Casts

oneweb

Has anyone here had a cast? I've had one (thumb spica) on my arm for nearly two weeks now (ecxuse the typos!). I've (somehow) managed to keep it dry, t/hough I'm dreading going outside later. Thing is, even though I try keep the exposed skin clean using wet wipes, it's really starting to stink!

I've also had a lot of 'artwork' done to it (our department has a lot of artistic types! ) and have found out the feckin markers are only permanent 'til the ink gets wet and gets everywhere! I also got the impression that writing on casts is soo 1990s, nobody seems to have it these days!

I'm dyin' to whack it off somethin just before it's taken off, it feels invincible, it's cool !

So anyways

1) Ever had one, what part of ya and how'd ya do it?
2) How'd you keep it from stinkin'?
3) Did you have it written on, and/or have you seen any really good looking casts?

Terry

Don't even joke about that event.

Ibjiba

I had one a short while and thought it was fun. For those of you who speak german there is a great joke (invented by me) on this topic:

Was gibts?
-Gips!

The most annoying part was having to sleep with my arm upright.

Saint_Mel

Ibjiba wrote:

The most annoying part was having to sleep with my arm upright.

Not a cast but I broke fingers playing football before and had a big metal splint
running from my wrist to the tip of finger. So awkward cos it was on my left
hand and I'm a leftie. Felt like King Pin every time I went to grab something!

Broke my leg when I was about 6 and had a cast. Had real scrawney legs
anyway buit when the cast came off one of them looked almost like a
matchstick. I couldnt sit down without the almost weightless leg rising up!

Zzippy

oneweb wrote:

So anyways
1) Ever had one, what part of ya and how'd ya do it?

Had several, used to play hurling so broke both thumbs (twice) and several fingers (at different times)

2) How'd you keep it from stinkin'?

You can't. Smell didn't bother me so much, it was the itchy bits that you just couldn't scratch, no matter how ingenious you were. Drove me nuts!

3) Did you have it written on, and/or have you seen any really good looking casts?

The ones I had were all of this mesh-type material, not smooth plaster. Couldn't write on it at all. But you're right, it is sooo 1990s

baztard

I have one on my lower leg at the moment. Its not plaster of paris, its more of a very solid bandage. It doesn't smell at all thankfully, as I try to make air circulate through it as much as possible. And its perfectly clean! I'm not into having people writing stuff thats only funny for five minutes, but left there for 8 weeks.

baztard

oneweb wrote:

...it's really starting to stink!

Ring the plaster room in the hospital and they'll give you an appoinment to get it changed. Just tell them its stinking or its too tight or something. Or at worst, go back to A&E and they'll give you a new cast. Its no big deal to them at all.

John Mason

i fractured my wrist in Berlin, so english idiot said i skipped the q for the view tower and shoved me up against a wall and fractured me wrist (seriously);


you couldnt write on the cast it was some lumpy holely substance. so i got loads of stick on diamond things and made a design and sprayed it with glitter spray and then sealed it with hairspray!!!!!

i poured some essential oils into it to stop it smelling it didnt work - you just have to deal with the smell.

i hit my ex's nose with it - he was very drunk and broke into my apartment so i hit him a good few smacks with it until his mate came to get him, he couldnt chew for a week for so afterwards either - handy little weapons

oneweb

Ibjiba wrote:

Was gibts?
-Gips!

The most annoying part was having to sleep with my arm upright.

Ya gonna tell us in English or is it really that bad?? :-p

baztard wrote:

I have one on my lower leg at the moment. Its not plaster of paris, its more of a very solid bandage. It doesn't smell at all thankfully, as I try to make air circulate through it as much as possible. And its perfectly clean! I'm not into having people writing stuff thats only funny for five minutes, but left there for 8 weeks.

How'd you manage that? It's probably the fibre casting stuff that they used. I've managed to avoid naff writing and some of the pics are cool

tallus

The scariest bit about casts is getting the fecking thing taken off when the nurse uses a small circular saw to cut through it. Dunno about the smell, mine went from the elbow to wrist so it wasn't too stinky.

Fajitas!

I had one from my toes to my waist for 9 months.

Think the smell is bad now? Wait til they take it off... Rough.

Roar

i had one on my right ankle after tearing my ankle ligaments at the start of the year..

i didnt find it too bad.. the pins and needles were a killer though.. i remember about two days after i got it on my girlfriend brought me out to a shopping centre to help relieve my cabin fever.. but i didnt realise how bloody hard it is to walk on crutches, and only got halfway down the main strip before i had to sit down for ten minutes and go back to the car!

oh, and physiotherapy really sucks.. if i never see another theraband in my life it'll be too soon...

gary the great

Broke my tibial plateau last year (the top of the tibia bone where it joins the knee), really badly. Had a cast around my foot and right up my whole leg to within a few inches of my hip. Was a monster of a cast cos im 6'4 and have massive legs. The weight of the thing!
Had that on me for 12 weeks during the hot summer last year, the itching was terrible! Didnt smell though at all as there was a bit of an air gap at the top and it wasnt the plaster paris but the hardened bandage stuff they use now.

I hadnt inteneded to write on it, but one night after i fell asleep my drunk mates got a marker out and drew pictures of dicks all over the back of it. I never even noticed and walked around in shorts with the pictures on full display to everyone for a few days. Was mortified when the nurse was cutting it off!!

MooseJam

I thought this was going to be a thread about caste politics in india

johnp

Broke both scaphoids within a year of each other.
First was playing football, just fell on it the wrong way and that was enough to do it.
Second time I was hammered and missed the last couple of steps on the stairs. I had been on the way down to get a pint of water to curb the hangover I was gonna have. The next morning a hangover was the least of my worries :mad:

The smell gets horrible. The only thing I could do was use wipes to try and keep my hand clean and mask the smell. It's about the best I could come up with.

Toilet issues became a pain in the...... well and pain the ar$e :eek:

A good covering for when you shower is a must. They cost a few quid, but obviously the more you spend the easier/better it will work.

No writing on it.

TEH REAL CDP

johnp wrote:

A good covering for when you shower is a must. They cost a few quid, but obviously the more you spend the easier/better it will work.

Plastic bag ftw.

Cutie18Ireland

TEH REAL CDP wrote:

Plastic bag ftw.

Tried that it leaks. Then got me a "KeepU-Dri" completly airtight, kinda cuts off the blood supply to your arm though lol.

I broke my scaphoid bone and am currently in meshy plaster, no writing on it, dont think you can write on it... The itching is driving me demented! It's been on for 6 weeks now. You think the smell is bad?? My fingers are all peeling and look rotten.

To the poster above that broke the scaphoid bones... how long were you in a cast? I'm due back on wednesday but was reading up about scaphoid bones and says 9-12 weeks.

TEH REAL CDP

Umberella ella ella eh Perhaps?

patrickolee

Had a lower arm and wrist cast a few years back... and yes it stank too. Had it on for 6 weeks. That's just par for the course I'm afraid. Used the plastic bag trick for the shower. Never fully worked, used to forget sometimes when I had it on or off. But probably better than nothing

GhostInTheRuins

I had one years ago when I broke my wrist. It was the itch that really got to me, I used to srcatch it with one of my nannys nitting needles, the relief! Stunk like a bitch when it came off and my skin had a really bad reaction to the cast (Went all bubbly and stuff, horrible). The spinning blade that they take it off with is the coolest thing ever, it doesn't cut skin but grinds through the cast.

Capt'n Midnight

6 weeks yeah, when I put the cast on I know what I was doing for my birthday,
having it off,

thumb broken so for several weeks I had to wrap a lace around my fingers since I only had one working hand, took ages

johnp

Cutie18Ireland wrote:

Tried that it leaks. Then got me a "KeepU-Dri" completly airtight, kinda cuts off the blood supply to your arm though lol.

I broke my scaphoid bone and am currently in meshy plaster, no writing on it, dont think you can write on it... The itching is driving me demented! It's been on for 6 weeks now. You think the smell is bad?? My fingers are all peeling and look rotten.

To the poster above that broke the scaphoid bones... how long were you in a cast? I'm due back on wednesday but was reading up about scaphoid bones and says 9-12 weeks.

Think it was about 5 weeks both times. Odd that you say 6 weeks so far. I was chatting to someone else and they are having theirs in a cast for 8 weeks I think. I must have got lucky.

Also your hand is going to be incredibly weak when you get the cast off. They can give you, what I can only call, a gimp bandage to help protect it when the cast is off. It kinda looked like this:
http://www.proline-sports.co.uk/acatalog/wrist-brace-pl96.jpg

It looks ridiculous, but helps.

johnp

D.T. Jesus wrote:

I had one years ago when I broke my wrist. It was the itch that really got to me, I used to srcatch it with one of my nannys nitting needles, the relief! Stunk like a bitch when it came off and my skin had a really bad reaction to the cast (Went all bubbly and stuff, horrible). The spinning blade that they take it off with is the coolest thing ever, it doesn't cut skin but grinds through the cast.

Aye, that thing is dead cool

phasers

good old bin liner, I wore the thing in the shower,walking the dog, everything

I had one on my wrist for 6 weeks and it does smell foul, like not washing when you're sweaty
but it's something you have to put up with till it's over
the nurse asked me if I wanted to keep the cast and my mother shrieked "NOOOOOO" before the poor girl had a chance to finish the question!

Cutie18Ireland

johnp wrote:

Think it was about 5 weeks both times. Odd that you say 6 weeks so far. I was chatting to someone else and they are having theirs in a cast for 8 weeks I think. I must have got lucky.

Also your hand is going to be incredibly weak when you get the cast off. They can give you, what I can only call, a gimp bandage to help protect it when the cast is off. It kinda looked like this:
http://www.proline-sports.co.uk/acatalog/wrist-brace-pl96.jpg

It looks ridiculous, but helps.

The first 2 weeks were only a half cast, hopefully will be off on Wednesday!

tricky D

I painted mine, so no marker issues. Acrylic paint.

Amusing bits: Looking at my hand at right angles to where it should be. The tug of war with 3 hospital staff when they were realigning the broken wrist. With the anaesthetic, I was just some kind of disconnected onlooker. I was thinking to myself that apparently that's my arm, wow the way they're pulling, that should be really painful, but I can't feel a thing and that anaesthetist sure is cute.
The light arm after deplastering, skinny and with pubic(ish) hairs. Plastic bag worked pretty well in the shower. Oh, and later, the compensation.

Not so funny: I had just had lunch so they wouldn't administer the anaesthetic for 6/7 hours. Not fun when alone (no relations or friends until evening), in shock and thinking that with no more summer work, I'm financially up the creek - they coulda given me a book for distraction. And of course, the itching and smell. Little fukcers looking for amusement by purposely trying to bump into to my plastered arm!! The physio and pain when pulling ropes (sailing) for a year. The potential for earlier arthritus.

Dord

I think I've had about 3 or 4 so far. Most of them on my left arm. The best cast I had was one on my leg, it was some new kinda one that I could strap on and off and just wipe off if it got dirty. It meant I didn't really have the whole stinky thing going on.



The best part was the physio...that place was full of hot wimmins...

Tar.Aldarion

oneweb wrote:

1) Ever had one, what part of ya and how'd ya do it?
2) How'd you keep it from stinkin'?
3) Did you have it written on, and/or have you seen any really good looking casts?

1)I had one for 6 weeks I think. I got it on the whole of my leg as they did not want me bending my leg, as I had been far too active as a child and got a malady from playing to much sport.
2)It didn't seem to, I used to put a bag around it and shower.
3)Yeah, it was covered in writing from my friends etc. It was rather cool, should have kept it.

gary the great

Cant believe the amount of people that loved the physio, i used to dread going due to the severe agony i knew i was going to under for the next hour, and im not afraid of a bit of pain

5starpool

I went over on my ankle on a kerb that I didnt see when jumping down from about a 4 foot height. Mother of Jebus, the pain was not good, I nearly fainted. I was in a cast for about 6 or so weeks up to my knee, and the first shower I was able to have afterwards was so good. The bottom of my foot was so manky with dead skin and stuff.

I let one person draw a line on it to shut them up, but had no intention of letting anyone write any crap on it. Twas one of those wind on and dry to hard stuff lightweight casts.