How to clean a spica cast???

[SophStressed]

My DD (11) has had constipation issues because of the pain medication she's been on for a femur break, so she's also on stool softeners. This has thrown the issue the other way, and combining that with some communication issues that we've had since her injury she's had an accident that's been pretty bad.

We've tried cleaning and airing out the cast the best we could with cloths and a hairdryer, but it's still pretty bad and smells god awful.
The doctor says she's unlikely to get a new cast unless it endangers her, so we're stuck with it for the next six weeks at least. She's very upset over the whole thing, and we're also scared of how we're going to manage if this happens again.

How on earth do you get this damn thing clean? The cotton of it is hard to get to and the entire thing is a nightmare.

Oh gosh my experience of a spica cast was with a child still in nappies, we had a specialist community nurse come and visit us, is there one in your area? As the cotton may need changing as much as possible or they may have some hints and tips for cleaning effctively

Everything seems to be manned by a skeleton crew at the moment so we're holding our breath on that. We do have a number for the community nurse but it's on voicemail until tomorrow

Have you got a hospital fracture clinic contact you could call for advice?

@SophStressed did you get it changed? Otherwise I might be tempted to overdo the cleaning and claim it is now so wet, it needs changing.
This is an atrocious situation to be in to start with, having to endure a soiled cast shouldn't be accepted.
I feel for you DD and you

@LeGrandBleu it didn't come to that, thank god! The community nurse argued her case so she's had it cut off and re-applied

The only worry now is stopping it happening again. Hard to come up with a solution that DD isn't going to hate, or isn't just crossing fingers grrrrrr

@SophStressed could you tape/ stick period pads all around the edges of the opening ? The sticky bit of the pad wouldn’t be enough so you would have to add some folded sticky tape too.

Hmmm I've tapped it as the moleskin they put around the opening in hosp was coming loose anyway. It does help with general toileting mess, but for blowouts its not really much help

This is all a nightmare

It sounds horrific. So embarrassing for your DD and so tough on you.

Is she still on the high strength (and constipating) painkiller or can you manage it with paracetamol?
Maybe instead of stool softener which are unpredictable in time and consistency, would a microlax - which acts more quickly max 30 mins from application be easier? But not easy on her.

How is she coping mentally?

We're trying to wean her off them, but she can't do without yet. Asking about switching softeners is a good idea though, I will bring that up! Anything that's less effective I guess, it seems to be all one way or the other....

And she isn't dealing with all this very well. She's in a phase where she won't engage with us, and we have to weasel every answer out of herm it's really frustrating but also upsetting. She's upset a lot, and around these incidences she was heartbreakingly distraught, it was so horrible :/

Which painkiller is she on and how long? You do know they are highly addictive. I mean dangerously addictive and if I recall, we are talking weeks more than days and she might soon reach the 30 days tolerance point when they won't be as effective.

Could you talk to your GP about a combo of paracetamol alternated with ibuprofen?
Being withdrawn is a side effect of opioids.