Wow, I’m sorry I haven’t updated anything on here for such a long time. Things have been pretty busy between Christmas and now. Things have been going smoothly, so I guess I haven’t really had a reason to update y’all. I had my cast removed on schedule. I was incredibly happy to be rid of it. Everyone says casts are itchy, but I didn’t have much of an issue with it, despite how dry and flaky my skin was when they cut it off. The biggest issue was how uncomfortable it was when I left my leg down too long because it would swell up and make the cast feel tight. By the end of the four weeks I had it on, I was ready to be done. I also got these horrible muscle spasms that would seize up my whole foot. My toes would spread out and it was just super uncomfortable. That usually happened at night while I was trying to fall asleep, so some nights it kept me awake half the night. I didn’t realize how exhausted I felt until my first night without that cast on and I could sleep like normal. I was placed in a walking boot after the cast came off, but I still can’t put any weight on it. I’m loving using the boot now because I am allowed to do simple range of motion exercises three times a day and I can shower and sleep without it. Things are so much easier. It’s such a luxury to shower without having to make sure my leg doesn’t get wet. I can get done showering in half the time now. I’m getting tired of using crutches, but I have definitely improved the muscle tone and balance in my left leg after all these weeks, so I guess it’s not all bad. It’ll make the difference between the left and right leg that much more noticeable because I have a lot of atrophy in my right leg, but there’s nothing much I can do about that.

My incisions look so much better than they did a month ago. I don’t get grossed out just looking at them anymore. The picture above is three days after I had my cast removed, so I had a chance to shave and get the worst of the flaky skin off my leg. I bought some Palmer’s cocoa butter and vitamin E lotion to help soothe the new, raw skin, especially on the bottom of my foot and the incision on the back of my heel. I think the upper incision will fade pretty quickly, but the other one seems like it will take more time. I don’t really care what it looks like, though, as long as it’s healed properly. Having the scars is a reminder of where I started and how far I had to come in order to try to meet my goals for the future. I will wear them with pride.