So as you may or may not know due to an operation mid-June I
had to wear a full length leg cast for 4 weeks and then a hinged full length leg
cast for a further two. When I first got the cast on I searched online for what
to expect or other peoples experiences and found very little information so
thought that I would write this encase someone else has the same idea and
hopefully this will help them.
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| In hospital with fresh new cast on |
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When I had my cast on as I’ve said it was mid-June and if
you live in the UK you will know that the end of June till end of august really
was amazing weather which was good for everyone else but not for me as I couldn’t
get out to enjoy it and it meant that my leg which was warm anyway under the
cast was a million times warmer to the point where it was physically
uncomfortable for me.
Im sure the heat didn’t help with the loss of weight on my
leg either but I had expected a certain amount of muscle loss and trust me it
will happen and as I couldn’t bend my knee I'm pretty sure there was nothing I
could do to stop it.
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| an attempt to minimise the sun on my leg |
A big reason I was stuck in bed was that I was shocked by
how much energy it took my body to carry the cast (these things weigh a ton!)
and to use the crutches which I had to use for around 5 weeks somewhere in the
middle of having the hinged cast on I gave up on the crutches and decided to
just go cold turkey and honestly it worked fine for me but that’s possible
because I'm inpatient and it made me feel like I was improving.
On to the hinged cast which was a nightmare and in the end
was only on for two weeks because it just wasn’t right for me.
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| Hinged cast |
My hinged case was set so I could bend the knee to 30◦ which
was all very well but it just kept falling down my leg so the cast was resting
on my foot (ouch) and the top part of the cast feel onto my knee which when you’ve
had an operation on your knee is a horrible thing to happen as not only could I
not bend it but it was putting pressure on my knee cap (even more ouch).
Overall full length casts are annoying and can be painful
but if you rest like your supposed to and make sure you communicate with your
doctor then hopefully any discomfort can be minimised and the recovery can be
as successful as possible.
