Pins are out!

The pins are out and I even got a walking cast!! Originally I was supposed to have a regular cast put back on after the pin removal and then I was supposed to come back on the 28th to get the walking cast. But I was doing so well that he allowed me to get the walking cast as long as I don't try to walk on it till next Friday. That means I can take a real bath and wash my leg! Yeah!! But I still have to wait 2 more days for the pin holes to heal before I can do that.

The pin removal wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be but it was uncomfortable. Especially the first pin, for some reason that one seemed to be stuck and it was pulling on the incision on the back of my toe when he was trying to remove it. I didn’t realize the pins would be so long, turns out they were as long as my fingers which was pretty surprising! I laid down and told the Dr. I didn't want to watch. You can hear him on the video teasing me because he had kept telling me it didn't matter if I watched or not, watching can't make it hurt more....I didn't agree. The video is below.

 

They took more x-rays (I think I’m gonna be glowing by the time this is all over) and I asked if I could see them. They said “No problem, we’ll give you copies”…so I came home with print-outs of my x-rays. It’s pretty freaky…with the pins in there I look like Wolverine!! LOL

 

After the pins were removed we took a pic of the holes that were left. No too bad…I think it’ll look okay after they heal.

The funniest thing was comparing my “new” foot with my “old” foot. As soon as they removed the cast we noticed a difference. The new one seems to be quite a bit longer…I think I’m gonna have to buy new shoes!!

I now have a “walking boot” cast. The large gray dot is a pump which I can squeeze to pump up the boot’s interior liner so that it fits better. Although I must say, it wasn’t too comfortable trying to sleep last night. For some reason my foot kept sliding up so that my heel was resting on the edge of the plastic piece in the back and with the incision back there it didn’t feel too good. I think I need to play around with the pump some more. Unfortunately it only pumps up around the ankle, I think it would work better if it pumped up around the foot too. I still have gauze wrapped around my toes. But I plan to wear knee socks as soon as I can take the gauze off (2 days) since the boot liner isn’t machine washable.