The cast is off!

Today I had my 1 month hospital appointment post breaking my right foot. Once the cast is off we can see my right leg is a little skinnier.

I expected to be given another cast for another 2 weeks but I'm surprised and delighted to have no cast :-)

I was fortunate to see a doc at House Surgeon stage of his training who was previously a Physiotherapist. He knew a lot about orthopedics and soft tissue damage and that was definitely to my benefit.

Given a moon boot doesn't work for me, that meant left the option of either another cast or no cast at all. My x-ray shows I'm healing as expected and when he pressed around my foot there wasn't much pain for me. He suggested an elastic stocking bandage for support and my other running shoe. It felt pretty good when I gave it a little test drive around the Bone Shop corridor.

If it doesn't feel good I'll go back for a cast. It's much easier at work without the cast and the problem of swelling, pins and needles and numbness is resolving. The challenge will be not to do too much. A pain level of 4 out of 10 is my marker. If I still have that the next morning then I'll know I've definitely done too much.

I still have crutches and only put some weight through my right foot. Over the next couple of weeks I'll progressively apply more weight through my right foot, gradually move to walking without crutches around home and eventually ditch the crutches altogether :-)

I have to keep using a supportive shoe. I'm allowed to walk (initially with crutches) and in a couple of weeks start to add in cycling. Walking (and swimming if liked/wanted to - I don't) is it for the next 6 weeks. No tramping, climbing, running etc in the meantime but I'll be able to walk.

In 6 weeks time I have another appointment to x-ray and check it has completely healed.

Happy days. I think I'll have a pint and a meal with the hunter/fisher to celebrate my progress :-)