So far...so so...

I am a couple of days into this broken leg thing and this is what I have found so far:

-a new found respect for anyone who is/has been/or might be on crutches for any length of time. It is not only inconvenient, it is down right tiring! My left leg has always been borderline freakishly weaker than my right leg and now I am REALLY getting the first hand example of that. Not only does my left leg get a workout, but my right hip gets exhausted from holding my leg up and as stable as possible while hobbling around.

Also, just below the armpits has been rubbed nearly raw and I am hoping that I develop a callous soon. My entire upper body is getting a work out that I clearly wasn't matching at the gym. Pulling yourself up from a chair, toilet, bed, and yes the staircase, isn't easy and fatigue sets in. At the end of the day, I am ready for it to be nighttime.

-showering is the ultimate pain in the butt.

It is one thing to be tired from crutching around, but to have to hoist yourself into a small space, naked and without your crutches is borderline terrifing. My first shower on one leg was exhausting and I almost couldn't take it. Between the heat, the slipperiness of the soap and water and having to stand on one leg, it was all I could do to get dressed and throw myself back onto my bed for the next few hours.

I now have a little stool in the shower which makes it much easier. Bagging the leg to keep the cast dry is the ultimate pain though and I can't believe it is still necessary. We can send people to the moon, invent the internet and build cars that can run on corn resin but we can't come up with a casting material that we can get wet? Really? I know we are to keep the cotton dry otherwise it breaks down and basically disintegrates, but you are telling me that they can't put a rubber boarder around that sock that they put on your leg before they cast it?

-A person can carry very little when walking on crutches:

Sure, you can carry a backpack with your things in it, but what about a glass of water when you finally lurch off the couch and muster the energy to crutch your way back to the kitchen to finally get yourself that long over due glass of water? You mean to tell me that we have to either stand in the kitchen and drink your water or take your vicodin with you to the kitchen so you can take it? How do you carry the vicodin to the kitchen now? Getting the two in the same place is tricky. Get a bottle of water? Sure, but how big do you think my hands are? There is no way I can properly grip that bottle and my crutch at the same time. So now I have three choices: the backpack (which I left in the living room because...afterall who thinks about pulling on a backpack to go to the kitchen?), I can try to lob the bottle of water to the couch and hopefully it lands, AND STAYS, on the couch or I can toss the bottle on the ground and 'kick' it with my crutch like a small soccer ball all the way to the couch.

How come there aren't more accessories for crutches? A little bag of some sort that can attach to that middle 'V' section (just below where you put your hands) that will help you carry the odd thing like your cell phone, lip chap and possibly a small snack? Instead you have to ask for every little thing and get people all around you to bring you every little tiny thing that you might need.

Stairs=death trap:

Do I really need to say more? I have fallen going up stairs on a good day with two capable legs, now I am supposed to do these on one leg and count on my balance to hoist me 8" above where I just was without any real way to stop myself from falling? Yeah...Hi there...I just wiped out on a BIKE and my leg is broken! Clearly my balance and cat like reflexes on preventing a fall aren't where they used to be so do let me anywhere near a set of stairs with crutches.

I have resorted to going both up and down them on my butt and have just handed the crutches off or dragged them in my left hand.

Today I was having a nap with my legs up on a footrest and I was relaxing wonderfully in a sunbeam that was blazing through the window. I must have been a bit too relaxed when my casted leg slid off the footrest sending me into a fit of pain that was worse than what I felt when I went down. My knee twisted and all I could do was shout out in bawl out in pain. I am sure I scared my nieces half to death because as far as they were concerned, I was asleep. Man, that hurt beyond comprehension and it took the pain more than a few minutes to completely subside.

I wouldn't be so bad if that knee wasn't so sensitive, but man..any slight movement or bump the wrong way sends me straight through the roof.

Another thing: How anyone gets addicted to Vicodin is beyond me. That crap makes me feel naseaus as hell and I am not taking another tablet.