Category: Adapting Daily Life

Everyone needs to stay clean, even if they don’t go anywhere often (like me most of the time during this recovery process). But casts cannot get wet. Hence, there is a bit of a dilemma, isn’t there? Well, at first, and still half the time, we’re doing this by just giving me sponge baths. This gets most of my skin clean, but not all of it, and notably doesn’t clean my hair at all. So we do that about every other day.

On the opposite days, though as of now this has only been going for about 2 cycles, I take an actual shower. Firstly, since I cannot stand on both feet for the moment we use a shower bench that we put into the shower so I can sit down. But what we use to keep my cast completely dry is a product that a member of the Gillette Children’s casting staff recommended, DryPro. This is a latex sleeve we put over the cast leg that has a pump to create a vacuum seal around the cast by pumping out all the air. Then I can even place my right leg directly in the shower, and yet the cast will not get wet in the slightest. As such, I can shower (or even take a bath if I want) to get the entirety of my body with the exception of the parts in the cast completely clean, just like before (and after) this whole recovery process.

Of course, I need help getting myself clean like this, unlike when not in this recovery, but at least I can have a way to get quite clean regularly. That definitely helps a bit with regard to feeling better even amidst the (physical and otherwise) pains of this lengthy recovery process.

Since I use a walker to get around during this non weight bearing period I can’t really sit down into chairs that move at all. Yet this is what my desk chair is, being that it turns and has wheels. So we came up with the idea of using the lower drawer of my desk drawers as a mechanism to stop my desk chair from moving that much, to make it possible for me to get into it all on my own (also with the help of a grabber-like thing we keep on my walker to open the drawer with). I then have a stool with a pillow for my right foot under my desk, although realistically a chunk of the time I’m sitting my right foot is down like normal (and my left foot) because that is a bit more comfortable, neither foot bears weight when I’m sitting anyhow, and it doesn’t help to keep either foot/leg in one position for too long anyway (regardless of the recovery).

I’ve decided that I’ll add some posts describing aspects of how I’ve adapted my daily life during recovery, in the hopes that they (along with this entire blog) may help others facing this or similar surgeries in the future. This is the first in that occasional series.

I have changed the default face I use to one set up for surgery recovery. That is, my normal watch face has weather, activity, and such. All things that to be honest I won’t need much during a non weight bearing recovery where I’m going to stay on the second floor of our house save for trips to Gillette for follow-up appointments. I’ve even disabled all Activity and Stand notifications, since my physical movement will be far less for the next few weeks. Instead, I’m using a face that has both the digital time and date large and prominent, so as to be easier to read. Further, along the bottom are quick access to calling or texting my parents, who are my caretakers during the recovery, as well as access to Messages in general. This way, the watch can act as a quick alert system to get in touch with my parents (both of whom also have Apple Watches, and have promised to also keep their phones nearby if ever their watches aren’t on them) whenever needed, even though I’ve asked that at least one of them be home with me at all times (a bit easier with my dad and I working together from home anyway).

I have also put the Breathe app on my watch face. It can guide me through mindful meditation, urging to breath in and out with both soothing animation and rhythmic tapping on the wrist. I read how careful breathing can help reduce pain and anxiety during recovery, and know from past experience how helpful mindfulness can be, so wanted to have easy access to that anytime.

I may even change the watch face colors to match the cast color I have over time…