About me and my injury: I'm a 26 year old female outdoor education teacher. Basically that means that my classroom is forests and mountains and I teach using hiking, rock climbing, and character building.
I was working at a summer camp in upstate NY in the Adirondack Mountains teaching a rock climbing class when the person belaying me (holding the rope) dropped me and I fell the 25 feet to the ground. When I hit the ground, I hit full force on my left foot, shattering the heel and causing a compression fracture in one of my vertebrae. I was in the hospital near my camp for 5 days before being discharged home. Thankfully, my back fracture required nothing more than a brace for about a month and a half. My heel on the other hand (or foot, I guess....bad humor, I apologize)...
My first appointment after I got home was an interesting one. My doctor (who in turn was my surgeon) looked at the X-rays and basically went "holy crap!" in so many words. He said for a person my age he had never seen such a severe injury. He gave me 3 options: a) no surgery and let it heal on its own, b) surgery just on the heel and not on my sub tarsal with the potential of having to go under the knife again to graft the subtarsal and fuse it years down the line or c) do everything at once. I opted for c.
10 days later I went under the knife. Surgery took about an hour longer than planned because of how many pieces it was in. The pain I felt after the nerve block wore off was probably the worst pain I had ever felt, next to the initial trauma of the break. Crying in the hospital, begging for them to kill me was not a pretty sight. They let me go 2 days after my surgery.
Up until the surgery and for the 2 weeks following it, I was only allowed out of bed for 10 mins a day to pee. Otherwise my foot had to be elevated above my heart. I wasn't allowed to be upright without the back brace, so bathing was interesting to say the least.
At 8 weeks I was allowed out of the back brace, but still in a cast on my leg. In the middle of October, I was out of the cast and put into a walking boot, but was still Non weight bearing. I was working up to partial weight bearing as tolerated and took my first steps the first weekend in November. I started physical therapy around Thankgiving time, and at that point I was told to ditch the boot, the scooter, etc. So I gritted my teeth and did it, and have been walking with a cane ever since.
Physical therapy has been going well. I have definitely seen improvements, but I have a long way to go.
I have good days and bad days. gotta keep pushing forward though.
Liz