Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

lean on me

After I sprained my ankle this weekend, I thought that crutches would be the answer to my mobility problem: no more limping around, I could move a little faster, etc.

Obviously, I’d never had occasion to actually use crutches before.

After a day of limited crutch-walking yesterday, my arms are painfully sore, and I have these huge red blotches under my arms. And any time I’d set my crutches down, my arms would be all tingly. (I’m pretty sure I was doing it all wrong. After some further reading, I learned that I’m supposed to put all my weight on my hands, not my armpits, where there’s apparently a nerve that can be a bit sensitive — hence the tinglies.) I’m trying a different approach today, putting limited weight on my injured foot while using the crutches properly, and things seem to be going better so far.

Beyond their actual use, the other thing I hate about crutches is all the attention they seem to attract. I do appreciate folks being caring and curious when they ask what happened and how I’m doing, but at the same time, I feel super self-conscious being the center of attention. The coworkers who sit around me have probably heard the story now like ten times. And while it’s a bad sprain (not a break, according to the x-rays on Monday), it’s not a hugely serious thing, and I really just want to move on rather than talk about it all the time. (My saving grace is that I injured myself playing soccer this time. It’s a much less humiliating story to tell than the last time I twisted my ankle: I was wearing platform sandals and tripped over a parking curb during a family picnic. It was five years ago, and I still get teased about that.)

I have to admit, though, that it is fun when the people who ask about my sprained ankle talk about the times they sprained their ankles, from basketball to tennis to falling down stairs, and how they dealt with it. Not that it’s fun that they were injured — just that there’s this momentary connection in the act of talking about it.