Going to the bathroom with a broken ankle

This post has Amazon affiliate links. If you buy through them I earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

Toilet time was tricky for a while.

As a man, I normally stand for number 1. With this injury, I’ll be sitting for a while now. With only one leg to put weight on, I cannot risk getting unbalanced.

But sitting is tough, too. A single leg is not strong enough to gently lower me down to the height of the toilet.

Also, I realized I relied on two legs to adjust my seating so I could aim things down (if you get my drift). So even with me sitting, there was some adjustment.

My wife and I knew we had to get this sorted right away.

Safety rails

First, we knew we’d need some rails so I could use my upper body to lower myself onto the seat. It would’ve been nice to have the kind that mount on the wall, but I wasn’t in any state to install something like that. We also knew this would be temporary, so a freestanding folding set was a no-brainer. When I’m done with it, it folds up and goes in the attic.

The first thing we orderedToilet safety railsFreestanding, folding, no drilling into the wall. Lightweight enough that my wife could move it on her own, and it let me lower myself down with my arms instead of my one good leg.Find it on Amazon

It came within a day or so. It’s lightweight, so my wife could set it up and move it herself. And it worked: I could get into the toilet area on crutches, position myself to turn around, then use my arms to lower myself down.

Some insurance plans cover durable medical equipment like this, and this may be something covered by a Flexible Spending Account.

Other considerations

The other thing is that once I make it to the toilet and get positioned, I’m exhausted and my body is trying to let things go right away. Positioning myself to aim down in a timely manner is a challenge - it’s not easy to do that while keeping zero pressure on one leg.

I came up with some creative ways to address this but I’m a little too embarrassed to go into it. I was looking into this again recently and came across a removable splash guard. In hindsight, I wish I had gotten this.

Toilet splash guard urine diverter that clips onto the seat

What I'd try next timeToilet splash guardHooks onto the seat, diverts everything down, easily removable. I think it would've helped me be more independent.Find it on Amazon

It hooks on the toilet seat and comes off just as easily, and I could’ve just let nature take over. Again, I didn’t do this, but if I ever have to go through something like this again, I’d likely end up trying this out.

Bathroom doors are typically narrow, so wheelchairs won’t fit. The practice of getting to the toilet helped me with mastering the crutches. Over the next few weeks, crutches are what I used more than a wheelchair or a knee scooter.