Knee Walkers and a New Cast

A full week of being back at work is not over.  DW is done with her work too until mid-September.  The past few nights have been... not so good.  My cast (the replacement to the original which was removed after I fell) has started to hurt around my ankle and heel.  My foot lies on both of these places depending on whether I'm lying down or sitting.  This is actually causing me more pain the the incision and pin!

Last week at church, a few people told me that I needed to get one of those knee walkers:

So I diligently investigated who stocked them in my neighborhood and made some calls.   Each of the stores that I called had them in their inventory, but they were all being used (you rent them by the month) but I could be put on various waiting lists if I was interested... One store had one of the three available model types in stock, and suggested I come down to try it out.  In the meantime, they told me to contact my insurance with a code, and see if it was covered.  I called the insurance, they said it was covered, so I called back the place to tell them that I would come down.  At that time, the guy mentioned that I would also need a prescription from my doctor.  So I called the ortho, got them to fax a prescription down, and made arrangements to visit the store in the late afternoon.

I've been to this same store when they had a location closer to our house and it was a bit... odd.  The store is devoted to home health products like walkers, scooters, bed pans, rubber sheets, colostomy bags etc.  The air inside of the store was stale and the furnishings outdated.  The sales people were friendly but just a little creepy (in a sort of undertaker way).  The new location was no different.  When I went in, I let them know that I had spoken with someone earlier and that there was a knee walker on hold for me.  He wheeled out a blue walker with 4 fixed wheels (i.e. none of the wheels swiveled to aid turning).  The walker had a longer bench than the one in the picture above and had a single brake lever on handle-bars.

I put my knee on the walker and my cast hung off out to the back. It felt comfortable except that it was slightly low and I felt like there was not sufficient support on the back of my leg (my cast wast hanging off end of the bench and I could tell that was going to hurt over time).  He showed me that in order to turn, I needed to lift the front wheels off the ground and pivot the walker in the new direction.  He said that the major problem (that was not going to be fixable) was the height.  The walker was already set to the highest setting and if I was to use the walker for any length of time, I would develop pain in my hips.  He had two other walkers that were on hold for other customers but he wanted me to try those out instead although in hindsight I have no idea what that was going to accomplish given that he was clear that I wasn't going to be able to leave with either.  Both of the other two had small seats and my cast is so heavy that they were clearly unsuitable (although the walkers felt more stable with the swiveling (as opposed to fixed) wheels.   He told me that they could probably get a walker in that was taller, and that had a larger bench but that it would be 2 or 3 weeks before they got it.  That wasn't going to be much use given that I am planning to be done with the cast by that time.  I thanked him for assisting me and went on my way.

My cast continued to hurt my ankle and heel and it was starting to keep me up at night. On Thursday I called the ortho's office and arranged to see the cast tech the following day. When I went in, the cast tech peeled off the cast and took a look at the skin on my foot.  Everything looked fine (which of course made me feel like a big baby) and he set about putting on a new cast.  This time he decided to use fiber-glass (instead of plaster) and paid special attention to padding around my ankle and heel.  The new cast is lighter but bulkier.  Time will tell how it fares for comfort.