Jan 09 2009
The Cast Is On
Well as my title proclaims I received my first cast this past Tuesday. Actually this is the first cast that I have ever had in my life. I’ve never broken a bone or did anything that would require one until now. My cast has my foot pointed at a pretty large angle as you can see from the picture.
I’ll have this cast on until January 29th which will be 6 weeks from my surgery. I am pretty happy that I am over halfway through my non-weight bearing stage.
I was supposed to receive another cast after this one that was going to set the angle of my foot closer to 0 degrees in preparation for the CAM boot, but thankfully I won’t need it. I went to the website for the VACOped boot and downloaded their pdf and brought it into my docs office. He had never seen it before, but liked it and thought it would be a good option for me. I called VACOped’s Massachusetts office and they gave me a dealer here in LA. To make this fairly boring story a bit shorter, I’ll get fitted for the VACOped at my next doctors visit at the end of the month.
I guess this is another example of the benefits of being a pro-active patient.
2 responses so far
boston,
I am being fitted with the Vaco this coming Friday. How did it work for you? I will be at week four and have been in a hard cast since the surgery, changing the angle once. Any thoughts, tips on this new brace would be helpful.
hey Mark - I’ve had the Vaco on for 2 and 1/2 weeks or so - my tip to you is that you make sure they know how to set it correctly for the angle you need. My doctor had someone in the office put it on and they were supposed to put it at 15 degrees - there are 3 things that need to happen to make the angle right: 1) rubber band clip goes on the top piece with right (e.g. 0, 15, or 30) degree label, 2) the correct plastic wedge is clipped onto the bottom of the boot and 3) the back of the boot is turned so the arrow lines up to the correct degree mark.
In my case, they only managed 1 & 2 and I called the next day to see if the back was supposed to be set at 0 (where it was) or at 15 (where it should have been). They said it was correct at 0 but low and behold at my appt this past week, the doctor confirmed they were wrong. So, my lesson learned is to make sure they aren’t in a rush, know what they are doing and have them take the time to show you how it goes on/off and how tight it should be. Good luck at your appt!