Don't Try This At Home

Okay, so I'm so excited about getting my cast off, I decided to take it off myself. Actually, I've been experimenting this week walking with both legs, putting a little weight on my foot. The weight ended up mostly on my ankle and my metatarsals seemed well supported. So today I had to do a lot of running around with my son. While he was at guitar lessons, I ran an errand and left my crutches in the truck. It seemed easier to walk in the store than to drag my crutches out of the back of the truck. But I stepped in a puddle and the cast got all wet under my foot. Plus the padding around the hole where I do the bone stimulation has gotten moist and nasty from the ultrasound gel.

I haven't had much training in cast removal but I paid attention with my first cast. I would have never tried it had this been my first cast. I did a little internet research to see if anyone had removed a cast at home. I came across a Dremel tool as an idea. The Dremel was to be my last resort because I knew it would also be the most dangerous. I really didn't want a trip to ER to get stitches and to explain that I had cut my leg trying to remove my cast. I tried a box cutter and wire cutters. There was no way that would work for the entire cast. About this time hubby and daughter returned home from a soccer trip. They caught me in the act and inquired why I was doing such a crazy thing. They must have told my son because he came downstairs and took all my tools away, out of my reach. But he failed to take the Dremel tool. He said he hid the other tools but I found them because he didn't really hide them very well.

I didn't really know how to assemble the Dremel tool, but hubby was now to the rescue, and he put the cutter tool on for me. The manual even said it was for cutting through fiberglass, along with wood, plastic, and other harder objects. Surely, it would cut quite nicely through my skin if it came in contact. Yikes.

The fiberglass was in three to four layers. I could make it through one layer with no risk of cutting my leg. That put me at a point of no return. Getting through the other layers took time, patience, and being very careful to not let the Dremel blade go too deep. There's a lot of padding under the fiberglass but still. The padding sometimes tried to pull the blade in. The hardest part was around my foot. There was four fiberglass layers because of the bone stimulation port needing more support.

Once the top part came off, the rest was easy.

The real curiosity was the foot. The scar from the stitches looks a lot better after five weeks. The white on the toes is fiberglass dust.

There is still one stitch near my third toe. I joked with the kids that I'd remove it, too. Guess I'll leave that for the medical assistant. I'm not really sure why there is even a stitch there. That's the open fracture area that was at risk of infection because it was open for about 2 weeks.

Cast removed, first thing I did was go upstairs to wash my foot. I have been dying to submerse the foot in water since the New Year. I used my crutches because I didn't dare put any weight on it now. The bottom of the foot had this moist peeling skin. I'm glad I didn't leave the cast on until Monday as that would have gotten worse. I shaved my leg.

I can now start trying to get range of motion back into the foot. My ankle is pathetic. It has a little movement. Toes are pathetic, too. I guess all this will just take time.

I hadn't done my bone stimulation today so I checked out the strap that came with the kit.

It will be really awesome to sleep tonight without the cast. Maybe I'll get a more solid sleep. My appointment is at 9:30 on Monday. I will probably get scolded but I feel like I've saved all of them some time. We can go straight to the x-ray. This Tuesday it will be 11 weeks since December 30. I'm now into my next phase of recovery. Yippee!