My foot was decanted from the cast yesterday. The breaks appear to be healing. The doctor said that with a little note of surprise. I figure my foot is immobile in a cast and I keep off it, I didn’t break it that bad, of course it heals. Actually my thought really was, I am Gina, of course it heals.

I can say this now. I never ITCHED!!! Every now and then there was a little tickle, like an ant walking on my leg. I would smoosh the cast onto that area (just in case it was an ant) and that was it. No actual stick something down my cast and scratch.

My left leg is not that thin. It is slightly less massive than the right leg and some of that is the buildup of muscle from using the right leg for so much is am sure. The muscle of the left leg was rather flabby but it wasn’t emaciated like I had been led to expect.

The foot looked a little leathery with a few spots of flakey dry skin. The leg part looked completely normal. It was hard to believe it had been hiding in a cast for four weeks. My skin is always that pale and the only difference between my leg and when I haven’t shaved it for a long time is that the hair was all kinked along the skin.

I asked how normal it was to have so little affect from the cast and the assistant assured me that it was completely normal. I am sure she was trying to make me feel better but since I am not an average person, I piped up and said I wanted to be special. I knew it was within "normal" range but I wanted to be one of the few instead of close to the mean.

I am terribly proud of how different and easy my broken foot was compared to what I have heard from others. The dr and staff got a kick out of the drawing of my injury on the side of my cast.

Sadly, the removal process needs them to cut the sides to get it off. I thought they would cut it front to back. For my plan to mount it on my wall, I need to do more work. I can glue it back together and then find a way to cut it front to back. I think a band saw would do. They told me to pull the stuffing from inside the cast if I keep it because that is the smelly part. Mine doesn’t smell. I am told that casts can get real stinky when they come off. Ooo look, I am special again. (not that the staff made any note about it).

I think the reason my cast process was a little different is because when the swelling went down, I had room inside the cast to expose the skin everywhere by moving it around. The only thing I worked on was to be sure the sock thing inside didn’t stick to my skin.

Swelling is still a problem and I need to get it down. It will cause scar tissue where it doesn’t belong and will hamper my foot’s mobility. But the doctor showed me something cool. He pressed down on the top of the swollen foot rather hard. When he took his finger away, it left a depression. It is like memory foam. It takes one to two minutes for it to fill up again. It is fun to play with and looks so freaky. Sadly, the swollen skin is what hurts. It stings, otherwise I might be tempted to let it swell longer and that wouldn’t be good for me.

I now have a brace for my ankle and a "wooden" shoe for the foot. I keep on the crutches until I feel I don’t need them anymore. The doc suggests that in two to three weeks my foot might be ready for a regular but stiff shoe. The swelling will go on for six months.

I am so very tired. It was also explained to me that the post trauma time is when the body goes through the symptoms of depression because of the healing it needs to do and it no longer has the adrenalin boost that the trauma triggered to take care of things. This would explain why I keep getting more and more tired even when I am resting.  I am still on the every other day working from home schedule for the next month.

I can hobble around without the crutches for short distances but still need the crutches for moving around most of the time. I am going to have to keep using the carts to go shopping.