My bearded self, wearing a plaster short leg cast. Nice cast, worn too short a time. I added a roll of purple fiber to this cast later on but didn't take pictures of it. I also put a fiber slc on ANON (my cast buddy). He only wore it for a few hours (last picture). (I'm now clean shaven hehe)
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08/10/98
The four pix below are of a cast I did this weekend. It goes from just the end of my toes to just below my calf. It's an odd cast that has no realistic purpose I'm sure. But the angle of the ankle allowed me to crutch for the two days I wore it. Removing this cast was where the adventure began. See the fifth pic for details on the adventure.
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This is a picture of my ankle after I removed the cast. I'm almost ashamed to show this or tell about this, but I feel it's important so future casters know the dangers of removing a cast and what precautions they can take.
I was almost finished with removing my cast. I was using a utility knife and was cutting along the area marked by the X's, when the utility went through the padding and cut my ankle. It didn't bleed much at first, and I didn't realize the damage until the cast was off. I knew I probably need stitches, so I called a cab (it was 2:30am) and went to the ER. I got about 5 stitches and told a pretty good lie about what happened. I still can't believe how careless and stupid I was. I don't have very good eyesight, but this has never happened before. I was in too great of a rush and used too little padding below the cast. So a lesson to all- TAKE YOUR TIME AND DON'T BE STINGY ON THE PADDING!.
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(Changes have been made since the info below. Goto the update above to see them. You can still read below on how it started and read about some of my other castings below)
My short leg cast adventure has just begin. As of today, 02/23/98, I have yet to public, but I hope for the opportunity tomorrow. I'm still allowing the cast to dry. I hope to go 30 days total casted. This plaster slc should last me until Thursday 03/05, which happens to be my birthday. After class that day I will remove this cast. Because I am not sharing this adventure with my parents, I will have to celebrate my birthday uncasted that night. I expect that they will want to at least invite me to dinner my birthday night. Friday I will wear my camwalker to class with the excuse, "The doctor took off the cast to do some x-rays and put me in this", or something like that. When I put on the second cast that weekend, I will hopefully have the fiberglass I ordered from Grogan's. If not, I'll do a second plaster slc until the fiberglass comes. When casted again, I'll tell my classmates, if they ask, "Doctor thought I needed to go back into a cast."
I hope to be casted for 2-3 weeks in plaster and 2-3 weeks in fiberglass. If all goes well I should be casted for two, two weeks runs and one, one week run. I'm hoping for 5 weeks total, about 35 days. However, as Bob (Caster) told me, I may not want to remove the cast after 5 weeks. Six weeks sounds great to me right. After the cast adventure is over, I will wear my camwalker for 2 weeks as a "follow up" to the cast. I hope for as much realism as I can get. Look for more details of my adventure soon. Once I start back to class on 02/26 there will be no turning back.
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Until the summer of 1997, I had no idea what casts would feel like or no idea how to make one for myself. As you may already know, I had the urge to cast myself since a very early age. It wasn't, however, until that summer that I had the opportunity to cast myself.
The first cast I applied was a short leg cast in plaster. I used five 4" rolls to do this cast, but it didn't have enough support in the heel and Achilles area. The sides and top of the foot, however, seemed to be thick enough. I was able to save this cast , but I cut it down the front of the leg. I know now to cut on one of the sides.
The second slc I did was made of five 4" rolls as well. However, this time I reinforced the heel and Achilles areas more and left the calf area a little thinner. It was a good cast for my second time, but it didn't last long. Disaster struck. I wore the first cast for two and a half days and was careful not to get it wet while showering. With the second one, I decided to use my cast cover. It failed and the cast was soaked. I had to remove the cast, and it was wasted.
The third slc was a modified walking cast, a very interesting one indeed. I had an old flip-flop (a type of shoe). So I cut it in half and used the back half of it as a heel. I applied a few rolls of plaster to the foot area and then applied the flip-flop half. I then secured it to the cast, covering the whole thing, with more plaster and finished the cast. It was nice. I only walked on it to the store down the block, and it held up quite well. I believe it wouldn't have held up for a long period of time, but this did give me a taste of how a heel could be. I didn't worry about the traction; I wasn't doing much walking. All in all it was a nice cast. I wore it for four days.
My fourth cast that summer was a long leg cast. I met someone by an ad on Plaster of Paradise who lived close to me. We had a lot in common and decided to cast sometime. The opportunity was perfect. He traveled to where I laved, and we hooked up. I had enough supplies for two llc's for each other. I was the experienced one so I casted him first, using eight 4" rolls on his llc. It set then he started on me. He also used eight rolls, but did a much better job than I did. The knee on his wasn't reinforced enough. He cut the cast off after just a few hours (he had to leave more quickly than I thought) but the cast was saved. I left mine on for two more days. During those two days, I used his llc and wrapped ACE bandages around it, making tow llc's. This is my only experience in two llc's but I enjoyed it immensely. I hope to do two fresh llc's sometime. All the saved casts I had to throw away eventually.
These four casts and the dual casting were great casting experiences for me. Loosing my "cast virginity" was amazing, and I hope to do many, many more casts in the future. These little adventures didn't last nearly as long as I had hoped. Please look for the details of my lengthy short leg walking cast adventure soon.
These are pics of me in a cylinder cast. As you can see, a cylinder cast does not include the ankle and foot area. It's a perfectly easy cast to do if you want to immobilize the leg but do not want to deal with building the ankle. I made this one out of nine 3" plaster rolls and two 4" plaster rolls. I bent the knee quite a bit in order to force myself to crutch more than I normally would.
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January 23 & 24
On Friday night at about 8:20pm, I applied my first long arm cast on my left arm. I used three 4" rolls, cutting one of the rolls in half for two 2" rolls. I used the 2" rolls for the wrist area, and the two 4" rolls I used for the forearm, elbow, and upper arm. The job wasn't a bad one for my first arm cast, considering I had one good arm for application. Typing on IRC that night was a chore but it felt great. I always had wanted an arm cast ever since childhood. I loved the cast. On Saturday I planned to public a bit.
I got up around 11am on Saturday, but waited until about 1pm to public. I didn't wear the sling I had bought so people could see the cast. As it turned out, the weather was warm enough to wear short sleeves. I walked to campus with confidence. I nodded at anyone I could see, hoping they would stare a bit at my cast. When I reached the post office, it was closed. Oops. I didn't care; it was just an excuse to public anyway. I headed for the campus store to "get some pencils". I saw a few more people on the way, but no comments or to many stares. I knew the few that did take a look were curious about the cast. I've been in their shoes many times. My shoes that day were better to be in than theirs. No one said anything, but I did get a few looks. I know that my slwc adventure will get comments. I do have classmates I talk to and are getting to know. This little adventure here though didn't bring me in contact with any of these people. I'm giddy with anticipation for my long adventure.
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January 26
My little short arm cast experience wasn't much but was worth it. I applied it using two 4" rolls and followed the procedure above (cutting in half one of the rolls). The cast turned out well, and I wore until about midnight that night. I was able to save it as well, and I hope to reuse it and my lac at the same time. Because they are on opposite limbs (lac on left/sac on right), I will look forward to having them on simultaneously sometime in the not to distant future.
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