coming up on final pt session

Last one scheduled for Monday, then I’m trusted to build up strength all by myself! I’ve progressed from 5/10/15 heel raise sets to 10/20/30s. First sequence is hold each rep for 5 seconds, second hold each rep for 1 second, and third is a fast pulse through the reps.  I’m getting a good couple inches off the ground when not fatigued – still small potatoes as compared to non op leg. 

Today, I did something that felt crazy. I looked up strengthening and coordination drills to prepare for jogging. I don’t know if I’ll do the actual jogging but the drills themselves look like fun. 

What I need to do, is something every day. Right now, any time my work schedule goes slightly off kilter, I abandon my routine, and that is kind of counterintuitive to the idea of “a routine”. At any rate, I do get some shooting pains in the tendon of it’s been a physically demanding day. I prefer to think of it as healing pains. They are about 1/10 of 1% if the pain I lived with daily pre op, so I’ll take it. Strength wise, I have quite a ways to go, but I’m convinced the op side was pretty weak long before surgery. Ol lefty has been getting dumped on for many years and is ready for righty to step up and do her share. 

17 weeks out

Back to work full duty last week, unceremoniously. I’m still going to PT once a week for about another month, where we’re going to work on strengthening and handling awkward landings. I don’t have pain with activity any more, just stiffness and the calf and tendon are still a little weak. I do get some shooting pains at the end of the day sometimes, in the tendon. They are nothing like what I dealt with before surgery, so they’re easy to dismiss. 

Admittedly, I don’t stretch or massage nearly as much as I’m supposed to. I was walking in the morning before work every day, but life got in the way in the past week. I’m definitely better off when walking every day. 

Now the trick is to develop a routine and stick to it. All in all, this surgery was a great success. Every morning I wake up and put both feet (all the way down on) the floor, no pain! I am enjoying everyday stuff like walking the dog and golfing, that caused me great pain the past two years. I can envision actually hiking and being more active this summer, rather than shrinking my life to fit into the little box the pain allowed. 

I was on the fence for years about having the surgery, mainly due to a lot of conflicting accounts I read online when digging for information. I can say definitively now, I’d do it again, given the same surgeon and physical therapist. So if you’re reading this because you’re indecisive like I was, find yourself an aggressive physical therapist, and ask THEM if they have an OS they recommend. 

14 weeks out, a big milestone!

I did a heel raise yesterday in PT! Actually, I did a couple 

We had been working on it by having me go up on both toes, then taking the strong foot off the ground and holding the raise with the op foot and controlling the descent. I was able, yesterday, to get the heel off the ground by itself. Now, compared to the strong side it was a pretty pitiful heel raise, but it was off the ground at least a couple inches with no help from the other side.

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be in PT. I know I am going next week, and he talked about addressing some of the awkward landings I will likely encounter functionally when I get back to work. That is why I trust this guy so much. He takes into account what you’ll need to actually do functionally day to day, and step by step he incorporates stuff to strengthen and prepare you for just that.

The area that I was feeling the “zings” on both sides? The PT massaged them and it definitely felt better and freer for me after that, even though the massage alternately burned and stung. He said the tissue felt like bone, and he was huffing and puffing after doing the massage. It is all soft tissue area, so “feels like bone” was kind of ominous to hear. How arthritic is this ankle going to be? I have had a couple of bad sprains to that ankle, one that healed badly a long time ago, and another recently, that I was smart and did PT immediately after. I massaged the areas myself the next couple of nights before bed. I felt distinct crunching under my fingers in small (fingertip size) areas of the massage. I couldn’t locate the crunch the next time I massaged, and my ankle feels freer than it has in months. My PT said it was quite possibly old adhesions from prior sprains, plus the period of immobility in the boot. It’s not crunching anymore when I massage it, so it must have busted something loose!

 

In 5 days I go back to the OS for xrays and followup, and I’m hoping to hear the magic words – back to work!