Getting re-cast

Tuesday - time to hand myself over to the care of the local hospital, so I thought I'd better wash my hair. I can report that putting the power-shower over the sink is not a fantastic idea, as the water re-bounds off your head and the enamel and you basically wash half the bathroom. At least a towel over my leg kept it dry.

Having dressed with a little assistance from J, I managed to get downstairs in slightly better order than before. Getting out of the house needed some thought though. We worked out that the best way to cope with all the high door sills was for me to sit on a stool, put my legs onto the floor of the porch, stand, hop forward, sit on the stool that had now been moved into the porch, and then put my feet outside and stand again. We used the wheelchair from medical loans, but the small wheels were difficult to get past the plants at the side of the path, so some gardening is clearly needed (probably not by me this time).

I managed to get into the car, risking leaving my foot on the floor. By the time we got to the hospital, it looked like an aubergine, but improved once I put my foot on a stool. It was still quite swollen by the time I got seen though. With the backslab removed, my foot and ankle looked puffy and bruised, with a neat set of stitches by each side of my ankle. Despite all the complex negotiations between hospitals, my X-rays still hadn't arrived, so they did another set, confirmed everything looked fine, and sent me to get the leg re-plastered.

I hadn't realised how the previous cast allowed my foot to sit in a slightly pointed position, until the crew in the plastering room tried to put it back at 90 degrees to my leg. It took them about 10 minutes of bouncing my toes and working the joint until it was even close to that, and every second felt like the worst agony I'd had until that point. 

"Maybe take some painkillers before your next session", they said as they discharged me.

Back home, towards the end of the day, it was obvious to me that my cast had tightened too much at the outside of my foot, and was pressing on the 2 outside toes. I tried various tools to ease the pressure, but ended up going to bed with a full dose of painkillers for the first time since the accident, hoping my foot would ease by the morning.

Lessons learned

1. Your damaged foot may change colour at the drop of a hat. Best to keep it elevated as much as possible to begin with to control the swelling.

2. Back-slabs are much heavier than the second plaster they use, so you may feel more mobile on your crutches once you get re-cast, without that huge pendulum hanging off your leg.

3. If you are getting your leg-cast replaced, take some painkillers first, especially if the foot isn't completely at right angles to the leg at the start - they will work hard to make sure it is when they've finished.