[blparent] Question about Crutches

[Jo Elizabeth Pinto]

I know this is a strange question, but have any of you ever been on crutches?  How did you manage it since you couldn’t see where to place the crutches before you took a step?  I’m asking because last Thursday night, my guide dog was off leash, running around like a maniac in the snow.  She loves to play in it, especially during the first good snowfall of the season.  She tried to run past me and ended up slamming into my knee, bending it in a way I had no idea it could even go.  By the time I went to an urgent care clinic near my house on Friday afternoon, my knee was swollen and hot to the touch, and it burned as if I’d set a hot pan from the oven right on it, only the burning was on the inside.  The urgent care tech said I probably tore my meniscus, which is a thin sheet of cartilage that keeps the bones in the knee from rubbing against each other.  She gave me a knee brace and told me to use ice and anti-inflammatory drugs over the weekend.  I saw a marked improvement from Friday to Saturday, but now it’s kind of stalled out.  I’m hoping time and ice will do the trick, but the recovery time if I have to get arthroscopic surgery to mend the tear is a month to six weeks, with crutches for at least some of that time.  I can’t even imagine how I would navigate with crutches, even if there weren’t toys everywhere.

Thanks,
Jo Elizabeth

Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.