Monday, September 19, 2011

Compound Tuft Fracture

I have a compound tuft fracture.  I was dusting in the tv room, where a 4 lb hand weight was being used to counter-balance our dvd player, which hangs a bit off the shelf.  I dusted the dvd, picking up the weight.  I put down the weight, and it rolled off the shelf, dropped 3 feet, and squashed my left, middle toe like a grape.  I have never been in so much pain in my life.  Will was home at the time, but at 4 (I did this at 12 noon), he had to leave to go to Seattle.  At 5:30, I called a neighbor to come and walk Stirling with her dog Biscuit.  She came right over, saw my toe, and insisted on taking me to the ER.  Good thing that she did, since the toe was still bleeding, despite being elevated for several hours and time in ice baths.  Turns out that my bone was exposed during that time.  

So, tetanus shot and two lidocaine shots later (to numb my toe), the ER doctor jammed my dislocated nail back into the nail bed to prevent the nail bed from closing, cleaned the wound, and wrapped it, my foot, and ankle in massive amounts of gauze.  I have Percocet for the pain and Zofran for the nausea caused by taking the Percocet.  I am trying not to take any of that.  I also have a heavy duty antibiotic to prevent any infection in the bone.  Another friend dropped off a pair of crutches and that is how I have been getting around: crutches and a soft shoe for my left foot.  

I went to the orthopedist on Friday and he says that it seems to be healing fine and gave me a more appropriately sized bandage for just my toe.  I go again to him on Wednesday.  In the meantime, I have my foot up and trying to ignore the fact that it takes me forever to get anywhere: the loo, upstairs, the kitchen.  However, yesterday I walked around the block with Stirling sans crutches, so it was a good day.


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