GoFundMe: Broken Ankle
6 years ago
⭐️ be rootin, be tootin, and by god be shootin ⭐️
https://www.gofundme.com/helpsalsfoot
Hey guys, I'm sorry I've been AWOL. BOY do I have a story to tell!
Last weekend I tripped over a speedbump and managed to break three bones in my ankle, something called a trimalleolar fracture. This means, essentially, that there are no ligament-anchoring bones that are whole in my ankle and I'm 100% unable to put weight on it. It also hurts a heck of a lot.
My partner and I ran around to urgent care who took x-rays and told us we had to go to Osteo and corrective surgery would be needed. After a lot of hoop-jumping and red tape, we got through to Lord Osteo and got the verdict: Surgery will be Tuesday, March 19th, to put pins in the bones and reanchor my torn ligaments.
Needless to say, this is gonna be a longer recovery than I first anticipated.
TLDR: Broke ankle, foot doesn't work, surgery needed.
BTW: if you're the kinda person who wants proof/morbid fascination, here's a pic. Wooooo! Not too gnarly (this was before the bruising really flowered) but I tell ya, ankles aren't supposed to look like that.
I really wanted to hold off on asking for any financial help until I knew about how much my insurance would be covering, and unfortunately I still don't have a 100% answer. There's a best case scenario and a worst case, so I'm completely unsure of where to put my goal.
[Let me go ahead and say: please do not feel any pressure to donate if you can't, I understand. If you feel like you can send this post outward to friends and family who have broken a foot and are sympathetic, I'd appreciate it, but well wishes will carry me far right now. <3 ]
In order to be as transparent as possible, here's what I know as far as costs go:
Doctor Copays so far: $30
Medication: $100
Crutches: $50
Scooter (when I learned crutches hurt like heck) $120
Surgery (up-front payment after insurance) $730
Food/groceries/care items: $200-300
Rent: $700
Roughly $2000... which is definitely more than my savings has in it at this time.
So if you can spare a little money to help cover costs while I mend, I'd be tremendously grateful. Or, if you'd just like to send me a good thought or prayer, I appreciate those as well. <3
In the meantime, a huge thank you to my partner, who has been taking me to appointments and helping me so much. I'll also have my mom visiting and caring for me during surgery while my partner works.
I know I can never pay them (or any of y'all!) back fully for their help and support <3
https://www.gofundme.com/helpsalsfoot
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Hey guys, I'm sorry I've been AWOL. BOY do I have a story to tell!
Last weekend I tripped over a speedbump and managed to break three bones in my ankle, something called a trimalleolar fracture. This means, essentially, that there are no ligament-anchoring bones that are whole in my ankle and I'm 100% unable to put weight on it. It also hurts a heck of a lot.
My partner and I ran around to urgent care who took x-rays and told us we had to go to Osteo and corrective surgery would be needed. After a lot of hoop-jumping and red tape, we got through to Lord Osteo and got the verdict: Surgery will be Tuesday, March 19th, to put pins in the bones and reanchor my torn ligaments.
Needless to say, this is gonna be a longer recovery than I first anticipated.
TLDR: Broke ankle, foot doesn't work, surgery needed.
BTW: if you're the kinda person who wants proof/morbid fascination, here's a pic. Wooooo! Not too gnarly (this was before the bruising really flowered) but I tell ya, ankles aren't supposed to look like that.
I really wanted to hold off on asking for any financial help until I knew about how much my insurance would be covering, and unfortunately I still don't have a 100% answer. There's a best case scenario and a worst case, so I'm completely unsure of where to put my goal.
[Let me go ahead and say: please do not feel any pressure to donate if you can't, I understand. If you feel like you can send this post outward to friends and family who have broken a foot and are sympathetic, I'd appreciate it, but well wishes will carry me far right now. <3 ]
In order to be as transparent as possible, here's what I know as far as costs go:
Doctor Copays so far: $30
Medication: $100
Crutches: $50
Scooter (when I learned crutches hurt like heck) $120
Surgery (up-front payment after insurance) $730
Food/groceries/care items: $200-300
Rent: $700
Roughly $2000... which is definitely more than my savings has in it at this time.
So if you can spare a little money to help cover costs while I mend, I'd be tremendously grateful. Or, if you'd just like to send me a good thought or prayer, I appreciate those as well. <3
In the meantime, a huge thank you to my partner, who has been taking me to appointments and helping me so much. I'll also have my mom visiting and caring for me during surgery while my partner works.
I know I can never pay them (or any of y'all!) back fully for their help and support <3
https://www.gofundme.com/helpsalsfoot
^^^^^^^^^^^^
I hope all goes well and that it all works out! c:
Rent: $700
How is this related to your ankle?
That is 1000 bucks that shouldn't be in the calculation whatsoever. This is cost that would arise with or without the injury.
But thanks for pointing that out.
just keep your ankle elevated above your heart and relax as much as you can.
fortunately for you your surgery is pretty close. i had to wait almost 3 weeks for surgery because of swelling. once the surgery is over half the battle is over witg. the rest is healing and physio. and tbh i loved physio, i miss the leggie massages so much omg.
oh and tip when yours in cast or air cast after surgery. if you find your skin burns especially around the toes, or is sore. get baby lotion and rub the lotion in and itll definitely sooth the skin.
Luckily my insurance covers 20 physio trips. Do you suppose that's going to be enough?
Another foolish question... How the heck do I handle pants? I dont want to be wearing dresses and skirts forever, particularly when I end up going into the world.
thats about the same for me. if you do everything the PT says you should be fine. they print you paperwork for stretches and how to do stretches at home. youll be stuck with doing stretches for the rest of your life from what i learned. it keepa your ankle from getting stiff/sore less often.
at home i wore night shirts and shorts. loose shorts are a godsend. if you have very loose baggy pj pants there are those too. but i broke my ankle in summer and was in physio for winter. loose n baggy is your main squeeze right now but when you get into physio. loose jeans/pants, shorts, skorts will be usefull in physio cause you will usually have your pantleg pushed up to your knee. but you will eventually return to tigher jeans. id suggest avoiding ankle socks for a while.
i would also warn you to prepate yourself for a sexi ankle scar whick will most probably be on both sides. the start pink n red but do fade after a fee months. if your foot feels tingley when you touch it, its just the nerves still recovering, mine took 7 months to heal.
a purchase to look into is diabetic socks. they will help circulation in your foot ankle and leg (and are hella comfy oml), you can also get diabetic compress socks too
and also, just because you say no offence doesn't mean crap.
poshfox, 2019
and ye I am a socialist. +unwatch I guess.
Shockingly, folks working independent as self employers, and also currently still students tend not to have insurance plans that will lavishly cover every ache, pain, and need of surgery. It comes out of pocket, it doesn't come cheap. So money that would have been ear marked for food and rent suddenly has to foot medical bills while still juggling school because guess what: School doesn't care if you're injured you still need to manage classes and work for that.
It'd be a bigger waste to not attend classes and deal with that, so what they should just stop classes and open commissions for pricks like you and have to retake a semester later just eat the cost of that to make art for an asshole like you?
You're literally the shittiest kind of person. Seriously.
and boy am I not making it look easy! Haha, I was mostly surprised by how mentally and emotionally draining it is to be so sedentary. But you're right, when I try to draw I feel like im fighting for mental energy with pain. -n-
Good luck with everything, I'll try to donate what I can when I can.
You're the last person I'd want to have something
so awful happen to then. So I'll send you all the
healing energy I can spare, in the hopes that your
recovery is a swift one. *Hugs*
https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9079057/
Sorry to hear sal. :( Once my vacation is over I'll see about tossing you some money. But here's to a good and fast recovery! :3
However, whatever hospital/doctor's office should work with you. You can still get a plan if you don't have insurance, and you should be able to break this into payments. (You could even end up not paying for it at all, or have a very low cost.) Hospitals are funded by donations, and will often lower the cost. (Though I'm sure you've gone through most of this.)
Best of luck, and heal soon!
And yeah, I'm going to be getting more concrete info soon.
I was just thinking about what a boring story I have. Like, no damsels in distress, no awesome boss fights. Just a speedbump in the dark.
-A-
the first piece of advice is this - the circumstances are ass, but do your best to enjoy your excuse to sit around and do nothing! I always thought how much nicer it would be to have something broken on my leg (as opposed to an arm) in terms of cast time because I'd be able just sit and write, attempt to draw, sew, etc etc without being expected to do too much else, and my arms would be free to do so. you are hurt and need to rest. take full advantage of that time, and let others take care of you.
my second piece of advice is to start mentally preparing yourself for the fact that this is not a quick fix sort of situation. life will not immediately go back to normal once the cast comes off. you will need to find a new normal. it didn't occur to me that I would need occupational therapy until the day my cast came off and stitches were removed. it's as though I thought I'd leave the office and go on with my life as usual. I completely broke down when I discovered that I'd lost almost all of my grip strength and that my elbow could barely move. you've experienced a major break, so you will likely spend several months in therapy. it sucks and it's costly, but whether or not you go to therapy and do what they tell you to do when you're home can affect your mobility for the rest of your life. doing the things they tell you not to can also negatively affect your ability to recover, and again, this can affect your mobility for the rest of your life. additionally - and this is hard to hear - you may not ever be 100% back to normal again depending on how bad the break is and how therapy goes. prepare yourself for this possibility, too, though I know it's not fun to think about. none of this is fun. but it's better to start mentally readying yourself for this possibility now so it doesn't smack you in the face later. I found it helpful to work through my thoughts and my life after surgery with a therapist while I was in recovery, but a supportive friend or partner will likely be willing to help you do this as well.
the pain you feel after surgery may be some of the worst pain you feel in your life. mine was much worse than the break itself. stick to your drug schedule (your support system should keep track of this for you, at least in the first few days) and try to get some sleep before your nerves come back online. after surgery I planned and expected to go to bed at a regular time (9 or 10 PM) and wake up around 12 AM to pain that was only a minor disturbance, but the pain started early around 9 PM and I couldn't even attempt to sleep until 3:30 AM because of how terrible it was. a minute will feel more like 15 minutes once the pain starts. I coped with it by watching happy, upbeat kids shows, specifically MLP. don't watch anything where physical or adult-level emotional pain is involved. if you're on oxy or something similar your emotions will likely be out of wack. it's best to avoid things depicting strong emotions (or physical pain) altogether until you're off those drugs and a few days post-op. if I went through it again, I wouldn't take the oxy at all because of how much it affected me emotionally and how little it did for the pain.
something I wasn't ready for after surgery was the constipation and the anesthesia-induced nausea. as soon as you notice your bowels are out of wack, don't hesitate to take something. not pooping for three days or more is terrible. as for the nausea, get ready for it now. ask to go home from surgery with a script for anti nausea pills, or have your support system call your surgeon's office for a script as soon as you get home from surgery. it took a day or so for my nausea to start, so you'll probably have some time. I waited several days after the nausea started to get pills for it, which was a big mistake. I don't know what (if anything) applies to you in this, but my dad did some research after a few days of me suffering from the nausea and discovered that there are three factors that made it worse for me: having a female body, my age (I'm 19 but forget the specific age range for people who are most likely to be affected), and surprisingly being a nonsmoker (so if you smoke, you're less likely to get nauseous). check to see if you're at a heightened risk for nausea before surgery. you'll want to know, trust me.
and finally, don't rush into things after surgery. I went right back to college and dorm life after only a weekend of recovery, still nauseous and struggling to dress myself, bathe, etc. I never should have gone back and ended up having a terrible time for a couple weeks before I eventually withdrew for the rest of the semester. in my poor state, I also strained relationships with my roommate and friends at college, which I had to deal with once I returned to a healthy state of mind. healing is a process, and you need time to physically heal and mentally recover from the trauma of breaking bones and needing surgery for it. don't let anyone push you into something you know in your heart isn't the right choice for you and your recovery. you know yourself best.
that's all I have for now, but I'll be thinking about you. let us know how it goes. if you need anything, you can note me :)
They had me with no weightbearing at all for about two months after surgery, then jumped me straight to full weight - but so much depends on exactly how the break is and how the bone heals, so don't put too much faith on other people's experiences. What matters is yours, and whether it's slow or fast, what matters is that you keep getting better.
Ask about when you can start doing physical therapy exercises - sometimes surgeons don't think about it, but it's important. The sooner they'll let you, the better - the more time your muscles and tendons spend not doing anything, the more the muscles will atrophy and the tendons will tighten up, and then the more time you'll need to spend getting them back.
Sometimes it's going to feel like you're never going to get past this, but you will. It's a slow process, and you'll have ups and downs, but overall it's going to get better. Even if you're exhausted and in pain, you're going to gradually get to do more before you get there, and that's progress. Your body's got a lot of work to do in order to heal, but you can be there to support it and cheer it on just like your partner and mom and friends are doing for you.
You'll jump over that speed-bump someday and taunt it! But for now, you've got some healing to do. Good luck! <3