Don't get me wrong, I've been taking regular showers. The thing is, I had been forced to wrap my left leg all the way up to my mid-thigh in trash bags, duct tape the thing to my leg (double-bagged, one taped below my knee the other above the knee), and maneuver to wash my hair while sitting on the shower chair outside the shower and leaning back to get my hair wet. Despite standing on one leg in the shower multiple times to wash up, I never really felt able to get truly clean. Now that the cast is off, all this has changed.
No more trash bags, no more ripping duct tape off my leg. I did sit in the shower (my parents have a huge shower, ours not so much) and I stood on one leg to rinse all the conditioner out and really make sure it all came out. This will all change in the future, however, as I also broke the shower chair. I spent over an hour in there rubbing my leg with a soapy washcloth, just to see that there was still a pile of dead skin there. It took a million swipes with the cloth to get just a tiny spot on my leg free of caked dead skin. At one point I wiped the outside of my foot near my heel and the washcloth became instantly packed with a huge pile of dead skin that just sloughed off. Nasty.
I also spent a lot of time shaving said leg. Hippies beware- if you decide to join non-hairy society, you're gonna need a lot of shaving cream and a good razor. It took me FOREVER to shave my leg, and I had to rinse the razor after every single tiny swipe. So freaking gross.
That said, please compare the photos of my now clean leg to yesterday's nasty leg photos. The difference is incredible. So much of what was on the surface just wiped away, including almost all the scabs from the incision, which were on the top layer of skin and seemed to be floating on top of new skin, so when I diligently rubbed the dead skin away they came off in sheets like a bad sunburn.
Left: Dead skin nightmare.
Right: New skin, after much scrubbing.
I shaved!
These photos were literally taken just about an hour apart. It's crazy! All the scabs from the blisters and the incision just washed away (with a little rubbing). The scar looks much less scary now.
Another huge difference!
Tree trunk.
I'm certainly hoping that goes away quickly.
After a quick trip to CVS I picked up some lotion (Aveeno, in case you're wondering) because my skin was still uber dry. I also purchased gold in a bottle: Mederma.
$25 worth of gold in a tube. Worth every penny.
I have begun the regiment, which they say should be "apply three times a day for 8 weeks." I just put some on there when I'm thinking about it, which is basically all the time. I won't have a problem hitting three times a day. The regular Mederma is a gel, and I find it to be a tad sticky, so I went with the cream with added SPF protection. Even though I don't intend to be baring my formerly broken ankle to the winter sunlight, it's still nice to know there's SPF on there since sunlight can really darken scars quickly.
Lastly, I'm in a CAM walker now. It's a giant plastic boot. It is very, very tight. Either that, or my ankle is very very large. It's probably the latter. It has a foamy inside that pumps up like Air Jordan's.
Regarding my super awesome new kicks: "You'd be the envy of all the cripples in the Bronx in 1988." -Hilarious person who wishes to remain anonymous so people don't know he/she said "cripples"
The blue ball on the side is the Air Jordan's pump to fill the inner lining with air and make the cast tighter, which is the absolute last thing I intend to do.
I'm finally going to bed now, and I'm going to try to sleep without the boot on. I have a feeling this will end with a tearful blog post about the agony of rolling over without being conscious of one's ankle, but the walker is uncomfortable and I don't want it in bed with me.
I will leave you with this: Frankenstein and I have the same taste in footwear.
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