Hi on july 4 I sprain my ankle/ foot playing volleyball, i was put in to a fiberglass cast. but I was suffereing major anxiety and panic attacks and had the cast cut off in the ER the first day. Well I have been having pain and instability ever since and I am scheduled to have a modified brostrom on 1/19 and put in to a cast for 4 weeks. I am terrified of the cast. You would think I would be more terrified of the surgery but i cant get past the feelings i had in that cast. I do not know if i will be able to keep it on. Has anyone had this problem? Is there anything i can do or take to keep the panic attacks away? I appreciate your help with my "cast-trophobia" problem

Carol

Hi Carol,

Sure. I had a patient a few years back that ended up in the ED with symptoms of a heart attack that were simply symptoms of extreme anxiety from his cast. He was a big, strong, strapping guy who worked at the local drag strip. Needless to say, he was no sissy but just got the same cast-trophobia as you describe.

First, make sure your surgeon knows your concerns. S/he is going to stress the hard cast with the nature of the surgery. But I'm sure that your doc could do two things. First would be to use a splint of some sort or a removable cast. But to do so, I'm sure s/he is going to require you to raise your right hand and swear on a stack of bibles to be good.

Second would be to use an anti-anxiety agent like Xanax during the course of your cast.

Jeff

Thank you Dr. for replying. I did mention the phobia to him and he said he will put a split cast on. I honestly have doubts that will help since it will still be so constraining. I will ask him for the xanax. thanks for your input.
carol