GoingNorth
Crazy Cat Lady
Backstory: About a month ago, I rolled my right ankle coming down my front steps. It hurt and swelled up about halfway above the joint.
This happens to me frequently because that ankle is unstable from an old injury that wasn't properly treated. Usually it lasts a week or two and then clears up.
So, I wrapped and iced the ankle and three days later drove 300 miles down to Milwaukee/Chicago to visit with friends and family. By the time I got out of the car, I could barely walk.
I didn't go to ER because I didn't want to get stranded away from home until whatever I'd done to it healed, especially if it was a fracture, which I was starting to suspect.
Fast-forward to when I got back from my visit.I went into my doctor as soon as I could get an appointment. She took a look at the leg, felt around, and sent me off for x-rays.
Turns out I had fractured my fibula about 2" above the ankle and had been walking around on it for two weeks. *DUH*. So, the orthopaedist who read the x-rays stated that the fracture was already healing, wasn't displaced, but the ends of the bone were overlapping slightly.
He wanted to re-break the fibula, line the ends up properly, and cast the leg. I opted for the "unsightly bump" he said I'd have.
Fast forward another 2 weeks. I am just out of the splint and wearing and ace bandage. My orders are to use it as much as possible, but to get off it and ice if it starts to swell.
Well, the weather the day before yesterday was miserable: cold and wet and blustery, and my healing fibula is the newest voice in the chorus of old injuries that picks up when the weather changes.
I HAD to go get groceries and the ankle was slightly swollen. I wrapped it and figured on using a handicapped scooter at the grocery store. I get there and there is one scooter. I put my purse and cane in the basket, and all of sudden there' this pregnant woman with a toddler on her hip screaming at me to "get my fat ass out of that cart, she needs it!"
First of all, you can't take a child in a scooter. Second of all, she was barely showing. In fact, the only reason I could tell she was pregnant was that she was wearing a tight-fitting shirt with her belly exposed.
I explained about my leg injury and she informed me that she didn't give a "flip" about my leg and repeated her order to get my ass out of the scooter.
I was thinking I was about to be in my first physical fight in 35 years. By this time, we've drawn a crowd of shoppers and employees who are trying to reason with this maniac.
I spied my opening, wheeled the scooter around, and headed for the produce department, shaking like a leaf. I was truly afraid that she'd be waiting for me when I got done checking out. In fact, I had them take my groceries to the side door so they could put them in my car. I went out of a different door to the one I'd come in from.
The young fellow who was loading my groceries caught me up on the situation after I left. The employees tried to throw her out of the store. She got (more) belligerent and the police were called. She was arrested and thrown in the back of a squad car where she waited until someone showed up to get the baby.
All this over a handicapped scooter?! If she'd been farther along and hadn't had the toddler with her, I would've let her have the cart. I realize it can be difficult for some late-term women to walk any distance.
I've used the carts at WalMart when my back or knees have been really bad and have had to wait for a cart to become available. I don't mind.I know when I need to use a scooter and I plan my time to allow for a wait for one.
In fact, once I got the OK for weight-bearing with a cane, I started going to this store for the bulk of my purchases BECAUSE I could walk it long before I could walk a WalMart Super Store (ours is huge)
It just happened that that was a day where I couldn't walk the smaller store.
As a sidenote: I do have a knot where the bone healed unevenly, but right now the torn ligaments in my ankle are bothering me worse than the fracture site. I don't care about the bump. I just am hoping that as healing continues, the danged thing will quit griping every time we have weather coming in.
That incident begs a question though: when on earth did people get so darned ANGRY?
This happens to me frequently because that ankle is unstable from an old injury that wasn't properly treated. Usually it lasts a week or two and then clears up.
So, I wrapped and iced the ankle and three days later drove 300 miles down to Milwaukee/Chicago to visit with friends and family. By the time I got out of the car, I could barely walk.
I didn't go to ER because I didn't want to get stranded away from home until whatever I'd done to it healed, especially if it was a fracture, which I was starting to suspect.
Fast-forward to when I got back from my visit.I went into my doctor as soon as I could get an appointment. She took a look at the leg, felt around, and sent me off for x-rays.
Turns out I had fractured my fibula about 2" above the ankle and had been walking around on it for two weeks. *DUH*. So, the orthopaedist who read the x-rays stated that the fracture was already healing, wasn't displaced, but the ends of the bone were overlapping slightly.
He wanted to re-break the fibula, line the ends up properly, and cast the leg. I opted for the "unsightly bump" he said I'd have.
Fast forward another 2 weeks. I am just out of the splint and wearing and ace bandage. My orders are to use it as much as possible, but to get off it and ice if it starts to swell.
Well, the weather the day before yesterday was miserable: cold and wet and blustery, and my healing fibula is the newest voice in the chorus of old injuries that picks up when the weather changes.
I HAD to go get groceries and the ankle was slightly swollen. I wrapped it and figured on using a handicapped scooter at the grocery store. I get there and there is one scooter. I put my purse and cane in the basket, and all of sudden there' this pregnant woman with a toddler on her hip screaming at me to "get my fat ass out of that cart, she needs it!"
First of all, you can't take a child in a scooter. Second of all, she was barely showing. In fact, the only reason I could tell she was pregnant was that she was wearing a tight-fitting shirt with her belly exposed.
I explained about my leg injury and she informed me that she didn't give a "flip" about my leg and repeated her order to get my ass out of the scooter.
I was thinking I was about to be in my first physical fight in 35 years. By this time, we've drawn a crowd of shoppers and employees who are trying to reason with this maniac.
I spied my opening, wheeled the scooter around, and headed for the produce department, shaking like a leaf. I was truly afraid that she'd be waiting for me when I got done checking out. In fact, I had them take my groceries to the side door so they could put them in my car. I went out of a different door to the one I'd come in from.
The young fellow who was loading my groceries caught me up on the situation after I left. The employees tried to throw her out of the store. She got (more) belligerent and the police were called. She was arrested and thrown in the back of a squad car where she waited until someone showed up to get the baby.
All this over a handicapped scooter?! If she'd been farther along and hadn't had the toddler with her, I would've let her have the cart. I realize it can be difficult for some late-term women to walk any distance.
I've used the carts at WalMart when my back or knees have been really bad and have had to wait for a cart to become available. I don't mind.I know when I need to use a scooter and I plan my time to allow for a wait for one.
In fact, once I got the OK for weight-bearing with a cane, I started going to this store for the bulk of my purchases BECAUSE I could walk it long before I could walk a WalMart Super Store (ours is huge)
It just happened that that was a day where I couldn't walk the smaller store.
As a sidenote: I do have a knot where the bone healed unevenly, but right now the torn ligaments in my ankle are bothering me worse than the fracture site. I don't care about the bump. I just am hoping that as healing continues, the danged thing will quit griping every time we have weather coming in.
That incident begs a question though: when on earth did people get so darned ANGRY?