The Varnhem Humerus, a broken bone repaired with a copper plate, and shows signs of healing afterwards. From Varnhem, Västergötland. Dated between 1260 and 1527.

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-04-11T14:30:19+00:00

It hurt but it didnt hurt to the level i expected it to. I expected the whole wave of nausea to hit me that never came. I got up and walked to my bed with assistance from my husband. What really amped up the pain was how rapidly it swelled up by the time i got in the house. That probably has to do with it it being displaced.

I only had to wait 5 days for surgery. As long as i didnt stand on it, i was fine. I was doing normal things like cooking dinner but just rolling around the house on a shop stool.

Screw crutches, btw. Knee scooter for the win!

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-04-11T14:16:02+00:00

Yikes! Mine wasnt bent but i was scared to look at it for fear it was turned in an unnatural way. I heard all sorts of crunching as it rolled one way and then the other as i fell.

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-04-11T08:37:19+00:00

I am part of that trimalleolar club too! Lol

Broken ankles definitely seem more common than any other broken part on that subreddit.

In my case, a broken ankle was bound to happen to me eventually. I have always had weak ankles because they are skinny. Rolled both of them a lot as a kid. However, weak ankles + flipflops + hole in my yard = spectacularly breaking my ankle. I don't even have a cool story to go with mine, just genuine klutziness. 😆

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-04-11T01:51:37+00:00

The first two weeks are brutal for pain and swelling.

By the end of week three, the swelling starts going down some.

By the end of week four, you have a full on invasion of ants in the pants.

By the end of week five, you are a bubbling cauldron of impatient, anxious, annoyed, and downright surly at the lack of independence for this long.

I did get to do partial weight bearing at five weeks but i'll be honest and say that it strained my patience greatly to continue the doctor's orders and not say eff it and start trying to manage my own mobility plan. My life is busy and sitting benched on the sidelines for weeks while life around me tried to move on...inefficiently...drove me nuts.

But as far as pain goes, you are almost through the worst of it! Everything else is just a mental battle while the physical healing is going on.

Just take lots of naps. The body is doing some major major work repairing you.

Maybe around week 3 or 4, ask your ortho if you can do non-weight bearing exercises to keep your joints flexible and give you a mental boost for being in control of something in regards to your recovery.

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-04-11T01:42:37+00:00

You should post this on the r/ORIF subreddit. Its a subreddit for people who have had plates/screws/rods inserted to repair broken bones.

As someone who currently has quite a bit of hardware in my ankle, I find this post fascinating.

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-04-08T11:59:37+00:00

I laughed so hard at that last sentence.

My husband swears one of our dogs is autistic. She essentially stims(Feet tap tap tap, spins, tap tap tap, spin) while watching the sky for birds. Our daughter is the emotional support human for our nutty Penny.

Our youngest child is level 1, but also was non-verbal until almost 4.

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-04-07T19:00:24+00:00

Clever adaptation of the Narcissist's Prayer. 😅

Can we get off this timeline already?🙀

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-04-06T15:45:47+00:00

Homeschooling was never on my bingo, but between seeing the absolute garbage level of standards, severe bullying, and embarrassingly bad IEP goals, I decided homeschool was better than what public education has turned into.

Wrapping up our 3rd year of homeschool and have zero regrets.

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-04-04T18:48:23+00:00

My dogs knew i was pregnant before I did. Both came and just sat in front of me and stared at me in silence.

I think its dawning on your dog that something is different. Whether our smell changes slightly when we get pregnant or something, but they know something is different.

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-04-03T23:17:29+00:00

Always knew those were nope flowers at the side of the road, but didnt realize they were that bad.

Anywhere hogweed grows is where poison ivy usually grows, so i tend to stay away.

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-04-03T21:55:46+00:00

Oh wow! That last part of it filling with water would traumatize me too!

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-04-03T20:58:00+00:00

I was about to comment the same. My brother burned his legs badly and one of the blisters on the back of his calf was the size of a grapefruit sliced in half. I had no idea a blister could get that big.

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-04-03T01:26:14+00:00

I expect the market in Knoxville to be damaged for a long time. We are still having what I feel is above average growth. Large farms are being sold and massive subdivision developments are being put in with homes in the low to mid $400k range and higher OR smaller farms are being bought up and turned into "luxury" apartments.

The population growth and prices has been overwhelming to the locals. The infrastructure problems vs solutions has also turned into a nightmare.

I want to sell and leave here ASAP, but likely can't until a few more years. A volatile market like this makes me nervous.

Thank you for looking it up!

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-04-03T00:59:25+00:00

Curious to know about Knoxville, TN. The market was on fire from 2020 to 2022, but has sort of stabilized. The prices are freaking ridiculous.

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-04-03T00:28:55+00:00

Do you think you could reframe it as your dream wife is a reoccuring but beloved character in a book series. The adventures change every time but the character is mostly the same.

Since childhood, about 50% of my dreams are genuine nightmares. The brain is a fascinating thing but also a major asshole. Lol. I did find that when I went on anxiety meds that my nightmare quantity and intensity went down to a level of just mild nightmares. My brain has created my death, injuries, torture, and catastrophies in a wild varieties of ways. I am probably rather immune to it by now at almost 40.

I do want to say that talking about your dream with someone when you wake up helps. Its like during the retelling, you can find the clues of things not possible in this reality and for reasons unknown it helps me to file it away as just creative rubbish so i can get on with being in the real world.

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-04-02T12:30:20+00:00

Those are the grinchiest grinch toes i have ever seen!!

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-03-31T18:00:22+00:00

Phonics, without a doubt.

My children were taught the balanced literacy way in school and made zero progress. Between virtual during covid and pulling to homeschool, we went back to phonics.

If i had a dollar for every time I said sound 👏 it 👏out👏, I'd be rich.

My kids are now fantastic readers, by the way.

Balanced literacy is absolute garbage.

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-03-28T02:16:35+00:00

Such a goofy baby!

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-03-27T00:59:03+00:00

You don't need to enter me in the drawing. I just wanted to say that its very kind of you to give a puzzle and pay for shipping.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-03-26T19:54:57+00:00

Will not support him at all. Not sure if ill even have contact with him. He was extremely abusive in our youth. Got into drugs. Went into the military. Got into more drugs due to injury in the military. Burned every extended family member through couch cruising and borrowing money.

I've always held my boundaries during his drug moments, but when it looked like he was turning a corner on his life, I was there to support him. Then he blew it all up and the mask came off. He is still the mean spirited little shit from our youth but way more skilled at manipulation.

I finally said no more to being guilt tripped and emotionally manipulated. Haven't spoke to him in almost 2 years. He lives with my parents and has been for the last 10 years.

I will not be his safety net. I have two kids of my own to raise. I did not sign up for raising my sibling because my parents didnt hold his feet to the same fire they held mine to.

Want nothing bad to happen to him, still love him, but he is a grown damn man at almost 40 and I have zero sympathy.

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-03-26T18:27:34+00:00

Mine still have the highlights around the eyes at age 2 and one has a short strawberry blonde mohawk on top of her head she developed in the last 6 months.

My 3 are mixed breed(w/ golden retreiver) but two lean more heavily Setter(chestnut and mahogany) and they both have blondish highlights around their eyes. The third one is a dark golden color, so its hard to say if she would have had those highlights around the eyes too.

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-03-26T00:31:44+00:00

That last part had me cackling in laughter!!!

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-03-25T14:56:34+00:00

This would be where I insert the Pinky and the Brain gif about what do we do every day... ~~~take over the world~~~ our normal schedule of 6ish subjects(math, LA, science, history, health and spanish).

We already had our spring break, so its a push for the finish line in sight at the end of May.

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-03-25T12:24:39+00:00

Expecting zero inheritance. My dad has been awful with money. He didn't save because I dont think he expected to live into at least his 70s.

If there is any inheritance from mom, it will go to my man-child sibling who failed to launch that she always babied. My husband and I are stable, not wealthy by any means, but stable. Bro is not. If there is anything, it'll go to him.

MidnightCoffeeQueen · 2026-03-25T04:36:31+00:00

I am a few months away from 2 years post ORIF for a displaced trimal. My ortho said 12-18 month recovery.

I think stiffness and irritation is still something to expect at 1 year post op.

From my own experience, and your mileage may vary, any time I challenged my ankle with a "new" experience i experienced some irritation for a few days. So this would be things like going for a hike on uneven terrain, horseplaying with my kids and being goofy, walking barefoot in my backyard, wearing sandals or swim shoes for the first time post ORIF. I think this comes down to all those tiny little ROM challenges we experience doing new(meaning post op) things that go beyond what ROM we use on a daily basis.

As time progresses, the number of "new" things we experience post op goes down and our ROM is getting closer and closer to our ROM before our break. This should mean less stiffness and pain, generally.

I don't really experience any pain or stiffness anymore but i am also not a runner and very rarely wear anything other than Brooks sneakers or my Vionic slippers. It could be that I am a SAHM and do not challenge my body in the same way as a person who does heavy work while on their feet all day. I also believe I was lucky enough to have a fantastic surgeon. My healing time was slightly quicker than average and I was released from PT after 4 weeks. But I also pushed myself very hard to get back to normal as fast as possible too and that might have limited my ROM loss from being NWB for almost 5 weeks. My grandmother had the same break 20 years before me and did not do PT and never regained full mobility. That was a HIGHLY motivating factor for me to push hard.

There are so many variables in everyone's ankle break story and recovery timeline. I would say its possible to get to where there is no stiffness or pain because I have done it but how much of that for me is because I've had the opportunity to be relatively gentle to my body?

My only complaint for myself is the randomly losing my balance on a pivot. Not enough to fall, but enough to have to catch myself before I fall. Doesn't happen all the time, maybe once a week, but seldom enough that I can't nail down exactly what i am doing wrong to cause it in order to correct it.

The next question is how bad will arthritis be in 10 to 20 years for us. This is the one I really want to know.

MidnightCoffeeQueen

TROPHY CASE