I was on crutches for the first two days after PRP, to avoid weighting my left Achilles. I appreciated this, because I accidentally weighted it a couple of times that weekend and immediately regretted it.
Problems with Crutches
If you know me, you know that I am not coordinated. I broke my hand because I slipped on a rock. I sprained my MCL tripping over a pillow. These are not isolated events. I likely have developmental coordination disorder, more prevalent in extremely low birth-weight premature babies (like me). So, crutches are hard.
As I mentioned in my first post, I had to learn crutches on the fly as I was rushed out of the exam room to make space for the next person after PRP. Someone else carried my stuff for me, and I hopped quickly to the next room.
But after more crutching, my right leg started to hurt, and I almost fell over a few times. My injured Achilles is on my left leg, which is my stabilizer leg. This is not a coincidence- I over-rely on my left leg for balance. My right leg was struggling to pick up the slack. The weight of the boot threw off my balance. My above-referenced (right) MCL sprain was starting to flare up, and I was starting to feel some pain in my “good” Achilles. No bueno!
Crawling Might be Better?
I started moving each crutch one at a time, which improved my balance, but I still had to hop. I also found it easier to move around the kitchen on my knees. So I crutched (slowly) through our living room to the kitchen, and crawled everywhere else. I would scatter my crutches throughout the kitchen as I went from 2 crutches at the entrance of the kitchen to 1 crutch + counter grab in the middle to just sitting on the floor and eating my food. Eventually I put on knee pads, leftover from our home remodeling projects, to assist in crawling. I also grabbed a reusable grocery bag to carry things around the house with, since you can’t use your hands when crawling OR crutching.
I only had to use both crutches for two days, and I know that most people use them for a significantly longer period of time. If they give up and start crawling, though, I understand.
