Baby wipes:
These things are the only thing keeping my poor toes clean. I can't get them wet because they are really too close to the bottom of my cast, so I baby wipe them every day or so. I even painted my toenails for awhile but ended up removing that because it looked so odd when my foot was purple from blood flow.
The 'cast condom' - or a Curad cast protector
This thing is great. It's a thin rubbery membrane that has a hole at the top that just barely fits over my cast. You stretch it a bit to make it fit and then it sits tightly against my leg just above the cast. It's reusable as long as I'm careful. I've gotten about two weeks of showers out of each one (two in a package). SOOO much easier than plastic bags and tape! There are also covers that have a plastic ring at the top, but those wouldn't work for me as I need to be able to kneel in the shower and that ring would make it impossible. After my shower, I lightly dry off the cover and then hang it from a towel bar until next time. Thank you, Curad!!
Sleep.
This kind of needs no explanation but I'm going to explain it anyway. I typically do well on about 7-8 hours of sleep a night. What I am finding that since the injury/surgery, I needed at least 9 hours and sometimes 10. I mean, I needed it. If I only got 8, I was dragging ass all day. I expect this is from my body's attempt at healing. But this isn't why sleep is on my list. Sleep is here because sleep is what I do when I just can't take it anymore. Sleep gives me sanity. When I'm asleep, I'm a normal person. I'm not hobbling, I'm not banging into doors with my crutches, I'm not hopping, I'm in no danger of falling over, I'm not sitting all contorted with my foot in the air, I'm not driving around looking for drive-thrus because I can't carry anything in my hands while on crutches, and most importantly, I'm not thinking about 'how much longer I have to have this stupid cast on my leg/foot'. I'm just a normal person asleep. And of course, each night that I go to sleep, I wake up one day closer to my next appointment and possibly a walking cast. Sleep rocks.
Speaking of drive-thrus...the other day I was laughing at myself when I realized that I needed a drive through grocery store. Up until this injury, I spent my life avoiding drive throughs, sitting and parking too close to buildings. I would intentionally go into restaurants or dry cleaners, stand whenever I could and park at spaces far away from entrances just to give myself more activity. Now I'm thankful for drive-thurs, chairs and my disabled parking permit. How depressing. Thankfully, it's temporary!
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