My poor sweet baby took a tumble yesterday and hurt her ankle (she may be taller than I am now, but she'll always be my baby girl). When I saw how swollen it was, I flashed on when I broke a bone in my foot a few years ago and was afraid she might have done the same, but it's a painful, nasty sprain (a Grade II eversion sprain, if you want to get technical) nothing more. I'm glad nothing is broken, but it will be a few weeks wearing an ankle brace and an ace bandage, probably a week at least of evil crutches, and a month for full recovery. What a bummer. We are so fortunate that we have good medical care. Every single person who helped us at urgent care was wonderful to her. She even got to ride in a wheelchair for a little, which is sometimes the only highlight of the tedium of waiting around in a clinic on a beautiful Saturday afternoon instead of going for a walk. It was very cool that the doctor let me look at the X-rays on the computer with him (being the physiology geek that I am). They can see so much more know because they can zoom in. My daughter has lovely bones!
When I was six, I had my first of what would be four ankle sprains, and two twisted knees. The treatment then was a plaster cast for six weeks (and apparently there continue to be arguments about the best form of treatment for sprains!) prolonged immobility is no longer the fashion, but there are arguments to be made for "giving the foot a holiday" for the first phase of treatment. I spent so much time in those freakin' casts. A plaster cast is still the best for a complete ligament rupture (Grade III) but I'm sure mine weren't that bad, and I know that at least two of the sprains were re-injuries because of atrophied muscles and no rehab. I got very good on crutches and also enjoyed a lot of plaster cast artwork. But now, the emphasis is on evaluating each injury and beginning to strengthen the ankle and leg muscles (without pain) as soon as possible so as to prevent further injury. For now, she is doing homework, drawing, reading, and listening to music while I dose her with smoothies!
Coincidentally, my daughter also just found an amazing T-shirt that has a drawing of internal organs on it (yep, she's my daughter). And I just found this great blog Street Anatomy, where artists combine medical illustration with all the ways people (not just artists) are using anatomical drawings, for art, fashion, furniture and more.
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5 comments:
Oh! Poor girl(s)! I hope your daughter is healing well--she's young enough to have rubber bones, I hope, even if they are a lovely kind of rubber.
I send hugs and good wishes.
Thank you, I am fine and she is improving!
"Rest, ice, compression, elevation"(R.I.C.E) is the standard procedure, so I get to spoil her a little bit: we're watching all the episodes of Serenity (which she hasn't seen before) and there are the makings of hot fudge sundaes in the house.
I kept her home from school today because the swelling is going down, but the ankle is still hot to the touch and painful. She can sort of rest her weight on it again, and is getting used to the crutches, so tomorrow it's back to school.
OOoooh--if you get a chance, I'd love to read a Firefly review!
I'm glad she (and you) are recuperating.
Oh, big 2 thumbs up! I will ask her if she is willing to do a Firefly review with me. We wanted to watch the movie Serenity last night, which I thought I owned, but it turns out I most have Netflixed it so we stuck it back in the queue. By the way, she wants a Jayne hat now too!
Yay! Jayne! Do you knit?
If you haven't watched "Serenity" yet, I'd love to come watch it with you (if you two want company). I promise I wouldn't poop out, either, like I did for SYTYCD... because I know I love the movie.
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