My Metatarsal Madness

The Prologue...

Okay so here we go, at the moment this entire blog is just a way of getting through my recovery of the remainder of my recovery but it may flourish into something more...we'll see, anyway I've started this really late (more than a month) but still thought I'd get the rest of it and hopefully provide some tips on helping others through similar things but for this post it's providing the back story...settle in for the long run folks because as the name suggests, I tend to ramble.

The Story So Far

So pretty much right off the bat all sympathy will evaporate because I'll be honest here (no point making an elaborate story about it) I'm a student in Bangor in North Wales who is a fan of rugby (like everyone else in Wales, am I right or am I right?) and alcohol (well maybe not so much now), one Saturday I went down to the pub to watch A couple six nations matches (think the best one was Ireland against Wales) brilliant day of drinking...

I then went out drinking in the evening not realising quite how much I'd had, I pretty much make it through the night and back home without incident...(now I start getting memory gaps so bear with me), basically for some reason I decided to go back down the stairs of my flat block utterly wasted (with no lift in my flat you can see exactly where this is going)...one misplaced foot and wheeeeeee!! Down the stairs I go...luckily I didn't do any damage to my back, head or coccyx (tailbone for those who don't know)

Worst Hangover Ever

Not really sure what happened between falling down the stairs and waking up the next morning to be honest... but the next morning, my god did I have a day to look forward to, I wake up as normal after a night of drinking (with a headache that feels like my head has been used as the drums in the Hawaii 5-O theme) and get up out of bed...or at least try.

You see when I get out of bed normally, I automatically put weight on my left leg, this time however I get up and immediately for the first time in years (and I mean YEARS) I burst into tears and collapse back on the bed in pain, thank god I live with friends because I manage to inform them of my situation and they manage to find someone to get me to the hospital.

Medical Mania

Big Bulky Support Boot

So I go through the entire A&E procedure and all that palava and I have a foot x-ray, I am then informed that I have a fracture in my left foot (wait for it) so I am put in one of those big bulky support boots, put on crutches and told to come back for a check up in a weeks time.

So 1 week later after me walking to and from lectures with my crutches as an aid I return to the hospital for my check up and immediately after my x-ray I know somethings wrong (you know that look doctors get when they realise a situation is worse than they initially thought) and the doctor comes over and says "we need to give you a CT scan" so naturally I consent and get my foot scanned by the giant 'Polo' and they look at the scan and say they will send it to a specialist and get back to me.

"Breaking" News

The next day I get a missed call (student + lots of lectures = many missed calls) and a  voice mail asking me to come in ASAP to elevate my foot overnight before surgery.
(yes...you read that right...Surgery)

So I gather my things, you know, the essentials, your overnight clothing, books etc. and grab a taxi to the hospital, I then get admitted and sit back on the bed and read my book until the doctor comes round and explains whats happening. (now things begin to go downhill)

Apparently when I fell down the stairs I some how managed to break my 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th metatarsals which in hindsight is rather amusing and pretty much sums me up...

Location Of The 5th Metatarsal

Breaks 4 out of 5 metatarsals, the one not broken is the one everyone else breaks.

So after finding this out I have a standing x-ray to determine precisely what has to be done in the operation and then stay overnight in the hospital for the first time.

Operation TMT Fusion

The next morning was when I went into theatre to have the procedure done after consenting to whatever needed to be done...

What needed to be done was the installation of 1 pin through my 1st metatarsal and 2 plates on my 2nd, 3rd and 4th metatarsals to stabilise it which will be remaining in the foot for the foreseeable future.

After the procedure my foot was put into a backslab or half-cast and told that I would be unable to place any weight on it for 2 weeks as my foot was still too swollen to place in a full cast.

At this point due to me being unable weight bear it was deemed necessary between me, my parents, the hospital and the University attendance department for me to go home until I can weight bear again...as it is I am still at home as I am writing this.

The Recovery Continues

My Foot X-Ray

My Full Cast

2 weeks post-op and I go to my local hospitals fracture clinic to get the half cast off, stitches removed 

(all 20 of them, don't worry I won't subject you to the picture of it)

x-rays done (which I actually got to see this time) 

and my foot placed into a full cast for 4 weeks and still unable to weight bear.

I am now about to start my 3rd week in the full cast which is of course...Black...I am quite a fan of metal and rock music (but maybe that's a topic for another post)

And of course not much else has really happened since I had the full cast put on (life at my home village is boring when you're not in a cast) meaning that the back story is completely covered so next post I can start giving tips and "life hacks" on how I've made my life as a cripple easier.

So that's the first post done, I will try to keep future posts shorter but I'll probably fail there (I am an Abstract Rambler after all), anyway that's it, if anyone else finds themselves in a similar situation to me and has questions just ask and and I will try to answer them or at least provide tips.

I have plenty of time available at the moment, the whole reason I made this blog is because I needed a way of passing the time.

Thanks for reading

An Abstract Rambler.