One Year Anniversary! May 2016
May 14, 2016Today is May 14, 2016. I ruptured on May 10, 2015 and had surgery on May 20, 2015 so it is my one year anniversary. I went back to see the surgeon for a one year check about 2 weeks ago - everything looked fine to him.
So - one year later I have progressed to the point that I can pretty much do anything I could do before the rupture. I am jogging every day. I jog at 5 mph for about 30 minutes. Before the injury my daily run was at 6 mph, but I am still working out of the loss of endurance and gain of weight that came with my recovery over the past year. I plan to run the Army Ten Miler in Washington in the Fall and will continue training. My running training is basically completely normal. My ankle is not sore afterwards, I do just fine.
Daily activities are not affected at all by the ankle. It is sometimes a little bit stiff in the morning (the first thing I do is walk down stairs) but that goes away with my normal activity. I started doing one legged calf raises just about 2-3 weeks ago. It is still hard for me to get up on my toe using only the repaired ankle, but I can hold my body weight on the injured side without any problem. I continue to do calf raises and stretches in addition to my running.
My calves are totally symmetrical - no sign of the atrophy which was so pronounced just a couple of weeks after the injury. I have absolutely no fear of putting any strain or force on the repaired ankle.
It was a tough injury and I was so lucky to have great support from my family, flexibility at work, access to a great surgeon and physical therapists, and generally good health. The exercise and therapy are what have gotten me through this. I wish everyone the best of luck in dealing with their injuries - and I encourage you to read back in my blog if you want advice on any stage of your first year of recovery.
Peace out.