I’m expecting MTFU responses to this, but here goes anyway!
I had ankle surgery on the 30th Sept, and have had an assortment of full lower leg casts over the course of a month, up until 4 weeks ago when I was given a plastic walking boot thingamajig to use. At this point, I was told to start “re-educating” the skin on my operated foot and ankle to normal sensations, and to massage the scar.
This presented a problem in as much as I couldn’t apply any direct pressure to the scar itself, or the surrounding tissue, but I did my best to provide the skin with different sensations regularly to try and encourage things along.
4 weeks down the line, I’ve gone back to the consultant (on Monday) and he’s not happy that I’ve not been able to touch the scar yet, let alone massage it (and that the joint still hurts when I turn my foot inwards, apparently it’s my fault that it’s taking time for the ligaments to heal properly!) He had a poke and then had to scrape me off the ceiling whilst I uttered a string of expletives under my breath.
He wasn’t hugely helpful in suggesting a way of sorting this out, but said I needed to stay in the cast for another 2-3 weeks trying to get to a stage where I could comfortably apply pressure to the scar, as apparently the physio won’t touch me until I can touch myself (ooh err!)
It’s probably worth pointing out that the scar itself doesn’t look angry, and the tissue around it isn’t swollen etc. I’ve got poor capillary refil in the foot still (ca. 4 seconds) but no-one has seemed concerned about this when I’ve bought it up.
Has anyone else experienced this, and have a suggestions – funny or otherwise (apart from MTFU!) that may help?