
For the next few weeks I had a weekly, sometimes twice weekly appointment with the nurse at the surgery for my leg to be dressed and instructions for changing the dressing at home between appointments, which my husband had to do. Every week I was taking a prescription to the Chemist and coming away with carrier bags full of bandages, creams and ointments, it was just as well I invested in a quarterly subscription card for the prescription charge, it saved me a lot of money. When my husband did the bandaging he reckoned it was worse than an episode of 4077 MASH, with bandages, sterile pads bottles of cream and other ointments strewn around the room. By now I was waiting for an appointment for my legs to go into Compression, this is where a both legs are wrapped tightly in a padded bandaging from just below the knee to half way down the foot, while this is good from the point of getting rid of the ulcers it also adds around 2inches to the circumference of my already swollen legs. Walking any distance was now becoming a problem, wearing any footwear was near impossible. I had one pair of flat shoes which have now been wrecked due to the backs being trodden down and a pair of oversized crocks which were comfortable but my feet did not like that my toes were not at the end of them.
In August we managed a few days away where my husband managed to change the dressings but as time went on they became so painful I could barely walk. I was relieved at the end of September when the appointments for the compression started. I see two lovely ladies every Tuesday afternoon and they really make me laugh.
So in less than 6 months I had gone from being able to walk as a normal person to hobbling wreck. A few days away in October along with days and evenings out were cancelled. Even Christmas shopping became a problem as I could just about manage a look round one shop and that was as far as my legs would go. I was frighten that with the ill fitting footwear I was going to trip and fall, god know the issues that would of caused. Climbing stairs was a big issue.
At the beginning of December I was supposed to go into my office for a two hour meeting (I have been working from home since covid started), my office was on the first floor with a choice of two sets of stairs to climb and no lift. I was scared to go in for fear of not being able to make the stairs and being generally exhausted before I got there. My boss however said she does not want me back in until my legs are fully fit.
All aspect of my life were now controlled by what my legs would allow me to do, baggy trousers and waddling is now my thing. We even had to buy some furniture feet extension for the arm chair in the lounge to raise it up so that it was easier for me to get out of the chair. With my legs in compression or heavy bandaging since July I have not had a bath or a shower, yes I have had to resort to other method but it still how far this is affecting me. It has affected my mental health as well. I have days where I can tolerate everything that is going on and other days when the pain I was dealing with was so unbearable that my mood was very low and I would cry a lot.
My life is on hold all because I tripped over a bloody kerb. Hopefully in a couple of months I will post a positive update where life returns to normal (what is normal now a days??)