Cold toes

3/23/2010 02:53:00 pm BenefitScroungingScum 12 Comments

My feet are cold. That has nothing to do with anything much other than me whining. But they are. Cold I mean. Under the mistaken belief it was Spring I turned the heating off and with it my circulation. The heat's been back for a while now but my feet seem stubbornly determined to remain in Winter. Without me. Selfish behaviour indeed.

I could of course get my arse off the sofa and go and get another pair of socks, but I'm supposed to be resting my hip. So far supposed resting has included going to the shops to buy food to enable me to rest and there may have been an attempt to fix the lights above my bed. It counts, sort of. Unlike light fixing which is going to take someone far more talented than I to sort out. I stopped short of making a hole in the wall. This time.

It was a lovely weekend, ceiling incontinence aside. An 11th birthday sleepover was being hosted in the upstairs flat so I decamped to GG's. We went out for dinner and as we were leaving the pub I stepped down what I thought was a very shallow kerb leading to the disabled bays in the car park. Unfortunately it wasn't shallow and I crashed down hard on my right foot, jarring my spine and dislocating my hip at a particularly awkward angle. Fortunately GG had hold of my hand so I didn't go flying.

Despite my best wiggling I couldn't get the hip to go back so waited until we got home. I couldn't get it back then either so waited until after a hot bath and some strong weed before trying again. No luck and not much sleep either. Sunday morning after more weed I had better luck and managed to move the femur into a slightly better position from where, later that night, accompanied by much howling I got it to relocate properly.

It's very hurty in a making me feel sick kind of hurty way. I can weight bear but it makes me feel more sick. On Sunday night I was fairly convinced I had managed to chip or fracture the bone as it dislocated. I've been having more problems with posterior hip dislocations ever since falling out of my wheelchair perving at rugby player's posteriors. If my right foot was 12 on a clock face, this dislocation seemed to go out some time between 7 and 8 where it got a bit stuck somewhere on the underside of my pelvis.

I had an appointment booked with my GP yesterday for something else so used that to see her about my hip. I probably wouldn't have bothered going so soon but the combined pressures of Gangsta Guy and knowledge that I've got to reapply for my Disability Living Allowance soon won out. My GP will be asked for medical confirmation of my condition and probably find that a bit difficult to do without my occasionally attending for such problems.

I explained what had happened and that I thought my hip had been dislocated for about 30 hours or so before I could reduce it. New GP asked where I'd been to hospital and looked somewhat askance when I said it hadn't even occurred to me to go. If I went to hospital every time I dislocated a joint they'd have to build me a house in the middle of A&E. Reinforcing that message were the 3 loud cracks as both my shoulders and an elbow went back into socket as I stretched.

New GP unsurprisingly wants me to have a hip x-ray to make sure I haven't chipped or fractured the bone. I'm pretty sure the femur isn't fractured as I'm weight bearing, but then I weight bear on actively dislocated hips or knees so I suppose I might manage to do so on a fracture too. I think it's more likely torn the labrum on the underside of the acetabular socket
or perhaps chipped part of a bone. Doesn't really matter, it all adds up to hurty.

I decided* that if my hip is no better by the end of the week then I'll go and get x-rayed, but as I've had many pelvic x-rays I want to wait a few days just to make fully sure an x-ray is essential. Also, I don't feel up to driving myself to the hospital, trying to trek from the car part to the entrance to get a porter to push me to be manipulated for an x-ray. Rest seems like a better plan. GG would have come to take me to the hospital, as would Roland but both are busy today. Both would drop what they are doing and take me instead, but that would be far too much like actually admitting I need help for my liking. It's taken enough persuading for me to accept GG coming over to look after me this evening.

And after all that...my feet are still cold.


*without having consulted my lovely GP should anyone want to query her judgement!


12 comments:

Unknown said...

Just keep in mind that cold toes CAN be fun, when used for the proper purpose. *ahem*

Lou: Cold toes have a proper purpose?! *giggle*

Vi said...

SNAP with the cold toes! I stupidly wore shoes without socks today and toes haven't thawed since...wouldn't think about getting socks on!

But honey, you certainly had me squirming when you had to put your hip back in.....owwwwww!!!!!!

Fire Byrd said...

I must admit to wanting to be a fly on the wall when you tell the medics that you relocated your own hip. I bet they can't get their haed round it at all that you can look after your own bones.
xx

Rach said...

Can I tell you off?..lol Make sure you get it checked out Mrs.

On the sock front, did the same yesterday shoes instead of boots equals cold toes..xx

bendy rebel said...

hope your hips settles down soon. i'm still wearing 2 pairs of socks at all times except in bed at the moment. Once i've been in bed for about an hour i get rid of one pair of socks

steph said...

Bendy

I think your own diagnosis is probably spot-on. It's not an x-ray you need.

As I'm sure you know from bitter experience...

X-ray + EDS = NAD (most of time).

Can your GP request an MRI scan? If not, it might be worth considering a trip to A&E with a letter from your GP.

An MRI would show what's really going on.

Hope it eases soon!

Lankylonglegs said...

Hope the hip is ok, as for the cold feet...I'd wriggle them under Bendycat and force her to keep them warm seeing as it's all her fault the remote was lost for as long as it was.
I think you may need to leave 'humour' warnings on the tops of your blogs, the comment about you falling out of the chair whilst ogling rugby player's butts had me spraying coffee all over the desk pmsl. Keep 'em coming XD

Achelois said...

Poor you. Orthopedics told me following broken hand that it would have been much worse if I had not been so bendy! Thanks for that it was pretty bad anyhow. Subsequently found I out about osteopenia (sp) so it probably broke because of that. If you do not have low bone density and you did not hit the ground running as they say, it may be that you have really really hurt the tendons causing bad bursitis flare as a result of injury. Worth getting checked out though. Glad its the turning off of the central heating causing cold toes and not the lack of blood supply due to dislocation, although that owuld be both hips, mind you if you put out sacro iliac stuff at the same time then the cold toes theory could apply there. Lets stick to the central heating theory instead of my drivel!! hope the hurt stops soon.

Joanna Cake said...

It makes me feel sick just thinking about what you have to do! x

It's nearly noon and Im sitting in bed with socks on (Im using my Kegel machine) and my feet are cold too. Ruf, as you know, insists that I wear bedsocks these days so, since he is due for a visit in about six hours, Im trying to get my toes warm :)

Can you get hold of any fresh leaf? A few leaves steeped in a cup of boiling water does wonders for your circulation.

I would suggest growing a medicinal plant just for tea. But I dont know what the laws are like in England.

Otherwise about a teaspoon of dried leaf per cup. xox

Madison Rose said...

Bendygirl, I know you disapprove (quite rightly) of people who call for an ambulance when they don't ned one, but surely getting a patient transport ambulance to take you in for your x-ray is a sensible use of resources! That's if you decide you need an ambulance, of course. Hope you're feeling less hurty now, anyway.

Steph: what does NAD mean?