Slice of life

It turns out that getting a cast off is not all that it is made up to be. They take a big electric saw and try to chop my arm off. (It actually doesn't cut at the right frequency to cut skin, but it is still kind of weird watching them use a giant circular saw to cut the cast). After that attempt to cut the arm off, they take a big crab crusher and use it to pry open the cast. They take off the big sock looking thing, which by now looks like it is made of mud its so dirty. They leave for a little while I get to wash my arm, which feels really weird after being in a cast for so long, but after sensation comes back to my arm, feels pretty good. I get to scratch my unbearably itchy arm, they check to make sure there was no nerve damage, and I'm off and good to go. They say to come back if I can't move my elbow normally within three weeks.
After the cast is off, I now need to work hard every day to get my elbow back to normal workings. At first, it doesn't move at all, which is a really weird sensation. Then, as I try every day, my elbow slowly gets back to working normally. After my elbow is starting to work normally, I have to get my arm to not look like a mummy's. I have to wash it over and over to get rid of the thick layers of dead skin. Then I have to use an exercise ball to get my lower arm muscle back, and I have to lift heavy objects in order to have my biceps even show up. By now, I feel like I am starting to use my arm again, three and a half weeks after I had my cast taken off.
People always make it sound like as soon as the cast is off, the arm will immediately feel better and back to normal. It does feel nice to be able to scratch and alleviate the itching a little, but the arm is basically a useless, itchy piece of skin for the next two weeks.