Mar 30 2014
Vacocast Tips
I’m at 5.5 weeks and am using one crutch only for longer excursions where I might want to rest my foot if it starts aching. Still have an achy heel when I walk for more than a couple minutes and a burning/stretching feeling in my tendon with steps that stretch it more, but otherwise all good so far!
Here are some tips from using my Vacocast for the last three weeks that I’d thought I’d share:
- If you swim in it and didn’t buy an extra liner, I just remove the liner and swim in the air bladder. Makes drying afterwards a breeze!
- When I got to PWB, I still locked the boot at night to force my ankle at whatever angle I’m supposed to be at. This stretched my achilles overnight (I could feel it burn!). The next morning I set it to hinge to aid with walking.
- I took off the soles at night because they were dirty, but also it makes the boot a lot lighter when I have it elevated on pillow.
- I didn’t pay a lot of attention to setting up the liner the first week and had some strange lumps of the beads inside, a huge lump at the ball of my foot for instance. This actually made walking/weight bearing more difficult. Make sure you follow their instructions and smooth out the beads to make it even, particularly the sole of the liner. Then suck the air out and strap it up. The downward pointing angle also tended to make the beads gather by my toes.
- Being able to wash the liner is a big advantage over my old boot which got smelly within days. I just did a quick hand wash in the sink and then a tumble dry on low temp for thirty minutes while I iced my foot nearby and it smelled great!