PT Day 2

More of the same, only a little faster and stronger.

I was up to 2.1mph on the treadmill and went for 25 minutes. Did not fatigue as early and my gait was at least 50% better. I listened to music but kept one ear free to listen for my footsteps. Definitely more even today. 

Did my reps on the wooden balance board, then moved on to the BAPS board and added a handful of reps clockwise/counterclockwise. 

He showed me some passive stretches using a belt around my foot, as my calf is now tight. Definite progress between Monday and today! 

Day After PT

I was so sore last night when I went to bed I briefly considered my pain med options; I still have lots of Oxycodone left over from surgery and Advil PM. I had pain on the bottom off my heel (expected), and some intermittent shooting pains around the area of my Haglund’s excision and Achilles repair. We did hit the hot tub before bed, and that always helps. I stuck my foot over one of the lower jets and blasted the bottom of my foot where the fascia was throbbing. I think that helped. Decided to tough it out and see if I could just go to bed and fall asleep. I did. 

Woke up without soreness. Did some ROM before getting out of bed, which I think helped quite a bit. Going to ask the PT for some safe calf stretches even I see him tomorrow. Feeling tightness in the right calf and it’s inhibiting my gait quite a bit. 

I noticed my gait seems a little better today than yesterday. Definitely trying to be conscious of the heel to toe movement and practice that instead of falling back on the flat footed waddle. Progress! Slow, but progress. 

First PT Session – Bring the Pain!

After a quick eval, my PT determined that I have very good strength and pretty good ROM for 8 weeks out. The focus will be on gait retraining, proprioception/ROM, and strengthening.

Though my gait has improved even over the past 48 hours, I am still doing what I call the “Haglund’s Hop” – the stilted, hoppy kind of limp I’ve had for probably two years.

Today’s session:

20 minutes treadmill walking, focusing on the heel-to-toe movement of the gait and taking even steps. That was so much more difficult to do than it sounded. The clunky uneven sound of my feet hitting the deck was really annoying me.

100 reps each on balance board of: dorsiflexion/plantarflexion, inversion/eversion

I’ll be doing those ROM exercises seated at home, and going to PT 3 times per week. He is confident I will be cleared to go back to full duty at work in 6 weeks when I go to my followup. That is really on track with what my ortho had given me as a “best case scenario” for returning to work. I’m really grateful to have had quick and uneventful healing.

Right now, my best friends are the gel heel pad I’ve stuck in my right shoe, and achillesblog.com – great source of info.

Day 2 Boot-Free

It’s been a great day. It only took me five minutes to get dressed, and I didn’t have to choose my pants based on whether or not they’d fit over or above Das Boot. I drove with both feet on the same side of the car where they belong. I did not have to deal with the wet ground to hard floor transition with crutches – which is a situation that is ripe for face-planting. 

Still have a funny stilted gait, my boss pointed out many times on the way to a meeting that I was limping. I found that taking smaller steps helps me with the proper heel to toe motion. Promised myself when I could walk, I would. As we’re having below zero wind chills and my neighborhood is all hills, I headed to the gym intent on doing 20 minutes of something, however small.

 Ten minutes on the elliptical about wiped me out; surgery leg is still very weak and atrophied. I did note that there was no discomfort to the Achilles. Just stiff.  Decided ten minutes of the elliptical was enough, given my propensity to overdo. Did twenty minutes on the stationary bike, making sure my foot was flat on the pedals. That felt good. It also illustrated I’m waay out of cardio shape. Avoided strength work. I have pt Monday and I’ll wait for the therapist to recommend some strengthening exercises. 

 

 

All in all, day one in two shoes was a success. Let’s see if I’m sore tomorrow. 

Random Thoughts

• got PAID! Now, to knock off some small balances and pay some bills
• Driving has become a commonplace thing now. So is going out without crutches.  I’m prepared to be yelled at.
• Follow up coming up Thursday. I didn’t really ask many questions at my first one, so I’m going to be vomiting questions all over the place and begging to start pt.  After I get yelled at.
• I want to take my dog for a walk so badly

A Few Tentative Steps

Or, to be more descriptive – minimal amounts of boot-free waddling. 

I have been tentatively putting more weight on the non booted foot – when getting dressed, when I forget something a few steps away. I do this pensive little waddle because I don’t want to pick my foot up too much, then put it down wrong.

No real pain, just a stretching sensation in my arch, which hasn’t had to do much work lately. I think I’ll have to really make an effort to take it slow once in two shoes, or I’ll end up with a raging case of plantar fasciitis. 

I really need to convince my ortho to speed things up a little. Or get a good reason from him why not. 

Halle-freakin-llujah!

My AFLAC agent just called me to tell me my first checks are finally on the way.  

I started this process on December 12, bringing my paperwork to my first follow-up for them to fill out. I even printed out my own op report for them. Two weeks turnaround tops, right? 

NOPE. 

After a month of vague denial letters and the Dr’s office sitting on my (incorrect) paperwork, finally it’s happening. Now, my head is spinning with the nuts and bolts of how to distribute and save the funds. I have one credit card in particular that’s bore the brunt of this past couple months. A chimney that needs to be repointed and reflashed – or completely torn down and replaced – depending on who you talk to. And that has to be done in the next couple of weeks. A bunch of other credit cards that financed the remodeling of the house that’s hopefully not mine anymore, in a little over 3 weeks. 

 

What have we learned here? 

• Be persistent. If I had just waited for the doctor’s office to get my claim right, I’d still be sitting here wondering what’s going on and bitching about how long it takes
• Make sure the doctor’s office sends paperwork to you and not directly to disability carrier. If I had gotten an opportunity to see the messed up physician’s statement, I might have saved myself two weeks of red tape and uncertainty
• Getting my agent involved is what turned this around. Not because he had special pull, but because instead of the vague denials, he had specifics on what was wrong with the claims and what exactly was needed to fix them. 
• Sometimes you need to explain stuff in your own words. I figured it may or may not help, my two page outline of what happened when, but it sure wouldn’t hurt.