Cast off Day!

Hopefully today is the day my bright pink cast and i part company, well it is that day but I hope I don't receive a replacement!

The last three days or so have been a chore. I think that it has been due to leg shrinkage. The cast has felt like a concrete boot and has been verging on painful at night. I think it is due to the ability to move around letting all the weight fall on a single part of my leg rather than distributing the weight throughout the leg. I also find my foot slipping a little inside the cast so when I'm sleeping it can slip back against the front of my ankle area and press hard. It hurts! My toes clenching the cast to stop it moving when mobilising also seemed to trigger cramps in my calf that could not be stopped.

Six weeks seems to have both flown by and dragged depending on what I'm using as my point of reference. I'm looking forward to being able to drive again and being able to put my foot on the ground. My poor left leg has got fed up with taking all the stress, especially having to virtually hop up the stairs every time I use them. It might start demanding a turn in the iwalk or non weight bearing with the crutches.

Having spent six weeks trying out the suggestions people made here is my list of things I actually found useful:

* Extra pillows - great for propping up the foot and for sitting on to protect the poor sit upon bones when becalmed on a bed or sofa.

* Large plastic rubbish bag and a small towel - for showering. I used the same bag for six weeks! I'd wrap the towel around above the cast and then cover the cast with the bag. Initially I would tie it and then tape over but after a while I found simply tying it tightly was sufficient.

* Shower and toilet chairs - you just can't balance in a shower on one leg! The toilet chair was higher than the toilet and had hand rails so it was easy to get up and down.

* Hand sanitiser by the toilet - balancing at the basin is no fun, using this meant I could have clean hands without having to manoeuvre to the basin or balance precariously.

* iWalk - this was my sanity saver. I could get up and down stairs and get out of the house because of it.

* Yoga pants - loose, pajama like and comfy. They were easy to pull over the cast.

* Rearranging my drawers - I made sure that my clothes I could wear were in the top three drawers of my tall boy so there was no bending needed. I could grab underwear, t-shirt and pants while standing on crutches and throw them on my bed.

* Drug app on phone - useful in the early days when you have lots of drugs to keep track of and a fuzzy head.

* Netflix - I had lots of plans to knit and write but in the first few weeks my brain was still mush and watching TV shows was all it was really capable of.

* Water bottle - I got really thirsty and having a water bottle on hand was great. Also you can carry it while using crutches. Try that with a glass of water.

Basically anything that let me do day to day tasks on my own without being dependent on having someone on hand.