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649848 tn?1534633700

Sunday Weigh In August 30, 2020

Good morning.  How is everyone doing this morning?  It's a dark, rainy day here, but I'm hoping it will clear up after while.  

It was a quiet week here until yesterday.  I'd worked on a refinishing project on Friday and yesterday morning, I got to a point at which I needed some paint, so right after lunch, I took off to the store.  I went to one store that didn't have what I wanted, so on to the next one...  It had just rained, so everything was wet.  As I was walking into the store, I slipped on that white paint they use to mark crosswalks, etc.  Of course, I felt like a major clutz and as we usually do, I glanced around to see if anyone had seen my clumsiness.  Yep, there were a couple of ladies walking into the store behind me - both stopped to see if I was okay and I sheepishly said I thought so.  About that time, a store employee came out the door and I stopped to tell him that they need to do something about that pain because it's very slippery, especially, when wet.  I proceeded to tell him I'd just slipped on it and fallen.  

One of the ladies going into the store asked the employee if there was someplace I could sit down for a while because my foot seemed to be hurt.  I realized then that I couldn't put much weight on it so the employee directed me to one of those scooter things they have to ride around in.  I sat there for a few minutes as we watched my foot swell.  He went to get a manager, who came out to talk to me.  I told her that I thought it was going to be okay, but she took my name, address and phone number just in case.  I used the shopping cart to lean on while I went ahead and got my paint, still thinking my foot was just twisted a bit and would be fine.

Although it was very painful, I drove on home and by the time I got here, I could put no weight at all on my foot.  I told my husband I thought I needed to go to the ER so off we went.  The NP that first looked at my foot didn't think it was broken because I could feel her touch my toes, but they did x-rays anyway.  She came back a short time later and to both our surprise, she said my foot is broken...  It's fractured at the base of # 2 and 3 toes... who'd have thought something like that would happen just by slipping on paint??

Apparently, all they do now for a broken foot is put a splint on, which they did and told me to follow up with an orthopedic doctor on Monday.  They were even kind enough to give the name of one they sent me home with a brand new pair of crutches...  

Now - I've had crutches a lot of times and although it's been a lot of years since the last time, I thought I'd do okay with them, but they're giving me fits.  Just from getting around to do "necessary" things last night, the muscles in my arms are "so" sore this morning, I can hardly propel myself around on the crutches.  I'm trying to figure out an easier way to get around.  Our dining room chairs do have rollers on them, so if I'm in the main part of the house I can roll around with one of those, but still have to carry my crutches in case I have to get out of the chair.  I looked last night to see if I could buy one of those knee scooters, but it seems that the only places that have them in stock are medical supply stores, which happen to be closed on weekends.  We'll see what we can do about getting one tomorrow.  

Anyway, needless to say carrying around extra weight isn't helping the situation at all - yep, I know it's making it worse.  Add the fact that I haven't been exercising so my muscles are weaker than they should be.  It all pretty much spells disaster!!  

Of course, I haven't been able to weigh this morning and probably won't be able to stand on the scale for a while (until I can put weight on my foot) - not that I want to since the splint and all it's coverings, etc will only add extra weight.  When I weighed the other day, I was about the same as last week, so that indicates that I've been able to check the gain, anyway.  

I can promise the one thing this has done is make me determined that when I'm able, I will start exercising to gain back strength in my arms, legs and back.  I'm grateful that it was foot that broke instead of a hip, back or something that might have required immediate surgery.  

So, that's my saga... how was your week?  I hope you managed to accomplish whatever goals you set for yourself.  

~~Wishing everyone a wonderful successful week~~

**Stay safe and wash your hands**
3 Responses
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134578 tn?1693250592
They do make a kind of neat silicon grit for the specific purpose of mixing into paint, so the result will be a gritty surface that is not slick. Shame on them for not doing that. If the parking lot is owned by the store, it's the store's fault, but if it's owned by a company (like a mall, where there's a landlord of many stores), it's probably the mall's liability and not the store's. The easiest way to keep from getting stonewalled about whose responsibility it is is to write a letter to the store, referring to the incident and telling them that you expect any medical costs not covered by your insurance to be covered by them. You'll definitely hear back with exactly who is responsible, if it isn't them. lol

Did you get your knee scooter today? And how did the medical appointment go?
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This was a store, not a mall, so the store is definitely responsible.  The thing is, this isn't the only store around here that has this type of paint marking their crosswalks, directing traffic, etc.  I called the store this morning, per the manager I talked to on Saturday, but she wasn't in.  The person I talked to said she would be there at noon and that he'd make sure she called me, but she never did.  I'll write a letter and put it in the mail tomorrow.  I'm not looking for a big payout here, but I don't expect to be ignored either.  

My husband did find a knee scooter this morning and it's so much easier than dealing with the crutches.   I even managed to get in to see an orthopedist today, as well - not very often one can get a same day appointment with a specialist around here.  The doctor said it's a simple fracture and won't need any kind of surgery or anything like that.  They removed the splint that was put on at the ER on Saturday and put me into an air boot... In case you aren't familiar, it's a huge boot that looks like a moon boot that you pump air into to get a snug fit.  I can actually put a little pressure/weight on my foot as long as I'm wearing the boot.  I'll have to have it for at least a month and will need to use the knee scooter for walking more than a couple of steps.   I'll see the orthopedic doctor again in 2 weeks and they'll do another set of x-rays in order to make sure it's healing the way he's anticipating.  

Considering that my cell phone, somehow got water/condensation inside it and locked onto a black screen for a few hours this morning, along with some other frustration, the day turned out better than I'd hoped.  
Maybe your phone got wet when you fell on the wet pavement. :)
I had my phone in my pocket and it didn't fall out, but anything is possible, at this point.  Somehow, my phone actually became deactivated today and I had to call the carrier to reactivate.  It ended up having a different SIM card # from what was supposed to be there.
I asked my son about this just now, because he has access to two old, discarded phones from Daddy and one small inexpensive phone of his own, and when he changes from one to the other, he just moves the SIM card from one to the other. My son says some phones are locked and some are not, and if the phone is locked, it will need a specific brand SIM card in it, such as a Verizon card for a phone sold by Verizon, or a phone sold by AT&T would require an AT&T card. He says that phones sold by phone companies (like Verizon) are more apt to be locked, and phones sold to the consumer by the manufacturer (like Apple) are likely not to be locked. I bought my smartphone (a Google Pixel) online, and remember that the ad used the point that the phone was "unlocked" as a selling point, but at the time I didn't know what that meant. (Bought the phone anyway. lol) Seeing him easily shift from one phone to the next when he feels like carrying a bigger or smaller phone makes me think I'll always buy from the phone manufacturer rather than wander into my local Verizon shop and take whatever they sell me. But I wonder if maybe you got a salesperson who simply didn't register your SIM card number correctly?
Just saw your reply... Yes - if you buy a phone from a carrier (Verizon, AT&T, etc) the phone will most likely be locked and will need a specific SIM card to be used with that carrier.  A phone bought online or from someplace like Best Buy would be unlocked which means it can be used with any carrier.  

I got my phone from Verizon so it has a Verizon SIM card in it.  I didn't realize it, but the SIM card is associated with a specific phone number once it's activated (actually has the last 4 digits of the phone number in its number, as found in the "about" area of your phone).  That's mine - don't know how other carriers do it.   I did buy one unlocked phone from Best Buy a few years ago, but they couldn't help me get it activated so I had to go to Verizon for that, anyway.  Although, the lady was very nice about it, they're a lot easier to work with when you get the phone from them.   That phone didn't last very long and when I had to replace it, I went back to Verizon to get my new one.  I didn't pay any more for a phone from Verizon than I paid for the one from Best Buy and I got Verizon's tech support for free.  

The store I go to has a huge selection of phones and I always pick out the one I want, partially based on how much I want to pay for the phone and partially based on what I want it to do with it.  I, typically, buy less expensive ones, then if something goes wrong with it, I don't feel so bad if I have to replace it. I had a more expensive one and carried insurance on it, but the phone lasted so long that it wasn't worth anything when I did finally have trouble with it, so the insurance was pretty worthless.  Of course, if I bought an expensive phone I'd insure it until it depreciated down some.

I did get my phone dried out the other day (put it in a sealed container of silica beads (put the beads in the container, lay a paper towel on top of the beads and add the phone on top of the paper towel in order to keep the tiny silica beads out of the openings of the phone)... it only took a couple of hours for the silica beads to draw the moisture out.  The phone was working perfectly, except the camera was "foggy"/washed out... then all of a sudden even that started working beautifully again.  It worked the next morning, then suddenly, it quit working.  Now whenever I turn the camera on, it turns right back off.  I really need the camera to work as I use it all the time to take photos of projects, etc.  IDK if the camera can be replaced or not, but that's likely to cost as much as the phone did so I'm thinking I might as well just get a new phone and be done with it.  :-(

There's always something happening...  
Avatar universal
So sorry to hear about the broken foot.  You are not clumsy - I have slid so many times on wet paint on roads that now I just run next to cross walks and actively avoid stepping on any street pain, wet or otherwise.  A textured paint would definitely be helpful.

I hope your healing goes well, and don't be too mad at yourself, accidents happen.  I've fallen countless times running and felt frustrated, but I've learned from my experiences and I fall a lot less often these days.
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Thank you... I'm not really so upset, now, that I fell.  I'm more upset that I've let myself get so out of shape, I'm having such a hard time using my crutches.  I used to have a lot of trouble with my right ankle and it seemed like I was on crutches several times/year.   Walking with crutches was no big deal.  They finally had to do a major surgery on that ankle and I've not had any trouble or reason to use crutches in years - now when I need them, I'm having so much trouble.  

I'm not sure what's going to happen with my foot... I have to follow up with an orthopedic doctor tomorrow.  Hopefully, there won't be anything they'll have to do beyond letting it heal.  
134578 tn?1693250592
Wow, seriously, who would have thought you could break your foot just by slipping and falling down? Did you let the store know that the foot is broken? (I'll bet they wonder if a lawsuit is coming.) At the least, they should paint some grit paint over that shiny, slippery painted surface.

My weight is exactly the same as last week, to the tenth of a pound, and I even ate a handful of filberts before I weighed. This last week, several days we ate things like homemade soup for our meals, or tabouli -- I made a huge batch and we ate it for two days as our only entree. I did have a craving for my favorite treat and bought it, but it's almost gone now and I won't replenish the supply. Without its influence, I think my weight would even be slightly down.

One of my dogs is elegant and perfectly proportioned, and the other is little and has the proportions of a "pig in a blanket" (is that what it's called when you wrap dough around a hot dog and cook it?). She has a huge rib cage, meaning she'll never be thin looking, but lately she's obviously more fat than fluff.

Thursday I took her to the groomer, where she got a haircut that makes her look like a dandelion, and then Friday to the vet for her booster shot. Owners can't go in with their pets due to the virus, and as I handed the dog off to the tech, she asked me if the dog had been having any problems. I said no, other than being fat. Danged if the vet didn't call me and read me a long, patronizing lecture, starting with the supposedly startling information that the dog is fat (as though I hadn't just already said it to the tech). The vet went on and on about how I should mark a cup with the amount the dog is allotted to eat every day, and use it when feeding her. If the problem was that I have trouble comprehending what a third of a cup looks like, this would have been interesting and exciting news, but unfortunately, the problem is that my husband feeds the dog, and to him a dog is not fed unless there is enough food in the bowl to satisfy a couple of hungry Golden Retrievers. If the vet's lecture had included tips and tricks for curbing my husband's generous impulses, it might have been a lot more useful.

She did say one interesting thing, though. When I told her that the dog goes with my husband on his 10,000- step walks, she said "Well, of course, exercise is good for dogs, but weight issues are 80% diet and only 20% exercise, just like people." I hadn't ever heard that proportion said about people (and can't even confirm that it's true), but I kind of liked it. It means that even if I'm dropping the ball on the exercise front, I can still manage my weight with diet alone. I don't know why it would come as a surprise -- people who are sick get thin whether or not they are out exercising -- but it was a helpful thing to hear. I must have been thinking at some level that not exercising enough would automatically torpedo any dietary progress. So, score one point for the irritating vet. lol

We're up for a nice week, sunny every day. Hope you get one of those knee scooters tomorrow, Barb. They sure represent a big improvement over crutches.

Have a good week!

Helpful - 0
1 Comments
You're right - I can't imagine why stores don't add some some sort of grit to that paint they use for crosswalks, traffic regulators, etc.  I can't be the first person who's ever fallen on that paint or who's been injured by the fall.  Nothing was said about a lawsuit and I haven't yet notified them that my foot is actually broken, but the manager I talked to said that if I needed anything to be sure to call them and she did take my name, address and phone number.  I don't plan to sue, but I'll expect any medical bills not covered by insurance to be taken care of.

My arms are SO sore from the crutches, I simply had to do something different... it just so happens that our dining room chairs have wheels on them and I realized that I can use one of those similar to a knee scooter so that's how I've been getting around this afternoon.  I can go everywhere in the house with it except the bathroom - which is probably one of the places  I need it most - but we'll go get a scooter tomorrow (hopefully, first thing) and I'll be able to maneuver that in the bathroom.  

Yes - pig in a blanket is the hot dog wrapped in dough and I can imagine your little dog looking like that... lol  It wasn't very nice of the vet to come down on you so hard about the dog being overweight.  It's always nice when they try to get the whole story before they do the chewing out...  When we had our Beagle, my husband was like yours - he thought that when he fed her, he had to fill the bowl and of course, she never walked away before the bowl was empty.  We did have to cut back on her food and I finally got him to understand that he had to stop feeding her so much.  He did, at meal time, but couldn't stand to eat a snack without "sharing" with her... Needless to say, she didn't lose a lot of weight but she was a very  happy dog and lived to be 14 yrs old.  It ended up being cancer that took her, not being overweight.  

Yes, I've read numerous articles that say diet is the # 1 way to control weight (and 80%/20% is often the numbers used) - keeping in mind that it's not always how much we eat so much as what we're eating.   So yes, you can control your weight even if you fall back on exercise, but exercise is what keeps our muscles strong and in shape.   I've always known that was important, but my experience with the crutches has made me realize how important that is, as well - at least for me.  If I were exercising like I should be, my muscles wouldn't be so weak and sore after using crutches for less than 24 hrs, most of it spent sitting in a chair  :-)   As it is, my upper arms and chest are very sore and I even dread having to look at the crutches, let alone try to propel myself through the house with them...  

Have a good week.
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