Forty years ago this summer, I was hit broadside by a speeding car while riding my bicycle through a dangerous intersection near my home. That I wasn't killed is a testament to the fact that I was strong, athletic and young and apparently that saved my life. Still, I managed to mangle my left leg pretty badly. The femur bone was shattered below the ball and socket joint and I ended up having to spend a few months in the hospital in traction, in a four bed ward with other people. It was a long, painful and difficult experience that left its mark on me permanently, in more ways than one. At the end of my hospitalization, I was encased in plaster waist to toes and sent home to mend the bones that had been set, one end on top of another. When I awoke from being casted, I could not sit up and all because the cast went to my waist line and it didn't allow me to sit up in any sort of fashion, so I asked the doctor to cut a crescent shaped area in front so I could, after a fashion, sort of sit up in an awkard position. I really could not do much in the weeks I was encased in all that plaster. I wasn't strong enough to support my body on crutches so I could not get to my upstairs bedroom, even. Eventually I figured a way to scooch myself up there on my backside and that felt like a little victory in and of itself. After a few months, the cast came off and I was liberated from my plaster prison in which I had been encased for a few months. The doctor told me that I would have one leg shorter than the other but that my body could compensate for up to an inch difference in my legs, so I went about my life thereafter with one leg noticeably shorter than the other one.
Fast forward almost 30 years. In December of 1997, I began experiencing some serious hip pain on my left side. I assumed that because I had just turned 40 some months before, that it was just age catching up to me and that come spring, I'd be fine. However, in the ensuing months, the pain exponentially worsened to where I began to be genuinely concerned. I finally decided that this warranted a visit to the doctor's office, where I explained the problem to him. He promptly sent me to an orthotic/prosthetic specialist in Akron who measured a one and a half inch discrepancy of my left leg. I was shocked that it was so huge. Quite fortunately, they were able to build up my shoe right there on the spot so I left the appointment standing a full inch and a half taller than when I walked in. It felt peculiar at first but since that day, I can't function at all without my lifts. I can't go barefoot and even after showering, I dry my feet so I can slide on my sandals and stand up straight after being uneven in the tub. The biggest problems are that 1). orthotists require that I produce a prescription from my doctor for the lift before they will work on it, meaning I have to call my orthopaedic surgeon and request a faxed prescription to be sent to whoever is doing the work, and 2). insurance doesn't cover the lifts, which can run anywhere between $110 and $200, depending on who is doing the work. This means that for every pair of shoes I buy, I can expect to invest a substantial sum of money into the having it fitted with a lift so I can stand up straight. I find this highly annoying that this is not a covered item in my insurance plan. Well, nothing is anymore, so it's kind of pointless having it. Sometimes I think that it would be a good thing to have limb shortening surgery on my right leg to make me even again so I could save the money I have to spend on shoes. Research on this indicates that I could expect to be out of commission for 3-6 months, a long time to be back to a semi-normal level of activity. After the surgery, I'd be in a hip to toes cast for about a month or more, then on crutches for another 6 or so weeks, then in PT until I could put weight on the leg and reuse it again. Frankly, I don't have that kind of money because as it stands now, I'd have to pay a good chunk of the cost of the surgery myself. No thank you. So in the meantime, I just have to settle for being seriously limited in my shoe choices and I have to expect to pay out the nose for my lift work. This is why I only own three pairs of shoes and plan to make them all last until they fall apart completely. I just can't afford to own more than one pair of tennis shoes, one pair of sturdy sensible work shoes and a pair of sandals. I pine for pretty feminine shoes, but those are off limits for me anymore. Whenever I dress up (blessedly seldom), I have to wear my clunky, chunky sturdy sensible work shoes even if I am in a semi-formal outfit. I wish I could have something truly dressy but that's a sacrifice I must make for the sake of my orthopaedic health. Frustrating, to say the least......
Forty years ago this summer, I was hit broadside by a speeding car while riding my bicycle through a dangerous intersection near my home. That I wasn't killed is a testament to the fact that I was strong, athletic and young and apparently that saved my life. Still, I managed to mangle my left leg pretty badly. The femur bone was shattered below the ball and socket joint and I ended up having to spend a few months in the hospital in traction, in a four bed ward with other people. It was a long, painful and difficult experience that left its mark on me permanently, in more ways than one. At the end of my hospitalization, I was encased in plaster waist to toes and sent home to mend the bones that had been set, one end on top of another. When I awoke from being casted, I could not sit up and all because the cast went to my waist line and it didn't allow me to sit up in any sort of fashion, so I asked the doctor to cut a crescent shaped area in front so I could, after a fashion, sort of sit up in an awkard position. I really could not do much in the weeks I was encased in all that plaster. I wasn't strong enough to support my body on crutches so I could not get to my upstairs bedroom, even. Eventually I figured a way to scooch myself up there on my backside and that felt like a little victory in and of itself. After a few months, the cast came off and I was liberated from my plaster prison in which I had been encased for a few months. The doctor told me that I would have one leg shorter than the other but that my body could compensate for up to an inch difference in my legs, so I went about my life thereafter with one leg noticeably shorter than the other one.
Fast forward almost 30 years. In December of 1997, I began experiencing some serious hip pain on my left side. I assumed that because I had just turned 40 some months before, that it was just age catching up to me and that come spring, I'd be fine. However, in the ensuing months, the pain exponentially worsened to where I began to be genuinely concerned. I finally decided that this warranted a visit to the doctor's office, where I explained the problem to him. He promptly sent me to an orthotic/prosthetic specialist in Akron who measured a one and a half inch discrepancy of my left leg. I was shocked that it was so huge. Quite fortunately, they were able to build up my shoe right there on the spot so I left the appointment standing a full inch and a half taller than when I walked in. It felt peculiar at first but since that day, I can't function at all without my lifts. I can't go barefoot and even after showering, I dry my feet so I can slide on my sandals and stand up straight after being uneven in the tub. The biggest problems are that 1). orthotists require that I produce a prescription from my doctor for the lift before they will work on it, meaning I have to call my orthopaedic surgeon and request a faxed prescription to be sent to whoever is doing the work, and 2). insurance doesn't cover the lifts, which can run anywhere between $110 and $200, depending on who is doing the work. This means that for every pair of shoes I buy, I can expect to invest a substantial sum of money into the having it fitted with a lift so I can stand up straight. I find this highly annoying that this is not a covered item in my insurance plan. Well, nothing is anymore, so it's kind of pointless having it. Sometimes I think that it would be a good thing to have limb shortening surgery on my right leg to make me even again so I could save the money I have to spend on shoes. Research on this indicates that I could expect to be out of commission for 3-6 months, a long time to be back to a semi-normal level of activity. After the surgery, I'd be in a hip to toes cast for about a month or more, then on crutches for another 6 or so weeks, then in PT until I could put weight on the leg and reuse it again. Frankly, I don't have that kind of money because as it stands now, I'd have to pay a good chunk of the cost of the surgery myself. No thank you. So in the meantime, I just have to settle for being seriously limited in my shoe choices and I have to expect to pay out the nose for my lift work. This is why I only own three pairs of shoes and plan to make them all last until they fall apart completely. I just can't afford to own more than one pair of tennis shoes, one pair of sturdy sensible work shoes and a pair of sandals. I pine for pretty feminine shoes, but those are off limits for me anymore. Whenever I dress up (blessedly seldom), I have to wear my clunky, chunky sturdy sensible work shoes even if I am in a semi-formal outfit. I wish I could have something truly dressy but that's a sacrifice I must make for the sake of my orthopaedic health. Frustrating, to say the least......
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