Advice on removing plaster casts?

[Guest guest]

My son is in his last cast (Horray!!!) and his doctor (Dr. Herzenberg

in Baltimore) has asked that WE remove his casts the night before his

next appointment. The only direction they gave us was to soak them in

water with a little bit of vinegar.

How long should we expect to soak them? How much vinegar should we

use? My husband wants me to ask if the vinegar will irriate his " wee-

wee " if he has to sit in the water for a long time :-) Of course this

the main thing on my husband's mind!

Does anyone have any tips for making it a bit easier?

Thanks!

Mom to Declan - BCF, 10th cast

[Guest guest]

Yeah, we got that too - not much direction! Basically, we gave him

a bath about 1-2 hours before the appt. You don't have to soak the

casts very long, only a few minutes (I'd say 10 tops). It's just

enough to soften them so YOU can unwrap them. That's the challange.

I'd keep a pair of sissors handly so you can snip when need be!

Good luck!

>

> My son is in his last cast (Horray!!!) and his doctor (Dr.

Herzenberg

> in Baltimore) has asked that WE remove his casts the night before

his

> next appointment. The only direction they gave us was to soak

them in

> water with a little bit of vinegar.

>

> How long should we expect to soak them? How much vinegar should

we

> use? My husband wants me to ask if the vinegar will irriate

his " wee-

> wee " if he has to sit in the water for a long time :-) Of course

this

> the main thing on my husband's mind!

>

> Does anyone have any tips for making it a bit easier?

>

> Thanks!

>

> Mom to Declan - BCF, 10th cast

>

[Guest guest]

,

Hi - um, why remove them the night before? If anything I'd remove them right

before you walked out the door to the appointment on the same day.

If you go to the main page for this group and click on Photos, then find

ee's Soggy Bottom Boys, there are recent photos of us removing Garrison's

last pair of casts at home which might help you.

The vinegar shouldn't irritate anything. I was always real generous with the

vinegar in his water and in Everett's water (...and in 's water....) with

no skin irritations involved.

While he's soaking, try to keep squeezing firmly to find a soft spot on the leg

and then you can start picking a hole there using a finger nail or even a spoon

to scrape a hole (or 2 or 3) - that lets the water get in and soak from the

inside out while soaking from the outside in. Usually I found a spot to dig a

hole right above the knee area and would start there.

, Dr. Ponseti's nurse in Iowa freaked thinking a dog had chewed Garrison's

cast when I came in with little holes all over his legs! LOL!

Anyway, we took them off with jsut small scissors you can see in the photos. I

didn't dig holes in that pair because I intended to keep them (and did).

Good luck!

ee

Mother of 3 Clubfooted Sons:

- Bilateral Club Feet April 1998

Everett - Bilateral Club Feet September 2003

Garrison - Bilateral Club Feet March 2006

Advice on removing plaster casts?

My son is in his last cast (Horray!!!) and his doctor (Dr. Herzenberg

in Baltimore) has asked that WE remove his casts the night before his

next appointment. The only direction they gave us was to soak them in

water with a little bit of vinegar.

How long should we expect to soak them? How much vinegar should we

use? My husband wants me to ask if the vinegar will irriate his " wee-

wee " if he has to sit in the water for a long time :-) Of course this

the main thing on my husband's mind!

Does anyone have any tips for making it a bit easier?

Thanks!

Mom to Declan - BCF, 10th cast

[Guest guest]

You know we tried that unwrapping thing with years ago and had no good

luck with it. We found a 30 minute soak and scissors worked for us.

s.

Re: Advice on removing plaster casts?

Yeah, we got that too - not much direction! Basically, we gave him

a bath about 1-2 hours before the appt. You don't have to soak the

casts very long, only a few minutes (I'd say 10 tops). It's just

enough to soften them so YOU can unwrap them. That's the challange.

I'd keep a pair of sissors handly so you can snip when need be!

Good luck!

>

> My son is in his last cast (Horray!!!) and his doctor (Dr.

Herzenberg

> in Baltimore) has asked that WE remove his casts the night before

his

> next appointment. The only direction they gave us was to soak

them in

> water with a little bit of vinegar.

>

> How long should we expect to soak them? How much vinegar should

we

> use? My husband wants me to ask if the vinegar will irriate

his " wee-

> wee " if he has to sit in the water for a long time :-) Of course

this

> the main thing on my husband's mind!

>

> Does anyone have any tips for making it a bit easier?

>

> Thanks!

>

> Mom to Declan - BCF, 10th cast

>

[Guest guest]

Just a lurker/member with my advice. The vinegar and water thing works

well, a bit smelly but fine. We ran out of vinegar and used a fresh

lemon. Just squeezed a whole lemon in warm water and it worked even

better and smell was, well, lemony fresh. I wouldn't use lemon if there

were open sores though. But the plaster was so much easier to get off

with a lemon.

>

>

>

> My son is in his last cast (Horray!!!) and his doctor (Dr. Herzenberg

> in Baltimore) has asked that WE remove his casts the night before his

> next appointment. & nbsp; The only direction they gave us was to soak them

> in water with a little bit of vinegar.

>

> How long should we expect to soak them? & nbsp; How much vinegar should we

> use? & nbsp; My husband wants me to ask if the vinegar will irriate his

> & quot;wee- wee & quot; if he has to sit in the water for a long time

> :-) & nbsp; Of course this the main thing on my husband's mind!

>

> Does anyone have any tips for making it a bit easier? & nbsp;

>

> Thanks!

>

> Mom to Declan - BCF, 10th cast

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Congrats on your son being on his last cast. We soaked 16 of our

daughter's casts off with vinegar in the water and it worked great.

The vinegar helps break down the plaster. Our daughter was older,

3.5 years so I would soak her in the bathtub filled with water just

above her casts with about 4 cups of vinegar and it never bothered

her. And actually when I was doing that I would always make sure to

rinse her really well after I drained the tub. Someone told me that

vinegar would make her hair softer and I think it really did. I

would soak her for about 30 minutes and then wrap her in wet towels

and put large plastic bags over each leg for the ride to Dr.

Ponseti. Then they would cut them off without using the cast saw.

It worked very well. I would soak your child for a little bit and

just keep him in the water for as long as it takes to unroll those

casts. I hope this helps. Take care and good luck!

Joyce

Mommy to , 4 years old, bcf

>

> My son is in his last cast (Horray!!!) and his doctor (Dr.

Herzenberg

> in Baltimore) has asked that WE remove his casts the night before

his

> next appointment. The only direction they gave us was to soak them

in

> water with a little bit of vinegar.

>

> How long should we expect to soak them? How much vinegar should we

> use? My husband wants me to ask if the vinegar will irriate

his " wee-

> wee " if he has to sit in the water for a long time :-) Of course

this

> the main thing on my husband's mind!

>

> Does anyone have any tips for making it a bit easier?

>

> Thanks!

>

> Mom to Declan - BCF, 10th cast

>

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I have a question... WHY are you removing them the night

before? You're on your 10th cast. I can't remember why, or if

you've said why it's taken this many casts but the LAST thing you

want to do is loose any correction on these feet, and even a few

hours out of casts can promote relapse. (10 casts is on the near

inside end of extreme Ponseti Casting, 9 is typically considered the

most ever needed however there is always that extenuating situation

or extremely severe feet that just need a little more help) Knowing

this, a child on 10 casts would certainly NOT be one who should be

left uncasted or unbraced for any amount of time past the norm. You

should get casts off, go get shoes. One appointment right after the other.

So what's up anyway? Is Dr. Herzenberg's cast saw broken?

Apologies for the snark... but Dr. Herzenberg knows better and I'm

appalled that he'd even ask you to do this. If I were you, I'd tell

them you want it removed at the office and will not take no for an

answer. If you have to soak them at the office for hours, or soak

then early in the AM and drive to the office with your son's casts

wrapped in a vinegary soaked towel (use a plastic bag over the top)

or whatever you need to do... But PLEASE do not remove these casts

the night before. This is one of the BIGGEST no no's with Ponseti

Method there is. You've got this far and your biggest hurdle now

will be the first few days with the shoes. Properly corrected feet

are essential to minimizing problems with bracing. I don't think you

want to take the chance that you'll loose whatever correction you

attained in this cast and risk having to have him re-corrected and in

casts any longer than he needs to be? Or worse yet... his feet

relapse a bit and when they go into the shoes he's miserable, they

don't work, cause sores, he screams, you get NO sleep, you cry, he

cries, you have to go back to casts to heal sores, start all over

again with bracing... yeah, that sounds like fun... Well, actually

this is pretty common with uncorrected feet in the shoes so consider

this a real possibility for your future should his feet start to turn

in even the slightest bit after correction. A night out of casts or

shoes on freshly corrected feet is so not a good idea it isn't

funny. 2 hours max between casts and shoes. Seriously. Less is

even better.

Pardon my skepticism, I don't mean to say I know more than the the

good doc but this isn't any secret with this Method and is part of

the criteria for knowing a Ponseti Doc from a poser (ok, I'm showing

my age there aren't I? hehe). I would love to think there's some

really GREAT reason for this but I can't think of *anything* that

would make me allow this for my child. I'm really baffled about

this. So much that I'm replying very late when I hold be sleeping.

Quite honestly... I probably couldn't sleep if I didn't post because

this gives me really big " WTF? " shivers. Some docs have told parents

they want to *see* if the foot relapses but ummm... they all relapse

without bracing/casting. Regardless of severity, that's what

clubfeet do (it's their job! lol). Seeing a relapsed foot after a

night out of casts wouldn't be any big surprise.

Kori

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

At 02:46 PM 5/4/2006, you wrote:

>My son is in his last cast (Horray!!!) and his doctor (Dr. Herzenberg

>in Baltimore) has asked that WE remove his casts the night before his

>next appointment. The only direction they gave us was to soak them in

>water with a little bit of vinegar.

>

>How long should we expect to soak them? How much vinegar should we

>use? My husband wants me to ask if the vinegar will irriate his " wee-

>wee " if he has to sit in the water for a long time :-) Of course this

>the main thing on my husband's mind!

>

>Does anyone have any tips for making it a bit easier?

>

>Thanks!

>

>Mom to Declan - BCF, 10th cast

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

With our first doctor we had to soak them off every night before the next

appoinment. (Later we found out that's not the way to do it, although we did

get lots of experience on soaking them off.)

We put a couple of Tablespoons of vinegar in his bath water and later realized

that more was better. We finally got to the point of pouring it in till we

thought there was enough. One recommendation I would make.......Don't rush

unwrapping. If you tear the bandage, it's tough to lift it back up to unwrap

it again.

About the 'wee-wee'......my sons is still there and nothing is wrong with it!

We soaked him for about 30minutes from start to finish. I don't believe the

vinegar irritated it at all and we never wore gloves. Good luck!

Vicky (Thad 6months, BCF)

kelly_warde wrote:

My son is in his last cast (Horray!!!) and his doctor (Dr. Herzenberg

in Baltimore) has asked that WE remove his casts the night before his

next appointment. The only direction they gave us was to soak them in

water with a little bit of vinegar.

How long should we expect to soak them? How much vinegar should we

use? My husband wants me to ask if the vinegar will irriate his " wee-

wee " if he has to sit in the water for a long time :-) Of course this

the main thing on my husband's mind!

Does anyone have any tips for making it a bit easier?

Thanks!

Mom to Declan - BCF, 10th cast