What is a casting session like?

This is us in one of the rooms at Childrens. She has all her work done in this room.


There is a fixed routine to the casting sessions. The biggest variable is in the time between activities.

We start out by having the casts cut off - usually by Issac. He is the best - very gentle, always kind, and an EXPERT at his job. Grace has been burned by a PT removing her cast and became very apprehensive at cast removal as a result. But Issac is SO good she is NEVER afraid anymore. He uses a machine with a vacuum attached. And the child can be supplied with headphones to deaden the noise if they want. Issac asks her what colors she wants and he leaves.

Issac cutting off the casts:


After removal of the cast, I wash her legs in the big sink they have in the room. Then I dry them and carry her back to the table. I clip her nails if I remembered to bring the clipper.

Washing her feet:


Then we wait.

Mary, Brigid or Barb come in and take her measurements, recording them in her file. Besides range, they test strength and measure for atrophy or development. She walks for Mary in the hallway to see how her gait is changing. Then back into the room and we wait.

Issac will then come back in, put pads on her anklebones and the back of her foot. Then he wraps her legs in fluffy cotton like cotton batting.



Mary and Brigid or Barb come back in and they work with Issac to cast her. They plaster her.





Then they wrap her plaster casts in fiberglass. We wait for it to dry.

Then one of them comes back in and checks out how much of a sponge wedge she will need under her left (affected side) heel to make her flat. Usually this is Brigid. Brigid cuts out the sponge and tapes it to her foot. Then she wraps her in more fiberglass. We wait again for it to dry.

After it dries, Mary comes in and sees how she is standing in order to determine how much padding to put in each cast boot. Then she has Grace walk for her and decides the exercises for the week.

We get ready to leave while Mary types in and prints out our exercise plan for the week. Then we are done.