Recently, I had the opportunity to wear a heeled cast during a weekend. It was when I traveled to an out of state city for a med school interview on a Friday morning. I flew in Thursday afternoon and was flying back home Sunday a.m.. I brought along supplies to make a heeled fiber slwc. My interview was with two different interviewers from the previous year. Many of the questions were the same. I feel that it went better than last year. But we’ll see. One of the problems from last year (in my opinion) was that I did not stress enough my interest in family medicine – the type that this med school tries to promote for its graduates. So, before they brought it up, I was touting the excitement I had about possibly going that route. So, when they asked me about it – I had already answered the question.

Since the interview was done before 10 a.m., I was out of there on Friday and in the cast before lunch. It was a white fiber slwc with a large green heel. They were foreCASTing a storm with a lot of snow and possible freezing rain for Friday evening so I rented a pair of crutches in order to be able to avoid getting the cast saturated with snow, ice and water. Plus, the crutches for me have an added effect – especially in crowds as they help garner attention.

I did a large mall on Friday in the day followed by a hockey game (AHL) in the evening. At the hockey game, I arrived a few moments before the doors opened. Standing in the lobby of the building was a female castee of about 15 years old. She had on an slc on her left leg with no heel. She had a white cotton sock over everything and so no cast was visible as the sock disappeared up into her pant leg. She was on crutches and did not appear to be bearing any weight on the cast as the white sock was completely white. I got in before her and positioned myself along the wall in the concourse where she would definitely see me. Unfortunately she did not look at me or otherwise acknowledge my presence and the commonality we had going. I assumed she was a bit uncomfortable being casted…

On the Saturday I did more malling. I went to a different mall first where I sat facing the base of a busy escalator. It was a sure fire way to get people’s attention. It was there I spotted a woman in a cam. She looked quite good. Looked sporty and maybe at about 45 years old. She had a cane and was wearing a red sock on the cammed left foot. At times she did not appear to make much use of the cane for support – instead she often just carried it in her hand. Later, back at the mall where I had gone on the Friday, I found a spot at the food court which was facing the top of an escalator that was bringing people up from below. It was cool how I could watch their eyes and the focus that the cast always seemed to attaract as the cast became visible to them. Some people just glance and look away while others seemingly become focused and have to get a longer look. Certain others look away for a period but have to look again – especially as they get near. At that mall, I spotted both a man in a cam (with a plastic bag on over the sock but within the cam). Aas well as a tall young looking woman (30??) on crutches without any signs of having on any immobilization device.

During the course of the adventure, I did get a few comments from locals who pretty much all had the same thing to say: « Your foot’s broke » At a restaurant the waitress mentioned that she didn’t need to check my credit immediately as she could run after me and catch me because «your foot’s broke». At a drug store an employee mentioned the same thing when she saw me : «your foot’s broke». A cleaning lady in the hotel asked if «my leg was broke?».

On Saturday night, before the drug store closed I returned the crutches and then went to a busy movie place where I saw Blackhawk Down. I didn’t so much enjoy the ambulation portion in the crowds as I am sure a lot of people didn’t notice the cast. To compensate I tried to exaggerate my limp as I rocked over on the heel with each stride. In the movie viewing area, I did manage to get a seat near to where everyone who was entering into the theatre was passing. At times I kept my right casted lower leg crossed up over my left thigh in order to make it more obvious to everyone.

After the movie, I went back to the Hotel, where the fun began. It was 1 a.m. and so I was leary about using my cast saw and waking everyone up. I tried to get it going and to cut through the cast very fast but it was making a lot of noise… I had made a horizontal cut on the medial (inner) side of the foot from the toes to the ankle joint. The cut took a while as the cast was thick due to the roll of 3 inch I had used to affix the heel. I decided to try using the lone utility knife that I had on hand to see how that would go. Unfortunately, as I cut the inside length of the cast from the top toward the ankle, I broke the blade a few times and so it was quickly getting really short. So, at about 2:30 a.m., I hopped into the car and brought the saw, the knife and a pair of scissors. I figured I could find an electrical outlet in some parking lot or something where I could plug in the saw and take an easy 60 seconds or so of saw time to cut the cast off properly. I found a closed gas station where there was an electrical outlet on the outside of the building. I hastily plugged in the saw and lo and behold, the cutting was not going well. The blade did not appear to be able to penetrate the fiber. Soon the blade fell off. It had all come undone. Damn!

I tried to fix it right there on the spot but I could not. There appeared to have been a piece that would hold the blade that came off and possibly fell into the snow. As a result, I figured, with my flight early on Sunday, at 8:40, I could not buy any spare blades for the knife and the saw was shot, so I had but one option – that of having the cast removed at the hospital. I figured I could duck in, they could then have a nurse take 5 minutes to saw off what was left to be sawed on the cast and I could be on my way.

Was I wrong…

Although it was quiet when I arrived at the ER at about 3:30, it was going to be long. The secretary at the desk asked me a load of questions. I explained that I had been forced to wear the cast as a result of having lost a bet - a bet that I had with someone that they would not even get to have a med school interview. She asked detailed questions about who I had been interviewed by and a bunch of other stuff. Then, she looked at the screen funny when she entered my health insurance information. I tried to elicit a laugh from her by being facecious about my situation and cracking a few witty one-liners but she never broke down. I figured that she have been tired at that time of the night/morning.

I was told to wait in the waiting room. I did so until I was called by the male triage nurse. He too was cold to my one liners about my situation. I explained that I had «frigged» with a utility knife but preferred the embarrasment of presenting at the ER to the possibility of lacerating myself with the knife. He too was stoic.

I waited for a while. And then a while longer. There was this teenage girl nearby who was waiting for a patient who was in being seen, and she seemed intrigued by the presence of the cast. She was discrete but kept looking.

Meanwhile I waited some more. I was getting nervous after a spell since my flight was early and no patients were being called. In fact, there were three patients who left while 2 were called in during more than an hour. I started playing with the cuts in the cast. I had applied the last roll to the outide in the dry manner common to many rec casters. That is where we apply a roll that has not been immersed in water and then use wet gloved hands to stroke the cast in order to get the curing process going. That last layer seemed a bit easier to delaminate from the rest of the cast that was applied in the usual manner. After a period of pulling at the opening, and applying pressure with my leg muscles that were within the cast, I sensed that the cast was weakening. I then was inspired to go out to the car and get my knife and try some more as I was getting nervous. I was picturing having to get on the plane while still in the cast – an option that wasn’t necessarily bad in itself except for the fact that I would be faced with having to get the thing off once at my destination!

I ran back out to the car and got the knife. On the way out, a maintenance worker suggested that I be careful in the slippery and snowy conditions. As I continued hobbling out the door, I explained that he need not worry about me as my situation was «not as bad as it looked».

I came back in and sat down in the waiting room and began working at the cast again. There was hardly anyone left to witness what I was doing. There was one couple who were two rows over from me but they were seated facing the other way so they were completely unaware of what I was doing. The only people really seeing what I was doing were three people in the row next to me who were all together – a young nurse (off duty) who was accompanying her mother and father – they were there for an irregular heart beat that the dad had experienced earlier that night. She in fact got into my ordeal and was watching closely as I chipped away at the rigid shell that surrounded my leg. Eventually I managed to get it cut with the horizontal cut along the foot meeting the vertical cut that ran down the length of the leg from the top. With a partial cut along the upper portion of the cast’s lateral (outer) extremity coupled to the pushing and pulling I had done, I was able to almost get my leg freed. I created more room by plucking out cotton from between the cast and my leg. I pulled up a large garbage can and left it next to my seat in order to discard the pieces as they came free. Eventually, the only problem area left was the section down near my anatomical heel that was still boxed in. I cut some more down in the area and I finally got out of the cast. What a great feeling.

Not wanting to waste a good heel, I continued working at the heel extrication for 7 or 8 more minutes. When I got that done, I went up to the woman at the reception desk with cast in hand to show her that I had gotten out of it and that I could be removed from the list of patients to be seen. I had to awaken her to get her attention as she had slumped down and had her head resting on her forearms as she snored away. I would have advised the triage nurse but he was nowhere to be seen. Again, the receptionist was not open to laughing at my repeated attempt at more humor.

What an interesting adventure! I hope that it inspires everyone who reads it to want to run out and go get casted.