3 months post op

It has been a very long time since I have posted! This site was a great security blanket when I had first injured myself and I had lots of time to sit at my computer. Now it is back to the daily grind… with a limp. I had a little set back a few weeks ago. Sort of a big set back, really. Long story short, about 2 weeks ago my leg started swelling up and getting really, really painful. It turns out I have 2 blood clots in my lower leg from the injury. No one seems sure how long they have been there, but they definitely hampered my recovery. Now I am on blood thinners and am back on the road to recovery. I did my PT for the most part except there were a few weeks when my leg kept hurting so I kept “resting” thinking the pain was caused by my over exerting myself…
I am curious. Does anyone else who is around 3 months still have a pretty good limp? I still cannot walk up the stairs without turning out my foot a bit and I can walk/limp pretty well but I am not speedy.
Just curious!
I hope everyone is staying warm and dry. I am in San Francisco and we are having the most incredible amount of rain I have seen in a while. Evidently Tahoe is going to get 10 feet of snow this week! Boy do I wish I could ski!
On that note, I must say that this injury has slowed me down in some good ways, too. I am enjoying more quality time at home with my kids. We used to always be out and about but after 9 weeks of not driving, we got pretty used to chilling at home and we really enjoy it! Nice to have some silver linings…

Cheers,
Catherine

Thanksgiving Day Update 5 weeks 2 days Post Op!

As I sit here doing my 3rd set of exercises for the day, I thought I would do an update. I have been PWB for almost 2 weeks and feel like I will get to FWB in the next few days. I feel like it will help if I can get rid of my heel lift so I look forward to seeing my DR. on Monday and seeing what he thinks of that plan. I was really hoping to try driving this weekend but think I will postpone that until I am comfortably FWB. I have had to really ramp up my icing and elevating now that I am putting so much weight on my foot. I wonder if that is normal? My PT really wants me to try to get a shoe on my foot and to wear my shoe when I ride the bike (20 minutes 3-5 times per week). He suggest running shoes or cowboy boots. I don’t have cowboy boots and my running shoes are old and feel super tight so I may go out and buy a new pair maybe a 1/2 size larger than normal. Or does anyone have another suggestion for that 1st shoe? Sort of scary and sort of exciting to imagine 2 normal shoes on my feet!!! I hope everyone in the US had a nice Thanksgiving and the rest of you had a nice day!

cheers,
Catherine

When do folks start PWB?

Hi All,

My doctor may be a good surgeon, but his office is TERRIBLE about answering my questions so I thought I would ping all of you!  I have some confusion on my PT schedule.  It is unclear what the start date is for the schedule; Is it when I had the surgery? or when I got the boot?  (My PT thinks “Week 1″ refers to the first week after surgery so he already has me starting on “week 4″ which include PWB - but I thought “week 1″ was the first week I had on the boot which is when my dr. had me start flexing and pointing my foot)  Of course, my dr. and his worthless assistant will not answer my calls…

While I know none of you can answer this, what I thought you could tell me is when you started your PWB?  While I like the idea that I could start PWB already, I am super scared of re-rupturing and being misguided by folks who don’t seem too concerned with the post-surgical part of this experience.

Thanks in advance!!!

Catherine/3littleones

Pain in my calf?

I am now 11 days post op! For the past 2 days, when I elevate my leg and then lower if, I get a pain, almost like a cramp in my calf. It feels like I need to stretch it or massage it to make it go away. Does anyone else get that?

Thanks!

8 days post op

Hmmm… I am in much less pain so am doing much more during the day, but the nights are tough. I have been getting this weird pressure on the top of my foot and the back of my lower calf. Is this just the swelling from doing too much? SHould I be lying around more doing nothing? It is so hard to balance - or figure out how to balance - recovery.

Day 2 after surgery pain is so, so much better

So now I am almost through my second day post-op. The pain is better although I have pretty much been laying around with my leg elevated the whole time. My email box is cleaned, my iPhotos organized, bill are paid and the family budget spreadsheet is updated. I have even sewn buttons on my daughters uniform that have been missing for a year.
Now my big question is, how long will I be able to last if I try to go somewhere for an outing? My doctor told me I needed to lay around and keep my leg elevated for 2 days. So I am curious how people felt after those 2 days are up? Since I can’t drive, I’m quite limited on what I can do, but I would love to go out for lunch or something! And my daughter is performing in a talent show in 2 days which I really want to see, but I need to walk about 1/2 mile (total) to do that. Am I crazy to try it?

Thanks to everyone for the advice on a knee scooter, I ordered it and hopefully it will arrive tomorrow! Will report how it works…

had my surgery today

Hello. I just had my surgery today on my right ankle. I am not in too much pain but am flabbergasted that this happened to me! It is the fact that I have 3 young kids (my youngest is 17month) and I cannot drive let alone really get around the house. I have seen this Knee crutch and am wondering if anyone has tried one that they recommend?

I’ve just joined the club

Hi.  I am 41 and now that I am not nursing and I have finally gotten pretty close to a good weight and fitness level after the up and down roller coaster of 3 pregnancies I was really enjoying playing more tennis.  I love, love, love playing tennis!  I also run, do yoga, ski, hike and bike.  I was running for a drop shot on the court (had been playing for 1+ hour, was completely warmed up) when I heard the most horrfic noise as I flew to the ground.  Instinctively, I just knew exactly what I had done even though I had never heard it could happen just “doing” - I thought you had to get whacked in the heel or something to blow your AT!

In injured myself on a Friday and had the surgery on a Tuesday (today) so am glad that the recovery period has officially started.  Thank goodness for all of you and your fun entries and advice, I have a feeling this is going to be my lifeline!

Well, I am sure I will write more soon, but just wanted to start my blog.  I know I will have many many questions and I am really anxious to get mobile quickly since I am a mom of 3 and my kids go to 2 different schools both far from our home so I do a huge amount of driving.  This now means I am hugely dependent on a lot of help from friends and family and I want to start paying them back asap!