A Tangled Ball Of Snakes

My first week of occupational therapy for my legs was cut short because my OT was out sick on Friday. On Monday, I got the gist of how that appointment would have ended. 

The leg-wrapping involves three wraps on each leg. They're a lot like ACE bandages, only better. The OT says they have two-way stretch, and work while I'm moving, AND at rest, to facilitate fluids being squished out of the tissues, and not pooling due to gravity. They don't loosen and sag like the one-way stretch ACE bandages. They also don't have Velcro at the ends, so need to be taped.

The wraps are in three sizes. They're centimeters, so I don't remember exactly. By looking at them, I would say the widths are about 2 inches for the smallest, that goes on the foot/ankle. Then 3 inches for the next one that overlaps the ankle and goes to the knee. And 4 inches for the one that goes over it, from ankle to knee.

But wait! We're putting the foot before the knee! The whole thing starts with lotion on my bare leg, then a stretchy net kind of open-ended stocking going toe knuckles to above the knee. Then a wide (maybe 12 inches) swath of cotton batting that wraps from ankle to just below the knee. THEN the wraps are applied, starting at the ankle/foot. Once all three wraps are on and taped, the net stocking is folded down over the top. That covers up the tape, lest it get caught on my pants and get pulled loose.

Anyhoo... the whole process takes about 20 minutes. When I undid the wraps to take a shower, and reapplied them, it took ME slightly over 30 minutes to get them off, and another 30 to get them back on! And I even have some knowledge of wrapping, thanks to my athletic training classes for coaching.

That's a long description, but the wrapping is the core part of this treatment. That's why OT initially told me that I couldn't unwrap them the whole time (three months!) she would be treating me. Then she allowed it, saying since she saw I could bend over to reach my feet and do it myself. In fact, when I went back on Monday, having unwrapped them twice in that time to shower, she said she couldn't tell it was MY wrapping instead of HERS, except for the different tape. I took that as a compliment.

Anyhoo... Monday I found out that I would have two sets of wraps. We use them a week, then OT gives the used wraps to me to take home and wash, and applies the second set. Which I will get at the end of THIS week, and she'll use the ones I have brought back clean.

"Here are your old wraps, and the washing instructions." She went over them with me.

No problem. Except I realized my Tide laundry detergent was Tide With Bleach. So I went by Country Mart and got some regular Tide to be sure. I used have a net bag for washing delicates, but apparently I've had no delicates in quite a while, because I couldn't find it. HOWEVER, I have a pillow cover that works the same way. It has a zipper at the end. So I put all six of my wraps inside, zipped it shut, and threw in some socks and a couple towels and pair of sweatpants. No need to do a separate load just for the wraps. I made sure to change the washer setting to COLD COLD.

When the washer was done, I lifted the lid to see a horror show! The wraps had slithered out of the pillow cover! Somehow they had unzipped it! I had a nice clean inside-out pillow cover, and a TANGLED BALL OF SNAKES. Good thing those six wraps did not have Velcro at each of their ends! I was able to untangle them in about 10 minutes.

My original plan was to stretch those wraps along behind the long couch, and forbid Farmer H from using the front door and walking there. That did not seem easy. I swear each of those wraps seems 20 feet long. At least longer than I am tall. Instead, I draped them over the banister that keeps people from falling into the opening where the 13 rail-less basement steps reside. I put a beach towel over the banister to protect the wood. Then I halved each wrap, and halved it again, to drape like so much decorative bunting along that rail. I didn't think it would stretch them out as much as halving them over a shower curtain, as OT said some of the patients do.

OT said that the stretching is not such an issue as heat. That she thought one of her clients was kidding when she said, "I didn't use hot water. I stretched them out to dry. Then I ironed them." OT says the lady is kind of sarcastic and funny, and OT originally laughed at the story, but the client wasn't smiling. OT realized she was serious. She had IRONED those wraps! 

"And her wife verified it! Said, 'Oh, yeah. She irons EVERYTHING!' So I told her not to do that again."

Heh, heh! I said I didn't even know if I HAD an iron, and OT said she's pretty sure she does, but not sure where it is right now. That times are different, and her mother is always telling her, "I'm not going out with you looking like that! Take off your shirt and I'll iron it for you!"

Seriously. Times ARE different. My mom used to iron my dad's tighty whities. I don't think OT looks unkempt at all...