(no subject)
Well, I might as well just continue spamming Live Journal today.
I had my cast removed on Monday morning. At my last doctor's visit, it took nearly 4 hours to get in to see him. We planned ahead this time. I got up at the crack of dawn so I'd be one of the first people checked in to wait. My appointment was at 8am and my mom and I arrived at the hospital around 7:30am. Around 8:15, I was called in. I figured they were just going to cut off my cast and then send me back out to wait. I'll talk more about the cast removal shortly. I was very surprised that the doctor saw me after the cast was removed. He looked at my leg, said all I needed was a brace and gave me some exercises to do. Apparently I'm going to be back to normal in 6 weeks. I'm crossing my fingers on that one.
Okay, so the cast removal... It was pretty gross. I should note that the last time I shaved my legs was sometime around the beginning of December, so there was 2 months of hair growth under there. I also was unaware as to how much skin the average human being sheds in 3 weeks. I was a scaly mess when that cast came off. Add some crusty iodine from the draining procedure 3 weeks ago and the bits of glue that held the cast to my leg, and I was the picture of beauty. I had quite the soak in the bathtub when I finally arrived home.
In a previous entry, I noted that my sister persuaded me to have my eyebrows waxed. I hadn't considered waxing any other part of my body at the time and I'm certainly not going to consider it now. I had two strips of glue, one on either side of my leg holding the cylinder cast to my leg (so it wouldn't slide). The glue ran from just above my knee to right above my ankle. This was super-strength glue and I was a little concerned how they might remove it when the time came.
When I had the cast put on, there was a guy in the bed next to mine who was having the same cast removed. Presumably, since he was male, he had a lot more leg hair than me. I figured, since I didn't hear him scream, they must have used some kind of solvent to dissolve the glue. This was not the case. The nurse who removed my cast just ripped those strips right off my leg. He didn't even give me a count of 3.
We were out of there by 9am, but my mother had an appointment in town at 2:15, so we had a lot of time to kill. We went to the mall. I didn't think I'd be able to make it, but it was the first time I had been shopping since I injured myself, so I had a bit of time to make up. We went out to lunch at Swiss Chalet (which apparently is Senior Citizen central!) and I was amused to see the Seniors dining there moving faster than I was... and they were using their walkers. I think they were probably glad that they were not me since I was all hunched over and holding onto tables and walls as I attempted to make my way to the bathroom.
The next day, I packed up everything and drove myself back to camp. It took me about half an hour to get used to driving again, but I loved every minute of it. I'm so glad to have my independence back.
My leg is still pretty sore. I've lost quite a bit of muscle mass and my quads and calf are pretty mushy. Walking around without crutches is still a bit of a challenge, but I've got to learn how to do it without being dependent on the crutches. Hopefully in 6 weeks, the muscle atrophy will be gone and I'll be completely pain free and back to normal. It will be nice to not have to worry about my knee joint falling apart every time a take a first step after sitting down for a while.
Ahh, freedom.... It's a wonderful thing!
I had my cast removed on Monday morning. At my last doctor's visit, it took nearly 4 hours to get in to see him. We planned ahead this time. I got up at the crack of dawn so I'd be one of the first people checked in to wait. My appointment was at 8am and my mom and I arrived at the hospital around 7:30am. Around 8:15, I was called in. I figured they were just going to cut off my cast and then send me back out to wait. I'll talk more about the cast removal shortly. I was very surprised that the doctor saw me after the cast was removed. He looked at my leg, said all I needed was a brace and gave me some exercises to do. Apparently I'm going to be back to normal in 6 weeks. I'm crossing my fingers on that one.
Okay, so the cast removal... It was pretty gross. I should note that the last time I shaved my legs was sometime around the beginning of December, so there was 2 months of hair growth under there. I also was unaware as to how much skin the average human being sheds in 3 weeks. I was a scaly mess when that cast came off. Add some crusty iodine from the draining procedure 3 weeks ago and the bits of glue that held the cast to my leg, and I was the picture of beauty. I had quite the soak in the bathtub when I finally arrived home.
In a previous entry, I noted that my sister persuaded me to have my eyebrows waxed. I hadn't considered waxing any other part of my body at the time and I'm certainly not going to consider it now. I had two strips of glue, one on either side of my leg holding the cylinder cast to my leg (so it wouldn't slide). The glue ran from just above my knee to right above my ankle. This was super-strength glue and I was a little concerned how they might remove it when the time came.
When I had the cast put on, there was a guy in the bed next to mine who was having the same cast removed. Presumably, since he was male, he had a lot more leg hair than me. I figured, since I didn't hear him scream, they must have used some kind of solvent to dissolve the glue. This was not the case. The nurse who removed my cast just ripped those strips right off my leg. He didn't even give me a count of 3.
We were out of there by 9am, but my mother had an appointment in town at 2:15, so we had a lot of time to kill. We went to the mall. I didn't think I'd be able to make it, but it was the first time I had been shopping since I injured myself, so I had a bit of time to make up. We went out to lunch at Swiss Chalet (which apparently is Senior Citizen central!) and I was amused to see the Seniors dining there moving faster than I was... and they were using their walkers. I think they were probably glad that they were not me since I was all hunched over and holding onto tables and walls as I attempted to make my way to the bathroom.
The next day, I packed up everything and drove myself back to camp. It took me about half an hour to get used to driving again, but I loved every minute of it. I'm so glad to have my independence back.
My leg is still pretty sore. I've lost quite a bit of muscle mass and my quads and calf are pretty mushy. Walking around without crutches is still a bit of a challenge, but I've got to learn how to do it without being dependent on the crutches. Hopefully in 6 weeks, the muscle atrophy will be gone and I'll be completely pain free and back to normal. It will be nice to not have to worry about my knee joint falling apart every time a take a first step after sitting down for a while.
Ahh, freedom.... It's a wonderful thing!