Brittany's Casts and Braces

Brittany was thinking back, while on her computer, looking at ebay and craigslist, about the first time she realized she wanted a back brace. She was in sixth grade and her classmate, Denise, after being out for quite a while after being told she had a back condition called "scoliosis" had this big brace that held her up rigidly, with a portion that included a chin rest that showed underneath her blouse. Even though Denise seemed very self conscious and uncomfortable wearing it, Brittany, from the moment she saw it, wanted to have one. She asked her doctor, at her next exam, if she might have scoliosis, but the doctor said "most certainly not. Your spine is perfect. Do you have any back pain or discomfort?" Brittney didn't want to lie as she was brought up by her parents to be very moral, so she told him the truth and said no, but she saw her classmate wearing a big back brace and liked the idea of having one so her doctor said, Brittany, "Back braces are for people who have back problems, not for those who are well. Try not to look for things that are part of people's misery" She understood, but the desire was so strong, it never left her mind, for the previous 2 years. Now that she was twenty, and had worked for 2 "gap" years to save some money for college, she figured now was the time to do it. She was now looking up Milwaukee and Halo braces on ebay, and wanted to buy both, but couldn't find one that might be at least close to her size, as she was fairly tall at 6'1" and thin at 155 pounds, and most of the braces were for girls who were about 5'2" to 5'7" and about 90 to 120 pounds. She decided to  look for certain places on the internet that catered to pretenders, those who like to imagine themselves handicapped. She only found ones that made prosthetic hooks and such along with leg braces. So, after thinking, she decided to call a local orthotist, and since she really was ACTING, she told the orthotist, once she arrived, that she was acting in a play and needed to have to have two different spinal orthoses made for her, which were the halo brace and milwaukee Brace. She explained that she didnt want pins going in her skull but she did want it very firm in some other way, so the orthotist, after discussing the cost, which came to about $3000.00, which seemed reasonable, vs psychiatric help which would cost the same without the benefit of the braces. He told her he's have to make a cast of her body to get the correct dimensions of the brace, and asked her when she'd like to do it.
Since it was still early in the day and she had no college classes, she said to him to do it now. She said if he could, would he make casts of her legs for leg braces too? He said okay, it's not a huge deal but it is about $200 per cast, so so far her tab was $3900 between the leg casts and boy cast. Then she asked what if we went the whole way and you did my arms and head as well, so I can have a full set? To her surprise, he agreed, since business was kind of slow, this time of May, and they got started. The casts were made, starting with her legs, and she asked if he could make the negative plaster casts so they could be lined and re-used, like medical casts and he smiled and agreed. He asked her if she was a caster or pretender, and she was kind of taken back but she smiled knowing what he meant and said yes, that's why she wanted to full set and wanted to pretend that she was in a bad accident. She wanted him to make the casts for the braces first, but in segments, make them sturdy so they could be re-lined, and then put them on her after being done so she could start right away. He asked her how was she going to get around and she explained that she had an electric wheelchair that her room-mate Sally was going to bring over once she was done. Sally was a pretender herself, who liked wearing leg braces and eyepatches so she understood about what  Brittany was doing and why.
It actually took all day to do the casts and plaster was all over the place, with splashes on her upper arms and face and legs, so it took time to clean up, and the plaster needed to dry. It was medium-fast setting so Joe the orthotist asked if she minded staying over the office in a spare bed while it hardened, and he would stay with her so she could have her needs taken care off and not have to go back and forth to and from the office. She was covered  head to toe in plaster bandages so she couldn't move a thing anyway, or see anything for that matter as her eyes were covered as well, with only her nose open so she could breathe, of course.
The plaster was mostly dry by 7:45 am so Joe started the removal process, and carefully did lateral cuts in the plaster, starting with Brittany's head so she could finally see and hear and so she could have breakfast. Joe bought 2 Big Breakfasts at McDonalds across the street and before he ate, he fed her since her arms were still locked in plaster to her fingertips from her shoulders down, bent at the elbows. He wiped her mouth and then started to remove her arm-casts, cutting them on both sides so they would still be solid after being relined.He followed that up with the leg casts and finally the torso-body portion. After removal, he explained that in his excitement, he forgot he needed to use the casts as moulds for the braces! He said he would re-cast her so she could enjoy the experience, at no cost, since he made the mistake of forgetting and he had some older plaster he needed to use up, since he put in for a large shipment from 3M. He asked her what she's like for now, and she had him put her in two long leg casts with it up to her groin, the knees slightly bent, the ankles pointed downward and feet bent inward as if she had club-feet and with toe plates. She had him make 1 long arm cast for her leftarm including the thumb and 2 small ring and pinky fingers and a short arm finger thumb spica for the right, but then changed her mind and make them both long arm casts going almost to her armpits. The body portion was to be a "Minerva" cast" which held her back upright but her head flexed somewhat to the left and it would cover most of her head but have an opening for her face. He did all of that and he called her room-mate Sally to pick her up. He had already called her the previous after-noon explaining that she would be staying over. Joe's clinic was fairly large and had a hospital bed so that if he or a patient needed to stay over, they could, and if the patient stayed, Joe slept on the couch.
Sally, after a somewhat brief struggle to get the heavy electric wheelchair out of the minivan finally succeeded when a large well-built man walked by and helped her with it. She rolled it in, and told Brittany that she fully charged the electric battery the night before, so it probably was a good thing she didn't ask for it at that time, as the battery was almost all the way down.
Brittany was in ecstasy, she could finally play the role of a handicapped person, and she had a friend who was a medical doctor write a medical note, saying she had severe scoliois, complicated by kyphosis and club feet and 2 broken arms for a fall. She wore the casts for 4 weeks while the braces were being prepared, and when the day came, just after Flag Day June 14, she went to the orthotist, where he removed the casts and carefully applied the new braces. She opted to start with the Milwaukee Brace, to make sure it fit properly, but then had him place her in the Halo Brace,   which had rubber attachments that held her held firmly at 4 junctions, and it had the vest portion with openings for her breasts and her stomach which though fairly flat, still needed some room. The arm casts were to be kept on for another 4 weeks, because of the "fractures" for realism, but the leg casts were removed and the leg braces were put on which were KAFO's holding the ankles firmly and the knees at a restricted flexion. She intended to wear them all day, everyday, removing them only at night, but the halo brace was to be on for 8 weeks, when the Milwaukee would be worn from then onward.