Naturally, with any injury, there are going to be medical costs involved. We kind of expect those. Maybe some prescriptions, and a few incidentals. Breaking a leg, however, finds a whole new level of extra costs that I would never have imagined. And this is still being crutch mobile! Someone who got restricted to a bed or wheel chair, even for a month or two, would have far more difficulties that I can't even begin to compile.
Some of the extra costs came in the forms of having to pay other people to do things for you. Paying extra for grocery delivery versus shopping yourself. Extra taxis or ride shares that you otherwise could have avoided. Needing help with a variety of other chores.
Mind you, I'm naturally pretty independent and stubborn. I'm fit enough where I can muscle my body around quite a bit. People who didn't have those things going for them would be that much more worse off. I've learned to vacuum with crutches. Yesterday I managed to change the sheets on my King bed by myself - and you have to understand, my house is TINY and my room is cramped. Changing sheets is a challenge on good legs, none the less with a broken one (there was a lot of crawling around like an overturned turtle across the bed to get things accomplished). Yard work is the next thing I'm planning on tackling - not sure how well I'll be able to weed whack on crutches, but I don't figure it should be much worse than vacuuming other than the uneven ground.
Back to unforeseen costs. My living room set up was pretty basic - a futon used as the couch, and a long-ish but very narrow end table my grandfather made. That's about all that fit, no room for an extra chair. Needing to keep my leg elevated, however, made this set up more than a little annoying. In order to get my leg high enough, I'd have to scoot down on the futon, putting my back in a rather miserable position. I managed this for the first month, but I lost my tolerance for it yesterday. There was no way I could keep this up for another 2, 3, or 4 or more months, or however long I'm stuck like this.
Money was still an issue. Space is an issue. I started looking through Craigslist, then through LetGo. I found a few that were good maybes on LetGo, one in particular that I felt like would be perfect for my present situation. It was basically two recliners with a middle cubby and cub holders. This would give me and the roommate both a place to sit, without needing to sit uncomfortably close. Reclining would make life FAR more tolerable and it would be a lot easier to keep the leg elevated and not kill my back in the process. The price was reasonable as well. I contacted the seller, found out they were local, and made a counter offer which they accepted.
I found a couple friends plus the roommate to help pick up the couch and get it into the house. I'm typing this out curled up on my "new" couch, and very happy I have it. This was, however, nearly $200 that I otherwise would not have spent if it weren't for the broken leg making my previous set up so difficult to deal with.
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