Benji's Foot and Ankle Blog

I have to say this is one of my favorite photos - just looking today at those old crutches with the burned out armpit pads evokes fond memories. I found the crutches in a parking lot not far from where this pic was taken about 10 years before that, and I used them for a few more years off and on when I needed to. Only after breaking my right ankle a few years later and got a new pair at the ortho clinic did I finally chuck those crutches into the trash. I wore those (now very out of style!) pants forever and I got them right around the time I found the crutches. I was looking for work at the time. It would be a couple more years before I found my dream job but even while you're crippled, job hunting has to continue!

Yes you can still wash your own car even if you are in a non-weight bearing cast. It just takes a little more effort. This was the one time I actually did it. The rest of the times, and there have been plenty, I was on two feet. No real need to cover the cast with a plastic bag IF you know you can keep the water away from it!

This guy had a number of leg/foot/ankle breaks and ended up getting the same ligament repair surgery that I had. This pic was from about 2010, he took quite a few selfies at that time.

SLC for ripped up foot, Feb 2022.

5 years ago, post-surg. I attended a wedding. Yeah, I was "the guy at the wedding on crutches" and actually there was a big staircase at the reception venue with no elevator that I had to climb and people had to wait for me to go up it lol!

10 weeks after surgery in the summer of 2021. My last bit of recovery was a couple weeks in this boot. 12 weeks total - 7 in NWB casts, 3 in WB cast, 2 in the boot. That was a long, hot, cast-laden summer. But my ankle finally got fixed after years and years of pain and problems.

8 years ago, Memorial Day weekend 2018. One of the few injuries I've had on my right. No cast for this one, but I got a boot the next week at the ortho clinic. There was some bad pain happening in that photo.

This pic is from around 2009-10. Wooden crutches were around more then. In the past decade or so they've all but become obsolete...that's why I am glad I have 2 pairs of them. "They made em better in the old days" absolutely applies to wooden crutches. The wood is strong and noiseless. The most they do is develop a slight creak, like a wooden floorboard, with repeated usage. I've never known a pair of them to break.

Yikes, this was 14 years ago in 2012! 2011 and 2012 were bad years for that left foot. I had two injuries almost back-to-back and the pain literally went on for like a year. I still have those wooden crutches and they still work! And they're still noiseless. They look like they belong in an attic nowadays though. I was still using them in 2018 when I hobbled into a medical facility when I broke my other ankle. Crazy life and times.

A very old but favorite photo of the brave comicon trekker

A year ago I went to look for a friend's grave in a cemetery while recovering.

3 years ago or so in a parking lot. The funny clothes caught my eye more than the cast! Since that time I can count on one hand the number of casts and crutches I've seen. Way more boots and scooters, or just boots. Doctors definitely aren't treating with casts and crutches as much.