Plaster Part 1
Rating:
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Genre=Fiction;
Pages=7;
Characters=14,673;
Let me get right to the point. My name is Dan and I'm an orthopedic surgeon. Not only do I do all of the gritty operating, but I am also the head honcho in the casting/bracing department. Needless to say I have access to a brace for just about any place on the body. I also have an unlimited supply of quick-drying but very sturdy plaster bandages. I work in a big hospital, and I can basically get any item from any department. A few of the people at my regular "stops" know what I do with all of this stuff that I get. They just give me a funny grin and continue on their work; they probably have better things to worry about. I also have access to every piece of equipment in the traction and external fixation ward. They will loan me equipment for "field testing" and "evaluation" whenever I ask, but never for keeps. I'm sure somebody would notice if a whole traction bed just disappeared. Basically, you name it and I got it. I have access to sleeping gas in case things get a little out of hand, restraints used in the psychiatric ward if I need them. My job is probably a dream come true for many people.
Then there's my wife, Molly. I have her to thank for getting me into this kind of lifestyle (for which I owe her a debt of gratitude). When we first fell in love and got married, I was not at all interested in casts, braces, or any type of immobilization. It was Molly who was interested. She told me it all started when she was about eleven years old. She fell off the jungle-gym at school and ended up breaking her wrist. She had a cast on her right arm (she's right handed, by the way) from her wrist to about halfway to the elbow. Molly had this cast on for a little more than a month, and she was amazed at all of the attention she got. She was just a little girl though, and didn't know why she enjoyed wearing the cast so much. Ever since then she has had a deep fascination for casts, braces and any type of immobilization. After she got the cast off, the doctor gave her a wrist brace to wear for a week or two, and by then the wrist would be fully healed. The way she was feeling then, there was no way that she would ever take the brace off. The two weeks soon passed, and though Molly removed the brace for most of the time, she would always put it on once in a while, just to have the old feeling back. That is how she started her collection of immobilization devices.
I met Molly when she was 22. I was at the movies, seeing one of those oh-so-cool monster movies. She was going to the same movie, and somehow we bumped into each other. I was single, and I always kept my eye open for a chance to meet a woman. I was just a year into med-school, and maybe that is why the knee brace that she happened to be wearing caught my eye. Thinking that I could maybe approach with the "Gee, what happened to your knee?" start, gathered my courage and walked up to her.
"Gee, what happened to your knee?" I asked calmly.
She turned to me and our eyes locked for about 3 seconds, and she suddenly responded.
"Oh! Well, I fell while I was jogging a few days ago and twisted it pretty badly."
"That's too bad. Does it hurt?"
"No, it really doesn't hurt very much at all. I am actually, well, kind of enjoying it."
"You enjoyed twisting you ankle?" I asked in astonishment. I really did not know of this world of wannabes at all.
"No, not that part. But I am enjoying the attention that I am getting. In just the past 10 minutes, probably over 20 men have glanced at me, but you're the first person to actually approach me. That's so sweet."
Yikes! Was she really interested in me? I'd better say something intelligent.
"Well, I am studying to be an orthopedic surgeon, and I have learned a lot about braces and stuff. Your brace just kind of caught my eye. Some people say that braces are attractive, and..."
"You're an orthopedic surgeon?" she suddenly cut me off.
"Well, not yet. But I am studying to become one."
I remember the look on her face. She seemed to be pondering something, a really important thought. Just as I was about to wave my hand in her face, she quietly asked "Do you want to watch the movie together?"
"I'd love to." I calmly responded, but my brain was going bonkers from excitement! I had an interest that she somehow seemed to like. Maybe she was going into orthopedics also! I'd just have to find out...
The film was pretty lame. I don't even remember the title or what it was about. However, I vividly remember after the movie. She had mentioned that she had walked to the theater, so I offered to drive her home, since I thought walking in that brace was pretty awkward. Little did I know how much she enjoyed walking around in it. I drove her to her house, which was further than I had expected (I later found out that she had really driven, but she just needed an excuse so that I would take her home). She invited me in, and I accepted with great pleasure.
I won't get into details of how we fell in love, moved in together, and eventually married, but I will say that in that year/year and a half period when we were dating or engaged, she never wore another brace or anything. Well, that's what I originally thought. It turned out that while I was either at work or asleep, she would slip out and secretly put on all of her little braces. Her collection was pretty pitiful compared to what we have now. She had a wrist brace for each wrist, a padded neck collar, a knee brace (which she wore to the movies) and an ankle brace. She didn't have any crutches or anything, and I later found out that she got quite a thrill from crutching around.
The next few months are kind of a blur. I finished med-school and got an excellent job at a local hospital (which I explained in the beginning of the story). I think once Molly faked a sprained ankle, and she limped around for a day or two before I finally got the hint and brought home a brand new pair of crutches for her. She was thrilled. And I mean REALLY thrilled. I videotaped the event because I knew she would be excited, but this went WAY beyond excitement. Anyway, a few years passed and there were a few minor injuries that she faked, but nothing I really remember.
Then came the real thing. I was going into the last hour of my shift at the hospital when a call came in. It was Bill, an old school friend who now worked for the Police Department. He quickly gave me a message. My head was spinning after he finished the first sentence. All I really remember are a few words: "accident"; "drunk driver"; "head-on collision"; "your wife"; "broken leg"; and "on her way." You probably understand what it meant. Some asshole had been drinking too much and hit my wife's car! They suspected that she had a broken leg. The other driver was not injured at all, but he went to jail for quite a while...
The ambulance pulled up and I immediately took the stretcher and ran down to operating. Molly seemed in good condition, except for her leg. Luckily, it was a clean break and there should be no problem healing it up. She was awake, but very drowsy (probably due to all of the pain-killer that they stuffed into her). Getting the bone back into alignment was a snap (literally!). After a few X-rays and discussion, I re-aligned her leg. The bone popped back into place so easily, it even amazed me. Of course, she was still going to need a cast for about two months to let the bone fully heal. I could tell by the severity of the break (just because it went back together easily doesn't mean that it was a small break) that she would require a full leg cast, from her toes to her hips.
In she went into the casting room. By now she was awake. It was just me and her in the casting room, since my assistants knew I might want to be alone with my wife, and also because they knew I could handle it on my own. I was concentrating so hard on making a perfect cast, that I was startled when she spoke: "Oh Dan, it's beautiful!"
My eyes shot up at her. Her eyes were glittering. I asked her what she meant by that. I would have thought she would be upset, since I thought the cast would be a big hassle.
"Dan, I have a little fantasy that has always been with me. Your job was one of the things that I initially liked about you. You see, I simply LOVE any type of brace or cast that will restrain me in any way. The more restrained and helpless I feel, the better it is."
I was really speechless. I was getting a little suspicious when she always seemed to "sprain her ankle" or "twist her wrist" or something. I was in too deep a thought to really remember anything she said after that. I taught her the basics of crutching, sitting, walking and everything that a person does while they wear a cast. She probably already knew everything and was very experienced in it. By the time we were done with the lessons it had been almost 4 hours since I had applied the cast. Finally I cracked and said:
"God Molly, you look beautiful in that cast." I could almost feel myself enter this new world of wannabes.
In the coming weeks Molly introduced me to some Internet sites that dealt in this type of thing. Slowly I became very, very attracted to casts, and I began to want to wear one of my own. Of course, Molly wearing her full-leg cast this whole time helped to push me along. Every time I saw Molly's cast, I thought "I wish I had one of those."
I had worn a cast twice in the past. When I was six years old I slipped and got a small fracture in my lower right leg. I ended up getting a short walking cast for about a month and a half, but I barely remembered that. The other time was very recently; in fact it was when I was just starting in med-school. When we first started learning the basics of casting, our teacher, who I always liked and thought was really fun and cool, gave us a challenge. Well, it was an optional challenge. He said that he would demonstrate how to apply casts to a few of us, and the volunteers would each get a bunch of extra credit points. Always looking for a way to improve my grade I volunteered for a full arm cast. The deal was that I wear the cast for 3 days, after which he would demonstrate on how to remove the cast. I am right handed, and since I still needed to work with my right hand even if I had a cast, the cast was applied to my left hand. Our teacher was very skilled at this and the cast was not even the least bit uncomfortable. I didn't really have any feelings about these 3 days (I didn't like it but I sure didn't hate it). Although I did notice a significant increase in the number of women who glanced at me...
Back to Molly's cast. By the way, Molly and I agreed that we would not have sex until we were married for a year, in case the marriage went sour we would not have to deal with all of that extra stuff. Sure, we were tempted a lot but we stood by our promise. Now our anniversary was one week away, and Molly's cast wasn't scheduled to be removed for three weeks. Yikes! We both passionately wanted to have sex on out first anniversary, but Molly was in a cast! It would get in the way! Or would it? I began to think about this..
It was now the eve of our anniversary. Molly was reading a book and I was pretending to read the newspaper, but I was really preparing to ask her a very important question. After 15 minutes of panic, I gathered the guts to do it and spoke:
"Molly, I'm sure that you know what tomorrow is, and what will happen tomorrow night."
She grinned sneakily.
"By now I'm sure that we both know that we both have a deep fascination for casts and stuff, and if you wanted, I could get some stuff at work tomorrow and bring it home. I get all of next week off, so I wouldn't have to get back to work for a while if you wanted to experiment with some casts......"
I trailed off, waiting for a response.
"Oh Dan, that sounds lovely! I can hardly wait!"
I smiled. Oh, BOY!! What would I get? How would this work out? Jeez, I had a lot of planning to do.
Then next day seemed to go by very slowly, but as each hour passed I managed to sneak a few more toys into my bag. I knew how the system worked and I knew with the way the storage room was organized, you could clean the whole room out and no one would ever notice. However, I didn't want to steal too much stuff because in effect I was only hurting myself. If the next time some kid got a broken leg and I needed to make a cast--only we were out of plaster bandages--I'd be in quite a spot. By the time I left the building I had about 750 yards x 3" of plaster bandages, a bunch of stockinettes, lots of padding, some reinforces to put into the casts, a cast cutter, long wrist braces, and a neck collar.
This might not be enough for our needs, so on the way home I stopped by a novelty store and bought 2 pairs of padded cuffs, some spreader bars, and a blindfold. I told the salesman that they were "joke wedding gifts for my cousin." I bet he hears a lot of excuses.
I arrived home and carried my now-overflowing bag inside. Molly went ecstatic over the whole thing. We tried out a few combinations of cuffs and spreader bars for a while, and she got a kick out of putting on the neck collar and wrist braces. These braces were longer than the average wrist brace. These braces secured not only the wrist, but the elbow as well. They kept the elbow at a 90 degree angle. Well, they were customizable so it could really be any angle you wanted.
Molly got herself into quite a predicament. First she put on the neck collar, which kept her head from moving even the slightest bit. I then helped her into the wrist/elbow braces, and quickly expanded the angle until both arms were almost straight. The braces effectively kept her from moving her fingers, so she couldn't remove either of the wrist braces, and since her arms were straight she couldn't reach the neck brace. Go ahead, you try it. Extend both of your arms straight out and then try to touch your neck, only using your shoulders. It's impossible. She started complaining, but I could tell that she was enjoying it and was only a "fake" complaint. So before she knew what I was doing, I quickly cuffed her to a support beam in the middle of our living room and then went off to change clothes and get ready for dinner. The whole time I was getting dressed, Molly was giggling and complaining at the same time, so after about 10 minutes I released her. She NEVER would have escaped if I hadn't have helped her. But we didn't want to spoil the evening now, we were saving the best for after dinner....
To be continued...........