This is what was under my old black cast; i finally got to give the itchy parts a scratch (don’t scroll down if like me you faint or this may be a trigger)

And under the sheet is a padded thing and the end of the metal pins 

And here are the pins in my skin (i.e. don’t scroll down if like me you faint or this may be a trigger). The blue lines show how far they are in the hand; and where they meet, the holes are at one end of the bone, and the other end of the pins are at the other end of the bone 

Here are the pair of highly technical players used to pull them out

And my new longer cast 🙁