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Crutches!

103 Comments

A week ago Friday, Husband went, able-bodied, to play volleyball at the Y. He returned hobbling on a right leg that had sustained, as it turned out, the rupture of its Achilles tendon. One Urgent Care and three visits to Winona Health later, his leg is wrapped and he has been on crutches all week. Luckily the location of the tear means that he will not need surgery… just three months of not walking on said leg as it heals. SIGH.

As I prepare to mow our (admittedly miniscule) lawn, I recall the days (just a week ago) when I had only my tasks on my plate. (Poor me.)

Have you ever had to get around on crutches?

If you were on crutches, what activities would you have to give up?

 

103 thoughts on “Crutches!”

  1. I like to walk to downtown St. Paul on weekends to go to the farmers’ market. I’d be pretty unlikely to make that trek on crutches.

    It would also seriously curtail my state fair rambles.

    Three months sounds like a really, really long time.

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  2. I had a crutch once, when I had laproscopic surgery on my knee. I didn’t need it though—there was nothing structurally wrong with my leg—so I made them take it back.

    If I were on crutches, I couldn’t rock climb or figure skate or Morris dance.

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    1. And do you ever do those thing while not on crutches? This is the question begging for an answer. I never once have heard you talk of Morris dancing, rock climbing or figure skating.

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        8. Actually, tim, I’m pretty sure my piano teacher when I was young did tell my mom that I couldn’t play the piano.

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        9. what was that person doing teaching piano? they should have taught cooking… put two and and some flour in a bowl and mix it and put it int he oven.
          that you have results that can be measured. not piano

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  3. Rise and Shine Baboons!

    I once dropped a gallon of milk on my right foot on the arch. I have extremely high arches for which there is a name that I cannot remember. I turned a bruised purple color and swelled, of course. The plastic jug cracked and spilled milk all over the kitchen floor. I howled and moaned as I tried to mop up the mess. Crutches were in order for about a week when the full-scale limping was possible, and a real step up.

    At the time I was a grad student at the U of MN, a campus which requires a lot of walking. Both the crutches and the limping were unbearably slow. When I stand too much or on the wrong surface there is an ache in that foot that is the reminder of that.

    I am so sorry Michael has to endure this thing.

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  4. I cracked my wrist once, and husband has had multiple sprained ankles. No crutches, though.

    Daughter, who is not athletic, toured Washington, DC on foot with three members of her college’s volleyball team. The girls walked so hard and furious that daughter, wearing fashionable, not sensible shoes, partially tore both her Achilles tendons. She had to wear Birkenstocks with no back straps for a couple of months . Surgery was an option if they didn’t heal up. She healed up just fine. Ah, youth!

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    3. I’ve experienced the Birkenstock cure myself. Had that plantar fasciitis (sp?) and had tried several things including little canvas boots that I laced up at night to keep my ankle from relaxing. Was heading off on a trip to Greece and worried about all the walking. I’d heard that a friend of a friend of a friend had had good luck with Birkenstocks and PF. So the day before my trip I went out and bought a pair – navy blue sandals w/ a strap in back. As foolish as it seems to buy a new pair of shoes right before a big trip with lots of walking, it turned out to be a minor miracle. Feet stopped hurting the first day and haven’t hurt since. And now I own six pairs of Birkenstocks – including the original blue sandals which I’ve had re-soled twice over the years!

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      1. I’m still wearing (right now) my original Birkies I bought in San Francisco in the 70s. And since my hip surgery, my other knee/leg has been giving me trouble. Today I finally realized only the Birkies don’t make it worse. Though I prefer not to walk through the horse barn in them.

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    4. I’ve always noticed shoes– I think because of my bad feet and limited shoe options, and I’ve seen a lot of women and girls in higher heel shoes walking around here.
      I don’t know how they do it.

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  5. My mom dropped a gallon glass jug of rootbeer on her foot once. I think she cracked a couple bones in her foot, but I don’t remember if she had crutches.

    I was supposed to have crutches when I was 5 and cut my right shin on a broken glass window, needing about 10 stitches. My mom thought crutches were an unnecessary expense and made me hop around on my left leg for a few days .

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  7. All that downhill skiing I do? That would be hard to do on crutches

    And my trip to climb Devil’s Tower would have to be canceled.

    And, finally, I would find it difficult to dance to the Numbers Rumba with the twins.

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  8. I think Husband is screwn if he still wants to do the State Fair. Or maybe he could go if he gets one of those electric golf carts for senior citizens. They are really popular with the gang of geezers I live with here in Michigan.

    Given my limitations, being forced to go about on crutches would be no big deal since I’m not exactly able to run marathons now. So there is an upside to everything. The upside of arthritis is you don’t gotta fear crutches. That, in the age of Trump, is as good as it gets!

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    1. OT – Steve, I’ve been having trouble with emails that I send but get lost in space. Did you receive the email with photos that I sent you in the wee hours of the morning yesterday?

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        1. 🙂 I wasn’t fishing for a compliment, but, thanks! Two times in the past week, I have sent a crucial email and it never arrived, so I thought I would check. I’m going to send you another photo soon. I got lucky.

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        2. OK, now I want to see them too. You can email them to me, or just post them this week on the blog.

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        3. I could probably do a blog post, Jacque. It won’t be for a few days at least. I’ve been putting in long hours getting my website up and running and I feel brain dead.

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      1. US marketers like to give cute names to products for senior citizens. They used to market one of those electric carts on late night TV. It was called the Rascal. Michael could have fun with a Rascal.

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  9. How about that piratical theatrical device where you strap your leg up behind your thigh and attach a peg leg at your knee? That would get Michael off the crutches and make him the talk of Winona at the same time. Aaarg!

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  10. I’ve been on crutches couple of times – once for about a month following a fractured tibia (had walking cast for another 9 weeks) and again for a few days following a severe sprain. No golf, hiking, or aerobic workouts. What was much worse was having to use a walker for 6 weeks after my hip fracture – hard to do just about anything.

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  11. i broke my foot and needed to gimp around for an extended period walked funny for a couple years… dropped the lit to a calphron spaghetti pot from the cabinet eyeball high on edge so it landed and put a 4″ long 3/4″ deep gash across the top of the foot (superglue and butterfly bandages) broke the big toe on that same foot teicevdo it doesn’t bend any more and that’s why i run funny now… used one of the electric carts at trade shows for the year i broke my foot wore birkenstocks exclusively ( had to do some explaining on s fancy golf course in china as to why i was wearing sandles
    crutches wear a hole in my armpit and make stairs my foe
    i hate crutches
    hope michael has a mellow time
    i think medical marijuana to deal with stress should be factored in
    does medical insurance cover it?
    my best to hoppy

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        2. Hmm . Now I am curious –what does this mean??? Iam considering doing a post of tim translations…

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        3. Recreational as opposed to medical (see his second to last line in the long comment above).

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  12. I’m still getting back to normal after having a new ACL put into my knee from last December. The surgeon said that it should take about a year to get back to fully normal. I opted to have a cadaver’s ACL put in. So far, I show no zombie-like characteristics other than those previously displayed.

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  13. No crutches for me either. A few years back I did something to a muscle or tendon in my right leg – went to the orthopedic doctor and without giving me any idea what the hell I had done fitted me with a huge cast-like thing. After dragging it around for an afternoon and making my leg hurt worse, I took it back and said I couldn’t use it and please don’t charge me. The gal at the desk looked at me like I had frogs coming out my ears…. guess not too many folks return stuff!

    The number of things I would have to change for crutches is too overwhelming to even think about!

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  14. I had hip replacement surgery in May…on crutches (at least one) for the next four weeks. Up and down stairs…one crutch at the top, the other at the bottom (when I was able to do one at a time). I had to have help feeding the menagerie…not easy to haul water while on two crutches.

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  15. I was on crutches for about two weeks prior to my third knee surgery. Unfortunately it was during the time span when I was supervising the annual office moves (occasioned by the annual promotions to partnership) at the law firm. At the time, the firm occupied two floors in the Midwest Plaza building in Minneapolis, and I had to navigate the internal staircase using the crutches numerous times during the movs. At the time I didn’t think anything of it, now I shudder to think of what could have been the consequences had I had an accident. OSHA would definitely not have approved.

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    1. I checked and you have “contributor” rights so you should be able to add a post on your own. Do you have a “write” button in the upper right corner (I’ve come to realize that not everybody has the same WordPress configuration). If you can’t work it out, you can always email posts to me and/or Renee. I’m shelikins at Hotmail.com. You can email pictures are well!

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      1. I don’t have a “Write” button anywhere, but I have “My Site” in the upper left corner. That has a drop down menu, which includes Blog Posts with an Add+ button. I click on the Add button and it takes me to the place where I can write my blog post. I usually do my writing in google docs, so I can edit freely for a few days, then copy and paste it into WP. Then I email photos to VS or Renee.

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        1. The question is Will you remember that you know it the next time you write a blog post?

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  17. One time only. While working at a hospital, I got a severe infection in my knee. I was wearing jeans that had a tear in them and received a scratch through which the bug got me. In two days, I knew I needed help. It was swollen and hurt like hell. I went to an immediate care facility and they referred me to an orthopedic surgeon. The appointment was the next morning. I wore shorts because putting on pants was too painful and I figured it would be easier for the doctor to exam me. While being ushered into an exam room, I happened to notice a woman looking my way from about 10 yards down the corridor. It turned out to be the surgeon who gave me a one minute examination and told me to go home, pack a few personal items and get to Grant hospital where she would meet me. She had from a distance seen that I was in trouble and already called ahead for my surgical procedure. They opened up my knee with a six inch long, almost to the knee cap deep cut. It had to heal from the bottom up. No sutures for they type of wound I had sustained. I learned how to pack a foam inside the wound seal it up with a pad and attach a suction machine to pad. Kinda neat but I was on crutches for two months. Of course, it was impossible to install flooring for an additional two months. My case is used by the union as an advisory to not work with torn jeans and care for every cut, no matter how small when working in hospitals.

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  19. Stupid IPad… Lost this reply 2 times!
    We head back for MN in the morning.

    So sorry to hear about his incident BiR… And all the stories of dropping things on your feet you people: ow ow ow… Makes me cringe!

    July 17, 1977 is the date I stuck my right leg in the feed bunk auger while Dad was up working on the silo unloaded. I was 13.
    I was lucky not to hurt the bone, but it cut out muscles, tendons and nerves of my right calf and filled the hole with silage.
    It was only a last ditch effort by the docs, to try some new antibiotic that stopped the infection and saved the leg.
    Course I don’t remember any of that; I was in and out of surgery for two weeks every other day as they cleaned it out.
    I had crutches for 3 months I think.
    The trouble (one of the troubles) with Jr high kids is they’d steal my cructches and take them apart and scatter the parts around the class room. Jerks.
    There was usually a friend that would help collect the parts at the end of class. I remember being so mad I’d be crying.

    January ’78 I was back in the hospital to move a tendon in my right foot. Got a staff infection and was in for 3 weeks again.
    Crutches again. Same dumb jerks…
    I remember As mom drove me to the ER, my biggest concern was would I miss the 4H softball game that night?
    I missed a lot of stuff that summer. But It got me out of Jr high phy ed for a few months. (I got to hang out in the library with Mike Bratten who had a heart condition. We both had to go back for the unit on Square dancing).

    Sometime before that, My dad had bunions and had the surgery to have them cut off; he did both at once so was in a wheel chair in the middle of winter; the only time it made sense for him to be laid up for 6 weeks.
    He hired a nephew to milk and do chores.
    One cold winter day, the kid broke the apron chain on the spreader while still half full of manure.
    He just put the spreader back in the shed and went home.
    Obviously that’s a problem… (You don’t want a frozen block of manure in your spreader.)
    Mom and I laid on the ground fixing the spreader while Dad yelled instructions from the living room window.
    And a few days later, with bread sacks over the casts on his feet he was back out in the barn milking cows.
    All that is related from memories my mom tells; I don’t remember any of it.
    ( I am blessed with a short memory!)

    These days, I’m trying to find time for carpel tunnel surgery. Planning a new, microsurgery with 1 minor incision so recovery time is minimal. Soon as I get straw baled… Mid to end of August.
    Because I still have a set to build for the fall kids show. And a show to light.
    Crutches now would be a problem… Like Cynthia said…it’s hard to carry water on crutches. Or collect eggs. Carry feed buckets. Mow grass? Maybe (riding mower).
    Saw lots of people in wheelchairs out here in DC looking at the monuments. Even a wheelchair on the metro.
    It’s possible… But sure more difficult.

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    1. Ben, you farm folks must be made from different stuff than us city slickers. Some of the stories you tell, and I trust them to be accurate, send shivers down my spine. I’m glad you have no horrendous memories from your ordeal that have scarred you for life. Sure like your “can do” attitude.

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  20. At odd moments–of which I have many–I might contemplate vulgar expressions and oaths that don’t make sense to me. Some people, when they drop a gallon of root bear on a foot, might howl “Christ on a crutch!” I’ve never understood that one. I can work up a pretty good visual image for it, but I fail to understand it.

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    2. From a forum on language:
      “Christ on a crutch” is generally an exclamation of despair upon having encountered an unlikely event of profoundly bad luck which was entirely unexpected. Insomuch as Jesus was Himself a faith healer, you would never expect to discover Him walking upon a crutch (as if from a broken leg)…It is…akin to the exclamations “You have got to be kidding me!” or “This can’t possibly be happening!” Christ on a crutch is an exacting analogy of something that “cannot possibly be happening.”
      It is supposedly most often used in the southern U.S.

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  21. Kelly wears Birkies; wearing a gold tinted pair here at the airport. And she’s got a silver pair at home. She loves them.
    They don’t work for me as I can’t lift my right foot. I wear crocs because they have a strap for that right foot.

    I got a leather ‘brace’ a couple years ago that I wear laced up on my right foot. It’s helps stabilize it as it’s turning in at the ankle. ( I know there’s a medical term for that but I don’t know what it is). My doc says someday I’ll have to get my ankle fused in order to straighten it out.
    Yeah, someday when I have three months to spare…
    I figure the ankle/ foot has been ‘broken’ for 40 years… it’s wearing out. It’s good for a while yet.
    (The lack of muscle control in my foot is causing it to turn in).

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  23. When the tendon tore, Husband said it felt exactly as if a shot put ball had hit his leg – in fact, he looked around to see where that ball had come from and gone, before another player figured out what had happened.

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