Those of you who have been reading my site for a while may remember that I broke my leg about two months ago. Since then I’ve been on crutches and even had surgery on my leg. I’m the kind of person who likes new experiences, good and bad, and I considered a broken leg to be a new experience. For some strange and sick reason, the first few days after I broke my leg I thought that it was going to be cool. Well let me be the first to tell you that it gets old real fast. Probably the crappiest thing about crutches is that you can no longer carry anything. It really sucks not being able to even get myself a cup of coffee in the morning.
Getting lunch while at work is quite a chore. I had broken my right leg so I didn’t drive for the first month after it happened. Thankfully there was a sandwich shop on the bottom floor of my office building so I could carry my lunch back to my office in a bag. The sandwiches weren’t that filling so once I got a salad too. I put both the sandwich and the salad in the bag and headed back to my desk. After sitting down and looking in my bag I discovered that my crutching around had caused the salad dressing to leak out of the salad container and spill all over the bag, drenching my sandwich. This sort of crap continued until I discovered I could drive with my left leg and subsequently go to a drive-thru.
Most of the time I kept a large blue sock on my right foot to cover up my toes. I figured no one really wanted to see my fat and swollen (at the time) toes, nor would it be appropriate to have my toes showing while dressed up business casual. I only took the sock off to wash it because without it my toes would get very cold. I also was unable to wash my toes or my foot because of the risk of getting the cast wet. This resulted in my right foot being very neglected.
Now my left foot is not a thing of beauty, but it is here for purposes of comparison. That red mark under my left big toe is from wearing a sandal that was uncomfortable. But if you look at my right foot, it looks like it’s suffering from some flesh-eating disease. The toes are darker, it’s very dry, and all the skin is peeling off like after a bad sunburn. This might be a side effect of not washing my foot for two months. It also could be from wearing that blue sock nearly 24/7.
Here’s a picture of the bottom of my foot. Note that the skin is all cracked and dry. There also seems to be a long crack where my foot rests on the end of the cast. One nasty result of the skin peeling off is the prevalence of toe jam. This stuff collects between my toes and has the consistency of earwax, the color of Vaseline, and the odor of poo. Very disgusting.
Let’s just say that I can’t wait until I can wash this horrible reeking thing. I’ve been reduced to taking baths by lying on my back in the tub with my right leg hanging out the side to keep it dry. It’s very hard to get clean this way. I one tried to take a shower by sealing off the opening at the top of my cast with plastic wrap and then wrapping a plastic bag around my leg, but this ordeal took half an hour and I hadn’t taken my shower yet! Not worth the trouble. I suppose I should have gone out and bought one of those cast shower bags but I’m too cheap and lazy for that.
If my leg looks as horrible as my foot when they finally cut my cast off this week, I’ll be sure to post some pictures of that. Stay tuned!
eeewwwwwww…. can’t wait to see the leg shot.
What if the part of your foot sticking out of your cast just fell off? Would that be a good or bad experience? It doesn’t really matter. I hope you would take pictures and post them because I’d want to see.
What an interesting juxtoposition of blogs: Fugly feet and yesterdays tasty discussion surrounding MREs. I think I’ve lost my appetite, even for the Chicken Kieve!
sick. i can just imagine how nasty that smells.
poor liz…
Oh man…i can fully understand how you felt. I just had my cast taken off 3 weeks ago. I broke 2 bones in my left leg. I had the same type of cast too..even same colour..haha..
You could try gently scrubing off the dead skins with a scrub..I did that and it worked. I remembered that my feet really smelled like a stinging sock.. Continue to look forward to your next appointment with the doc..
fellow victim of broken bone….
nearly seven years ago I broke my right hand–It looks as if I’m missing knuckles. It was right as I was about to shoot a 16mm movie so we had to write my character in as having broken his hand. Anyway, the cast was so inconveniencing. I was in college and on break and had to work as a groundskeeper. Holding a weedwhacker is no fun when you’re in a cast. You can’t wash what’s underneath. It’s disgusting and there’s not much you can do. It took only two-and-a-half weeks, but I was so happy when it came off. I sorta know the feeling.
I broke my right leg about a year ago. After you get the cast off, it takes about a month before the skin stops sloughing off and your leg/foot is back to normal. A tip for washing; put a trashbag over the cast. Buy a shower seat, bedandbath makes one that is height adjustable, buy a hand held shower head that has a hose. You sit with your leg hanging out the shower door, using the handheld shower head you can get almost everywhere to clean. Much better than trying to lift yourself in and out of the tub.
I currently have the same blue cast. Baths were a pain for me too, but I’ve found I can shower by standing sideways on one leg with the broken leg sticking out of the shower behind me. It’s not perfect, it’s hard to keep from falling and one side of my body tends to get a bit cleaner than the other side. Also, I feel like a flamingo
Dude.
I broke my foot February 14th, was put in a non-weight bearing cast for 6 weeks. Immediately discovered that the crutches aggravated my RSI in a way unimaginable. I discovered that they were unnecessary.
Time to become a 21st century cripple, get one of these: http://www.roll-a-bout.com/
I can’t get them in New Zealand, I had to have an uncle kludge something in his shed. But it was totally freeing. Get OFF the crutches, embrace the WHEEL. It won’t make your foot any less fugly, but it will get you around a hell of a lot faster.
I fell off the laddar and broke my left heel bone in february this year, was put in a fiber glass cast for 1.5 months with my knee joint covered in the cast, and after 1.5 month I was told by doc. to shorten the cast and freed my knee joint for another month. when I took off the cast my heel is swollen, I dont’ know wether the swelling will go off soon.
heh I am going thru the same thing, I have a broken left ankle and I have ths same flaky skin and fugly toes. Two more weeks for me… then I hope a walking cast.
ekk! I have a cast on my left foot right now and I have been for 3 months (all summer).
I was able to walk on my cast…even though the doctor tolled me not to…and now it looks really crappy.
being in a cast sucks.
and when i’ve had the cast taken off and replaced, my foot looks all retarded. I’m not sure if this is because its still healing, or i did something wrong.
Ps. My cast is blue too =)
I broke my ankle the week before Christmas. My Doctor gave me a waterproof cast. I was glad I asked about it because it was not suggested. My insurance would not pay for it so I paid extra.
Fell on Saturday April 12th and was disgnosed with a Jones Fracture of the 5th metatarsal. Cast looks similar although I got the purple one LOL. Anyhow thanks for all the suggestions. I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to wash my hair. Spongebaths aren’t a problem as I’m really afraid to get into and out of the tub. My long hair is another problem. May look into those roll abouts cause I suck on crutches and walkers and dread being stuck in the house for the next 6-8 weeks. Although at least I’m not working.
Nice toes
i have a broken ankle and a broken knee
i kno its a pain but i got really good on crutches n i can play halo 3 n not go to school :D:D
but i hope i can walk on it right after my cast comes off i have a basketball game and i really want to play what do think i should do? well its been 3 weekz since i broke my ankle n knee 2 weeks in a fiberglass cast it hurt so muh when i broke it and the first week wuz a pain but im ok now i could kinda walk on it but ill try more next week but should i play my game?
oh yaa n i lost 20 pounds
is my cast supposed to hurt when it gets put on??
I broke my leg and basically have the same story. The cast has been off for about a week, and my foot is dreadfully swollen. I’ve been given clearance to wear a shoe, but I can’t get the damn thing on! Did you go through something similar? What did you do for the swelling?