Cast in the Past

The cast is gone! I've got my walking boot finally. The only negative aspect has been that I'm still struggling to walk again. The doctor finally let me put some weight on it beginning last Friday. He's going to examine it again this coming Friday to see how I'm doing and decide if I can get rid of the walking boot.

This "learning to walk again" thing is a lot harder and hurts more than I thought it would. I can only practice hobbling in short jerky steps for a short while before I have to give it a rest. Yesterday I put my sneakers on and actually drove the van! It hurts to push the break pedal, but I made it. I'm getting some flexibility back in my ankle, but still having trouble getting it to bend towards me. That makes it very hard to walk, sit, or stand. I didn't realize how much an ankle bends for every little thing.

I've already hurt myself a few times. Today I slipped while trying to pull a frozen pizza out of the oven. I was wearing just a sock on my hurt foot and fell over backwards. It was pretty scary. More gross than scary is the way that my leg looks. The skin is peeling off all over and super skinny from muscle loss. I'm washing it and putting lotion on every day. I finally gritted my teeth and shaved off the hair. My leg was covered in painful in grown hairs that would jam in the razor and rip when I tried to shave. I was a bloody mess, and it took three days but it helped and my leg looks much better now. Ah, the things you don't anticipate when you think about what it means to have a broken leg. Just for fun, here's a photo of my leg x-rays. You can see the metal plate and screws.