Katherine is helping me out these days, regardless of our relationship position. I know she cares about me. I also know that there are still issues between us which must be resolved. Still, without her care and assistance in the last few days, life with this cast would be brutal. For example, this morning she came over and we took off the cast. My foot smelled terrible so she got a cloth and washed it off. I won't call the process painless; I was thankful for the Percoset I had taken earlier. Still, it was without a major event, and we let my foot air out for almost an hour. Then we put the sock and cast back on.
Home Care was here this morning, a nice middle aged woman from Bulgaria. She looked and sounded the part. On the other hand, she was terrific at understanding how and where my ankle might hurt along with my limitations of movement with and without the cast. I went to the bathroom, only to make a new discovery. With this cast on my foot, I can only reach one side of my bum to clean it. If I reach to the other side, it stretches the broken ankle inside the cast, and hurts like hell even with the Percoset doing its job. So I did the best I could and, unfortunately, she did the rest. These days I can sort of wipe my own ass, but not completely.
The real help from the HCA comes in dressing. I cannot successfully or painlessly reach down to my feet. Nor can I lift my my leg to where I can reach my feet. This means I can no longer put on underwear or pants. I need someone to start them for me, then hand the garments to me so I can finish the process with at least some sense of independence. I can put a compression sock on my left foot, but not on my right. The pain makes it impossible. I can, however, put the soft cotton stocking on my right foot, the one intended to protect my skin from the Air Cast.
It looks like I won't be wearing jeans for a while yet. They don't fit over top of the cast. So it's sweatpants or gym pants for me these days. I don't like them; I've never like the look of them, even the expensive one with matching jackets. Upper body dressing is not problem assuming you ignore my tendency to tilt over. I scared the heck out of the new HCA when I had to suddenly grab the M-Rail with my shirt half over my head. And yes, I made that "oh crap" noise I make all the time these days.
My routine is changing, has changed. It will change once my ankle has healed. It won't go back to the way it was, that routine is gone for good. I don't know what the new one will look like when I get rid of this cast, but I am certain of one thing. I will be wearing jeans again.
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