Thursday, July 09, 2009

Two imaginary images

Two amazing sights were before my very eyes this past week. No, it was not the spectacular fireworks at BYU, (only so so ). I want to KICK myself for not having my usually present camera around my neck. So dear friends, I will use the power of words to describe what my eyes have beheld. I must admit I looked on the Internet for substitute photos, but nothing could compare to what I saw.

Image one:

Dave and I ran up to Cabela's Outdoor Sports store in Highland. We were browsing and window shopping when I heard the guttural cries of an older handicapped child wanting attention. My eyes were drawn toward the sound by reflex, not to be nosy , but just because that is what happens right? The child was sitting in a shopping cart and he was fine, but it was the mother who drew my attention. My eyes started at her flip-flop clad feet and slowly rose to her unadorned tree trunk-sized thighs (two of my thighs equals one of hers). She was not wearing any shorts! She had just come from the swimming pool, and was only in her swimsuit and a short shirt! She was Amazonian in height, about 6 foot, and weighed about 280. She did not seem to notice the gaping jawed people who were drawn to her like I was , by an innocent child's cries, and her amazing lack of propriety~ Right on lady.

Image two:

Everyone knows I got my orange cast off. Well at my doctor's office there is a cast room where two patients at a time are treated at any given time. It so happens that the same lady was present at both of my times in that room, 6 weeks apart. The first time I met her was when I had my 2 week post op cast removed and my permanent cast put on. Once they took that cast off I was scratching and sending Tiny to the sink for wet paper towels and soap and water to clean off my foot. This lady was just getting her 6 week cast off and getting ready to have another 6 week permanent walking cast put on. She just sat there! She didn't try to scratch her leg or her foot, she didn't try to sneak off to the bathroom to give her self a pedicure or anything! They just sat there staring at me like I was some sort of freak for wanting to clean off the dead gunk on my foot. Her toes were white and cracked, yes cracked with dead skin.

Six weeks pass and it is once again time for me to get a new cast. I am expecting an
un- removable walking cast. I was prepared. I took a basin, to soak my foot, I took a towel, razor, clippers, pumice stone, callus blade, lotion, because I could not bear to think about another 6 weeks with no pedicure. I knew there would be time between cast removal and cast application for me to go to the bathroom and do a pedi.

So, who should be on the opposite table from me? Yes, this same lady 12 weeks post op getting her cast off. The technician put a large drop cloth on the floor beneath her feet which were dangling off the table. He threw the cast in the garbage can and Oh MY GOSH, you should have seen it, 100 running naked men could not pull my eyes away from the sight of her leg. She had not be washing her toes daily like I had. Her toes and foot were manila envelope yellow from thick dead skin. Her toenails were curled around her toes. Her, leg was caked with cracking orange skin. She had not been removing the dead skin like I had been. I was able to get my hand pretty far down my cast because of the loss of muscle tone, so I was keeping what I could reach of my leg pretty clean. The technician, wants her to walk to the x-ray machine in the other room, but before he does that, he grabs some paper towels and brushes her foot off and the skin begins to drop off onto the drop cloth and makes a similar sound of hail hitting the roof of your car.

Oh gee, the words above don't do the image justice, but it was fun to journal it just the same. I think I might look into become a cast technician.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh wow... Sound lovely...

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