Let’s talk walking sticks! I had never used one before my fall, but I will after. The walking stick acted like a crutch for my right leg, therefore helping me walk with some less pain. I used it up and down the evil stairs, in and out of the car and on all my dog walks and watering of the plants
On a side note, stairs are the enemy of anyone with mobility issues. Kim speak. I never had an issue before and these past six weeks have been a challenge navigating them through my recovery and re-injury. I now understand why my mom moved so slow when going up and down them because of her dropped foot. I never rushed her and let her take her time, but now I have a better understanding of her fear of falling and pain.
I say get a walking stick! No age restrictions, it’s great for hikers and maybe for you if you’re injured like me and need walking assistance. I love mine!! Check them out here on Amazon if you’re interested
Okay over the next eight days I used ice on my thigh muscle instead of heat. I liked it the way it felt and it made it feel better for a minute. At the two week mark, I was in a lot of pain and almost every person I knew wanted me to get it checked out and see if I had fractured my hip. So I went to an Urgent Care, the doctor could not see me until September 19th, the date was July 29th!! Long story short, they told me I had indeed sprained my inner thigh muscle and he asked me my age. When I told him, he said I needed to get an X-ray because of my age and the chance of any type of hip fracture. So I asked if he could take it there since they advertised X-rays. Nope, they had a machine but no one to read them. So I was given the name of another Urgent Care with X-ray capacities and saw them. They had me walk and then X-rayed my hip from three angles.
Diagnosis-I had severely sprained my thigh muscle from the fall, but good news my hips had normal age erosion. No fractures anywhere! This was important for me because my mom had degenerative hip disease and two hip replacements! She also had arthritis in her hips and luckily not me! I was to use heat 4-6 times a day and Motrin as needed. If not better in two weeks, see an Orthopedic. Yikes. Seems the cold was constricting the blood vessels so they did not allow the flow to come through and heal the sprain. I started on the heat and Motrin immediately and the next day felt improvement. Amazing. I am vegan so I could not have extra animal protein to aid in faster healing. I found a ground hemp with 12 grams of protein, add to my shake and a complete protein, yay, at Adams! Let’s interject here how painful walking around food shopping was. I used ShopRite’s food delivery the second week. Loved it, so easy and they had all my food. I tried walking around the next week, thought the cart would help me. A big fat no on that. It’s good for balance but not my issue. A fifteen minute shopping took me almost an hour walking around. So anyway….Fortunately my supplement regime and foods I eat were necessary for healing faster. Whew. I continued to barely move, eat healthy and use the heating pad 4-6 times a day. I needed the stick to get up and down the stairs to water my plants, the plants around me and of course my mom’s garden. My leg improved daily I think and by week 4 and 4 days I was able to walk around Cold Spring with my friend all day and no pain issues. Yay. That was a Tuesday. No orthopedic necessary! Wednesday was a good day, my thigh muscle had no pain at all and I was ready to get back slowly to my workout routine-three mile walk, hour and fifteen minutes of aerobics and half an hour of yoga. Not all at once but start with half the walk. Sounds good. Well then I woke up Thursday morning and……stay tuned for Part 3
*Disclaimer:
This information is solely for informational purposes. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. Kim Gerhardt, Certified Health Coach, does not take responsibility for any possible consequences from any treatment, procedure, exercise, dietary modification, action or application of medication which results from reading or following the information contained in this information. The publication of this information does not constitute the practice of medicine, and this information does not replace the advice of your physician or other health care provider. Before undertaking any course of treatment, the reader must seek the advice of their physician or other health care provider.
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