Mar 16 2010
Random Thoughts
I’m so very happy the cast is off, I truly enjoy freeing my leg for a few hours at a time.
I hate the air cast, I find that I can never quite get it adjusted correctly.
I enjoy real showers again, although the shower frightens me just a little. Constantly paranoid I’m going to slip and re-injure myself.
Hating the blister on the outside of my ankle, sometimes it feels as if it hurts to the bone.
I enjoy the feel of the carpet on the bottom of my foot as gently rest it on the floor. I have to occasionally remind myself not put my weight down on the bad foot. I will walk without the air cast soon enough.
I realize the journey to recovery is unique to each person and if you aren’t part of the “club” you really don’t understand what this is like.
I’m grateful for this blog site and the ability to share in other people’s journeys as I make my way to recovery.
“Even paranoids have real enemies,” and you’re right to be super-cautious in the shower — and getting in and out of it, too.
There should be a safe-and-easy way to take the pressure off your blistered ankle — like adding a padded “donut” to your ankle or the boot, so the blister doesn’t touch the boot there any more.
If the foot part of the AirCast boot is too big and loose, so your foot is lifting up or sliding around, you could add a slab of foam or a footbed or two under your foot, so the straps hold you in place better. It’s a good time to be inventive and “handy” in finding ways to stay comfy and safe and healing and sane!
Most of us experience both swelling and shrinking of our legs during this process, so it’s very common to have discomfort and to have to tweak the boot (or dream about tweaking the cast). Three things will help: (1) You’re probably already getting better at elevating and otherwise controlling swelling, (2) You’re probably getting better at adjusting and customizing your AirCast (including the straps and the adjustable air-bladders), and (3) Your foot should be getting tougher and less irritable, gradually but pretty quickly.
I don’t know (or remember) how strictly your Doc insisted that you not put any weight on your booted foot, but at your stage of the game (even WITHOUT the surgery, and in my 60’s!) I had moved from NWB to PWB to “WBAT” (=WB As Tolerated). That’s what the 170-odd patients in the U. W. Ontario study all did, surgical and non-surgical patients alike, all in the AirCast boot — from NWB to PWB at 2 weeks, then to WBAT at 4 wks. And they had excellent outcomes with a very low re-rupture rate — 3 total, over the first 2 years! I’m not the boss of your rehab, but you are. . .
Once you become FWB in the boot, pay some attention to elevating or building up your other shoe(s) so you’re walking straight. A few weeks of clomping around with your whole body mis-aligned can cause a bunch of other body parts to suffer.
The Cast didn’t bother me all that much..but I hated the no real shower with it. The boot was better because I could move about a lot more AND i could ake it off and sit in the HOT shower all I wanted.
Congrats on taking the next “step” from cast to boot…you’re on your way to full recovery.
Take care and good luck.
Its bad to read that you have got injured. But its part of the game.
Games are meant to be played and you r a real player man