Coping with life post operation
Heya everyone,
So as some of you know I had to have an operation on my foot to fix it. That happened last week on Tuesday!During the last week I've been battling with lack of mobility - as I have a back-slab plaster cast on my lower leg which is SOO heavy! And I'm not allowed to stand on it for about 12 weeks/3 months, with regular reviews to check on how the healing is going. Along with the that I'm in a lot of physical pain - it hurts to be standing up with my right foot hanging down, so I must have it resting up which it okay, but the pain can be unbearable and make moving around so difficult and draining!
I'm on some strong pain killers but they don't dull the pain completely. So I'm seeing a GP tomorrow.
With all of this pain and lack of mobility I've had a couple nights where I've cried myself to sleep. Of these sometimes I've felt completely overwhelmed by everything and just felt like it was all totally unfair.
I've felt like such a burden on my family at times because I am limited in what I can do, but on the flip side I feel like they aren't supporting me enough... My mum does the best she can which I appreciate with her lack of energy due to her health conditions. My dad sometimes helps and it really good but then he turns around and makes a snide comment or complains - which can be really hard to cope with at times. And my brother flatly refuses to help me at all, yet he'll "joke" around about hitting/kicking/dropping the cats on my cast and cannot see why I get frustrated with him.
I am frustrated because there isn't a whole lot of room at home, as it's a small house, so using the scooter can be a challenge because of narrow walkways and not being able to do a uturn, I often have to pick up one end of the scooter to move it around to turn! And crutches are a pain, and there isn't really the space to use crutches confidently either! Ugh it's just frustrating!
Sorry for the huge rant, I wanted this to be positive and to update you all on how I'm going as I know quite a few of you are interested to hear about it all 🙂
Wow @Bee, I am always so impressed by your amazing ability to find positives in the pain - I've see this in your posts in the negatives to positives thread, too. I'm so glad that thinking about it was something you found helpful! 
How are you today, how have your pain levels been over the weekend?
Aww @litgym ❤️ thanks (The amazing @lokifish made a thread over here 😛 )
@DruidChildthanks, there are actually a lot of positives that have happened fom this injury....
- it eventually put me on the path of really considering my career path, I'd put the whole career path on hold less than 6 months prior to my injury due to bad mental health. And with the injury and knowing a lot of the potentional long term side effects and that of the injury, I decided to look into Business Administration. And from that and some work experience I realised how much I wanted to be BEHIND the scenes of a business, I wanted to help run it and organise it to run. SO the data entry the making of reports and chasing up bills and paying bills all of that stuff is where I feel most interested and engaged. I found that while I like customer service and I have HIGH customer service expectations (I blame my first employer 😛 [In a good way, no love lost])
- I feel like I know more about myself now, I rediscovered my love for being in the water - although I still find it incredibly hard to find the motivation to get to the pool!)
- I met some amazing souls through my hydrotherapy program (which I fell out of - a few different reasons, but mainly lack of motivation and persistence) and I've bumped into a few of them recently in the shops and I just remember how good it felt talking with them and their down to earth nature.
- It brought me and a high school friend back together after a falling out, and we are now still friends, we have ups and downs still, but we have both grown and can appreciate each others' differing opinions more now.
Man there's some great stuff there, you really made me think there DruidChild! And now I'm going to save this and put it onto my desktop because it's so awesome! 😛
Hey @Bee, I'm sorry to hear that you're feeling so sad Your injury and surgery sound like big disruptions to how you'd planned for your life to be going, and adjusting to that change sounds difficult I wonder if there are any positives to what has happened? Sometimes I find that even when something really terrible happens to me, it can still be looked at as something that taught me something new about myself or about life. I apologise if that's completely off the mark, it's also true that some things just suck.
happy birthday @Bee !!!!!
i know this isn’t the ideal place to wish you a happy birthday but oh well ! i hope you have a wonderful day
Ah something new... not sure, I kinda don't want to ha, I might process some more photos later, it will give my mind something to really think about 😛
Ahhaha yeah it comes from the name of the original injury 😛
Yeah it's proving nice for now, wait till I have to try and move the scooter around because I put hte stool in a bit of a silly place haha but still in reach if this wasn't comfy 😛
@Bee yeah and that must be painful, but you’re trying your very best post operation ! is there maybe something new you can try ? like im teaching myself to play the ukulele ahaha.
i loveee the name franken foot !! sounds like a good alternative to the stool 🙂
I've tried to do some colouring but wasn't feeling it.
I don't see my psych for a couple weeks yet (I think) [which reminds me I need to book community transport!]
In other news I swapped out my foot stool for my exercise ball and my knee isn't hurting yet and I get to bounce my leg hahaha (encouraging blood flow to frankenfoot)
hey @Bee sorry to hear about today :(
maybe focus on the positives of this surgery - you get to watch more Netflix, colour in and even have less stress. but i do understand life is much easier when things aren’t weighing you down. and can become boring and tiring when you can’t do much 😞
have you done anything today to reduce these thoughts or planing on some self-care tonight ? how much longer till you see your psych ?
here to listen xx
Thanks @DruidChild I love this artists' images! (The one you shared for @litgym was my phone background before my phone died for good haha - don't worry though it will be on my phone again when my new one comes in the post :P)
I'm feeling sad today about how this injury has affected my life.
I'm sad that it made me stop being a cashier, I'm sad it made it hard for night fill. I'm angry at myself for not listening when people warned me about the boss and manager of a job I'd accepted. I'm mad that I left nightfill before my 3 month trial was up with that job. I'm disappointed that it all just fell to pieces. And I'm annoyed that now I have nothing to do except sit here and wait for this stupid foot to heal before I can start looking at work again, because it's just not possible to be able to get to and from work where I live with such a lack of public transport! 😞
I'm just feeling sad and overwhelmed by everything right now. And things at home are hard and I just feel overwhelmed with it all. And ugh too much worry and what if and crap floating around in my head. Right now I just wish I was a different person 😞
Ps. that all came out like word vomit. Sorry
@Bee well at least you’re looking after yourself ! 🙂 must be nice having some great supportive people to help you through times like these
Thanks, it was quite challenging as the thoughts were so intense, but some lovely people helped me through it ☺
@Bee happy to hear the pain has settled 🙂
and good on you for dealing with yesterday even though it was really hard. i also read you managed to deal with your self-harm and suicidal thoughts, im proud of you
Today has been okay pain wise, I had a shower this morning and managed to get the pressure bandange and boot on while standing on my left leg which was great! 😄
Emotionally it's been a tough day, but that's okay, I managed with some help from KHL and amazing friends!!
hey @Bee
how are you going ? i saw this today and it reminded me of you !
But my foot is being a bit of a grumble bum 😛 I may log off soon and do some colouring and watch something
Hilda is so great! 😄
haha so easily done 😛
@Bee november is not far off !
everyones suggesting Hilda so i better watch it ! sounds like you’ve been looking after yourself well ! (just realised i used ‘!’ in every sentence 
)
Non wieght bearing is the correct term 🙂 I see the surgeon at hte end of November so hopefully then 🙂 *fingers crossed*
Today I have done a bit of shopping, colouring, watched some netfliz - HILDA! And just chilled on the forums a lot 😛 I use this more than facebook! Haha!
@Bee im proud of you for pushing through and accepting everything
haha, can you hop up steps when non weight bearing is over ? (sorry if that was the wrong term, i couldn’t remember !) colouring and netflix sounds great ! what have you been up to today ?
I've done a few stretches, but I neeed a good long stretch session! (I might try to get my yoga mat outside and try on the grass outside if I'm up to it - there is only so much I can do with limited space in my room. I'm just worried I might not get up again haha, but I can always crawl back inside with the crutches, then hop back outside to get the knee scooter haha (I just can't hop up steps yet haha)
I did some more colouring in last night and watched Hilda on netflix 🙂 I'm nearly at the end of August in my colouring calander 😛 (It's 1 page per day and 1 for Sat&Sunday combined)
