2 shoes / 12 weeks atr post op
I have been doing exercises at PT for a week in 2 shoes. Ride stationary bike, stretching, balance board, squat and calf raises on machine light resistance, hip strengthening with bands, as well as manual therapy on the tendon. I also have been walking around the house and office with two shoes but wear the walking boot outside of that. I am way too slow to go anywhere without the boot, my stride is short plus I don’t have any strength in my leg to keep correct balance and have a decent stride. It feels ok to walk on it except in the morning it is really stiff and I can barely step with it, more or less shuffle until it warms up.
I feel the strength building in my leg but I still have a very tight tendon according to my PT. The tendon to the touch is feeling loose except right at the base of my heel where it is still tight and fat and they work on that manually. I am not looking at this as a negative just yet, it seems like it is better to be tight than loose feeling, meeting with the OS tomorrow for my follow up visit. I have been able to dorsiflex 4-5 degrees actively and a few more passively. I am pretty sure the OS didn’t want me to be upright on 2 shoes until the visit but according to my PT I was ready so we started a week early.
PT is pretty enjoyable for the most part, there is a good group of trainers and assistants who enjoy their jobs and keep up with all the happenings on the local teams so it is real easy to have conversation with them plus with my history of sports injuries there is always something to talk about. I go at the end of the day so I can sneak in an upper body workout a few times a week since I suspended my gym membership, I dont have the time to do both although I would be up for getting back to the gym. My PT is pretty new and has everything you can imagine but no Alter G treadmill, I asked the PT about this and they said other branches have one but it is something I assumed every new therapy place would have. Pretty bummed about that as I have read a lot of blogs mentioning their usefulness.
I get pain in my leg only after being upright for too long say an hour plus straight but not too bad, I ice after PT and at night on and off before I go to bed as it swells by the end of the day. Overall feel much better about this situation, I am still keeping June 14th 5k mud run on my calendar, I may walk it but I am pretty sure I wont have to sit it out.