Watch sports Injury Recovery Video and Protocol
July 7, 2011 by crutchman
Hi everyone
Just wanted to share two links that i found useful and encouraging.
Watch elsurfer walk at 5.5 weeks after a sports enjury below. I was surprised and encouraged. Is this the normal to walk this soon?
I recommend elsurfer’s blog to anyone who wants to see video of his progress during different stages after his sports enjury.
elsurfer blog
A protocol which I also found helpful. It states that during first 2 weeks post op i need to wiggle my toes on the injured foot every now and then to get the circulation going. Is that good advice? It sure feels good doing it, I can feel my AT move a bit though, no pain.
My progress: it’s day 9 post op and apart from a few close calls where i was about to fall using my crutches to go to he bathroom, My AT is healing nicely. By the way i notice just when your about to fall your foot will take it’s natural position to land on the floor even with the cast on. Very strange. Thank god i did not fall and all that I felt was just a sting that lasted a few minutes. Im also starting to feel an itch on my AT area.
Crutchman, that protocol might work, but (a) some of the info seems outdated, based on the latest studies, and (b) I recommend the protocol from the latest study that produced excellent results (with AND without surgery). I’ve posted the protocol at bit.ly/UWOProtocol , and the study is linked from the “studies, protocols. . .” page on the Main Page here. It’s often called the UWO study (U. of Western Ontario), Keith Willets is the chief author, and it was published in 2010.
For my money/time/health, I’d rather go with a protocol that produced excellent results in a large successful study, than one that’s used by a big institution. The former has been demonstrated to work, and you can read the results. The latter is “the way it’s done” somewhere, which may or may not produce the best results, and you can’t read the results.
Each doctor, and each hospital, seems to have a version of “the way it’s done”, and they’re all over the block. Every once in a while, somebody does a study to compare two approaches, or something similar, which actually produces some evidence. It’s not easy to do a “do-over” with this recovery, so I recommend going with the evidence.
For your Qs: (1) walking barefoot at 5.5 weeks is quicker than average, though my PT had me hobbling from one station to another earlier than that. But actually getting around bootless waits ’til 8 weeks in the UWO protocol (and many other relatively aggressive ones), and often much longer (in protocols I consider “older-fashioned”).
(2) Gently wiggling toes in a cast or splint or boot seems to help, and is often recommended. Feeling tension on your AT when you do it is more aggressive than often recommended, though several people (doug57 here comes to mind) have done so and recovered quickly and well.
My fave protocol includes a series of gentle out-of-boot exercises starting at 2 weeks, and gentle PT and PWB starting at the same time. (And not much before that.)
His walking at 5.5 weeks isn’t technically walking, its just using the heel which I can vouch is fine even when the achilles is ruptured as its how I got to/from the car/shower/hospital post-injury but pre-cast.
I’m now 8 weeks and out the boot and have pretty much followed the UWO protocol (not directly, just had a similar path) and everything is going well and fine.
As mentioned on another post, I know doug57 is always held up as a shining beacon of moving quickly but on reading his posts again, only going to 2 shoes was quicker, everything else worked out at a similar timescale eg. not doing jump shots in basketball until 9 months.
I think what needs to be added are further stages of goals as too much emphasis seems to be on “2 shoes” as the main thing to get too, when personally “doing sports” is when I will consider myself healed. Perhaps goals such as (forgive me if the order is wrong):
* PWB
* FWB
* “2 shoes”
* Walking without limp & with normal push off
* Jogging as above
* 2 footed raises
* 1 footed raises
* Controlled jumping
* Full on sports/plyometrics type activity
btw don’t let me take away from how well he’s doing as I hope I’m doing as well as him at 6 months, but checking his last post he even says himself “I really think it’ll be a 1 year gig for me.” when referring how long until 100% normality.
Once again…a question for all of u experts. I have just started to FWB in the Vacocast, with the boot locked in at approximately 70 degrees or just below neutral dOrsiflexion. Would it b appropriate to move the boot to the neutral position and WB that way? I am just over 8 weeks in. I love the vaco by the way!
Bcurr - I agree that some people do focus on the 2 shoes as if that is the end of the recovery but in fact it is the beginning. Getting back into shoes can help people mentally though. It is a bit like reclaiming that part of your life but the earlier you do means longer to be more careful. Regarding this U tube video. I saw this months ago and was not too surprised. As you say, the barefoot walking is not really walking properly. The right foot is turned out and the lack of dorsi flexion gives him a limp. Wearing runners with what I suspect some extra elevation in the heel takes away the need to dorsi flex and the gait is better. I don’t think walking barefoot around the house at this point is particularly helpful if that is what you are doing. I kept a pair of runners handy to me at all times remembering what my doctor and phsyio had told me and wanting to avoid an unfortunate accident. I again think you are right that the focus should be on the end game. Myself, jogging would come after 1 leg heel raise but don’t take this as a disagreement with your thinking, just a personal difference. It’s good you get this type of thinking going.
Stuart - my list was pretty much just off the top of my head and had zero foundation, just wanted to get the idea down!
With regards walking barefoot round the house, not sure if you were referring to me as I don’t think I mentioned being barefoot but it is how I walk round the house, but thats out of habit of never wearing footwear indoors. What are the issues with walking barefoot? So far everything seems OK. I’ve concentrated totally on walking correctly rather than just trying to walk and apart from the “dip and push off” as norm calls it, the rest is pretty good in terms of walking “correctly”.
Bcurr - I wasn’t refering to you with the barefoot. We all do it but I guess I was making the point that at 5 weeks and walking like the video with the foot out and limping is not doing you any favours. Walking properly with a shorter step and only as fast as you can is OK. I think you are around 8 weeks so there is less risk for you. Regarding the other stuff - it’s always good to provoke some disuccsion and thought and you do that well so keep it up.