cast covers
Posted on October 9th, 2009 by fitnessgenie
For those of you not sure if the cast covers are all that good … the Duro-Med Adult Short Leg Cast Cover I found listed on this site is awesome as it works as advertised. I’ve used it three or four times since surgery and the rubber gasket does a great job of keeping everything below it completely dry. Bit of a challenge getting it over the heel area for those of us in boots/casts but do-able. Well worth the money as duct tape and garbage bags are a real hassle.
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Couldn’t find those locally, but my wife found some by Curad at Walgreen’s Drug Store. They work well….and not that expensive.
How are you doing so far? Same surgery same day….easy to compare notes.
Going to doctor tomorrow to get sutures removed and new cast.
I hate crutches, but it beats not being able to go anywhere.
Sleep is okay…wake up at night and just try to go back to sleep…I think it is the cast and having to sleep on my back.
Other than that, I am doing good.
I am able to do partial weight bearing now. I hate the crutches as well - what a colossal pain for navigation but it’s better than hopping on one leg to get around. Crutches take a bit of coordination and that’s really not one of my strong points. Almost did a face plant last weekend - ramps are far more dangerous than stairs.
Had a great chat with the surgeon when he took the stitches out. He did not have to detach the achilles as the bone spur was well above it. The bone spur was pressing into the bursa and the bursa was putting so much pressure on the achilles that it was essentially cutting into the tendon just above the attachment point. I’d already had a partial rupture but I was a full rupture just waiting to happen as the achilles is down to about half the depth of what it should be. Clearly got some serious PT work coming up.
He removed the bone spur and both bursa. He said he’s never seen a bursa that was so filled with fluid. Obviously irritated. He cleaned up the tendon as best he could and placed a few stitches in to pull in the frayed pieces he could. I am not allowed to start PT until 5-6 weeks post op. No stretches, no ROM, no nothing until that time. I’m just supposed to let it relax and heal. With all the swelling that was there before surgery, I’m supposed to make sure I don’t do anything to irritate it and cause any more inflammation. Pain or discomfort when in motion is to be avoided for now, period.
I’m used to working through an injury so this concept of not doing anything is frustrating. But this is his speciality to I’m following his orders.
I’ve returned to teaching a couple classes - pilates and a modified ball class. After all this time laying around, got a few sore muscles for my effort but it’s not as bad as I expected. But no squats, lunges or full pushups for a while or anything else that might make the calf engage. Sigh. I will follow the instructions I am given to the letter - no more and no less. I want to get back as close to 100% as possible. Still, I can’t wait to see my physical therapist!
I’m having surgery on dec. 3rd for a haglund’s deformity, hammertoe, and bunion. I’m petrified of the pain and was wondering if people out there have any advice particularly when will I be able to exercise again!! Any advice at all is greatly appreciated so I can calm my nerves and plan my 6 weeks.
I can only speak to the Haglund’s deformity. For you, I imagine it will have a lot to do with how much tendon involvement there is. I had quite a bit of tendon work although it was not detached. My tendon was debrided and turns out about half of it (depth-wise) was already gone. The bone has been pushing into the bursa and the bursa was cutting into the tendon. It was a just-above-the-attachment-point-full-rupture-just-waiting-to-happen. I honestly don’t know if the pain I’m feeling now is because of the bone and bursa removal or the injury to the tendon. The wound is completely healed.
First, you should talk to your surgeon as he can give you the best idea when you’ll be able to return. Mine was quite clear and so far, he’s been spot on.
I returned to teaching Pilates and ball classes at two weeks post surgery. It was about a week too early IMO. Please note these classes I did non-weight bearing (blasted crutches) and I had the boot on. It’s four weeks post surgery in a couple days and I can walk a little bit around the house with full weight bearing (FWB) but it still swells and is extremely uncomfortable if I spend much more than about 1/2 my waking hours without the foot up. If I leave the house, it’s the boot and crutches with PWB. I can’t start physical therapy until 5-6 weeks post surgery because the tendon was so inflammed/damaged - so this means, no stretches, no exercise period. Quite frankly, walking is still painful so I don’t like it much and won’t be pushing until I’ve had my first with with the PT and he tells me what I should and should not be doing.
Pain. I recommend the little white pills PLUS ibuprofen. The severe pain peaked at about 48 hours post surgery and I was taking two oxycodone as well as motrin every 3-4 hours. It really was no fun when the nerve block wore off at about 12 hours post surgery. But by the end of the first week, I was taking one little white pill at bedtime (it’s amazing how much more something hurts when it’s dark and you’re not doing anything). By the end of week two, it was motrin only. Now, I take motrin when it bothers me enough - usually about dinner time as it’s started to swell a bit.
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I am going for a checkup tomorrow. Have been swimming 24 laps 4 days a week and up to 11 miles on my bike 5 days/wk.I love my Total Gym for upper body. I also am on my feet 12 hrs a day 6 days a week at work. Only problem is I have a pooch where I was spitting stiches. The supposibly dissolvible ones are being rejected by my immuned system.
It’s been 4 months 3 weeks since my injury/ surgery. I had an accident and severed my tendon 95%. I think I’m progressing well. Tech says I’m 90% above the curve. Surgeon says 6 months from repair till I try to run. (Dec 1st)
I confess to jogging short distances just to see if I could.
I have not had a lot of luck with the Curad mentioned above. After I use it the first time the opening seems to stretch out and the next time I use it it gets water in my boot. Being in a boot may be the key here. It probably stretches the opening too far.
Darn boots
I had surgery for Haglunds 5 weeks ago. I was so amazed at how well the doctors managed the pain. I had a full block from below the knee down and no general anesthesia. This kept my foot totally numb for 48 hours, so no immediate post-op pain. I also had a pain pump filled with marcaine — the tubing was right by the incision, came up my leg and was attached to a small pump in a fanny pack. This marcaine drip lasted for 6 days…so really no pain for the first week. After that it’s been manageable with tylenol. I wore a half-splint for 4 days with crutches and then a walking boot for 4 weeks. I’ve had the boot off and using a small heeled open back shoe for 3 days. Still tender and a bit swollen but not bad. The doc dosen’t want me to start PT for another 4 weeks, but has me doing several achilles/calf/ankle stretches at home. All in all, this was much easier and less painful than I anticipated. Good Luck!
I like the efforts you have put in this, thanks for all the great articles .
Hi PuzzlequeenP,
Your story was very encouraging. I’m 6 days out from surgery, but my doctor wanted me to stay in a half-splint and NWB until the post-op 2 weeks out. I’m hoping to get to a walking boot at that time, but your story of 4 days makes me a bit jealous. I didn’t require any re-attachment, and I’m sure yours didn’t either. He did say he had to go in from both sides of my heel to clean out the “crab meat” and bursa so that I wouldn’t have any re-occurance of pain.
I agree with your assessment about pain management. I was also amazed. I had the nerve block, but also had to have a light general anesthesia because I had a second procedure to take some spurs off my big toe joint and straighten that toe (cut bone and add screw) at the same time. I also had a balloon pump catheter when I went home, but mine only lasted for two days, but no real pain after it was empty either.
Congrats on such a great recovery.
Has anyone had his/her foot casted as a means to calm the tendon inflammation and try preventing surgery for Haglunds? I went through 6 weeks of PT with some positive results, but after stopping therapy, the pain was back. My doctor says I have a tight tendon, so we then proceeded with casting my foot for a month. I am really disappointed at the SLOW progress now that the cast is off. The cast will have been off 3 weeks in a couple of days and I’ve gone to physical therapy twice a week. I’ve had pain from the beginning the cast has come off and don’t feel that it has gotten any better. At PT, they do electrode therapy, ultrasound, have me do 5 sets of two different wall stretches, and have me use the Pro-stretch. I’m on an anti-inflammatory and have to take Tylenol 24/7 to make the pain manageable. If I’m late taking the Tylenol, I can tell. Am I being impatient? I just thought it would be better than this. If anyone has some input, I’d greatly appreciate it!!!