kimcheejars

So I have a broken leg. Three weeks in and I am walking around as well as many and just as fast as my sister Mandee (boy she walks slow). I have constant pain in my leg and most of this pain stems from the regions around the ankle, knee and break areas. The swelling has gone down and I am resuming some sort of normal life again.

Who would have thought that after three, relatively painful weeks, I would actually be walking around and getting back to work full time. It definitely was not me. Especially with a snapped Tibia and shattered Fibula. The doctor told Naomi after the surgery (the one where they installed my knew metal detector tester) that I would be up and walking in a week or so. Week two had me removing the metal staples from the incisions and the Dr. telling me to start walking on it! So here I am walking for about a week. The worst part probably is the lack of mobility with a close second being the pain.

Pain?? So what take some drugs. Well here is the problem with the drugs. My first batch consisted of Oxycodone.. pretty powerful stuff. It took away some of the pain. Here are the side effects. (Constipation, Nausea, Somnolence (drowsiness), Dizziness, Pruritus (Itching), Vomiting, Headache, Dry Mouth, Asthenia (Muscle weakening), and Sweating.) I probably had most of these at one point or another. I happily didnt have the Nausea or Vomiting but the itching and sweating was not so fun. After my one week doctor visit they changed me over to Hydrocodone. It seemed to work ok as well. The side effects are much much much better. I figure this will help me quite a bit. They also tell me I better start weening myself off the drugs as soon as I can. So they gave me better stuff and tell me to get off the stuff.. period. Ok!

So, on to the weening I go. I quickly found that Ibuprofen seems to work just as well as either of the more "powerful" drugs. What is the point of even taking these drugs. I get a constant ache from either. They never completely remove the pain in my leg (i mean stuff is moving around and healing still). I dont even want to think about going back to the Oxycodone. So what do I do? I found the secret!

Ice! Ice is the secret. With baseball I have been pretty familiar with the pain of icing limbs. It is just a necessary thing to maintain the health of an arm. So that comes in handy now. I cannot ease the ache with the drugs or even make it ache less. However, ice my leg for a few minutes and as soon as the troubled area gets cold I get a wonderful calm feeling that washes over me and I am pain free. I can use ice to completely remove every last bit of pain and replace it with a cold spot on my leg. Now that is what I call good stuff! So what do you think... drugs... or ice? I know which one I choose.

So at week three I take a little Ibuprofen here and there, a hydrocodone at night (or after working the leg pretty hard) and Ice any time I can get the coveted solidified h2o.

Walking around at week three. I wonder if I can get rid of my gimp limp by week 4? Wish me luck

Ca