I’ve been silent over the last 4 weeks mainly out of frustration. I’m now 17 weeks in and over the last 1-2 weeks I’ve finally shaken the limp, but I still lack strength to do a single leg heel raise without assistance (like beanie’s week 16 post video). I can jog with a decent limp and just for entertainment purposes, I did 6 mph on a treadmill the other day just to see how it felt. No pain.
My heel now has a noticeable protrusion/lump of scar tissue which looks awful. I looked back at old pictures and this definitely did not exist at say, the 8 week mark. I guess more scar tissue has formed since then, but I’m hoping there’s something I can do it get back to the range of normalcy.
I’ve also still been plagued by pain on the inside of my ankle bone when I dorsiflex hard or use as much strength for pushing off as I can. My PT and sports chiro have both been perplexed by this, and I’m having a follow up with my doc next week. I think that has hindered my strength progression, but I don’t know for sure. It feels like it must be something on the bone rather than soft tissue, because it is only sore at one specific spot.
I’m beyond frustrated and just wish I could feel normal again, let alone being back to 100%.
Pictures of my 2 ankles for comparison are attached. Well…if someone can help with how to post pics, that’d be great.
4 responses so far ↓
s40love // Mar 17th 2016 at 8:58 am
Congrats, 17 weeks and no pain when jogging at 6mph! This is the first thing I hope for, to be able to run normal again… Just curious, how long did you run without pain?
Manny // Mar 17th 2016 at 11:31 am
Jay, congrats on the progress. As for the frustration, I can relate to it but “things are what they are”. Jogging already? Two miracle workers on this blog site? Wow!
As for the lump, as a parent I don’t ever remember scar tissue growing larger once the wound healed, so I would definitely make sure the doc looks at it next week. You didn’t mention pain in the lump, but it could be related to the other pain you report (dorsiflexing, I think you said?)
Good luck, and keep on posting!……… Manny
metonia // Mar 17th 2016 at 12:32 pm
Hi Jay, I would definitely follow up with your doctor on this. A condition called Keloid growth which means excessive scarring could be the cause of the sudden larger scar. Someone has a post on limiting scarring but I don’t know who it was. Vitamin E oil rubbed over the scar can help.
There are also a few expensive scar prevention creams on the market.
As for the other painful area on the inner ankle, I would ask your doctor to xray to be sure an anchor has not worked it’s way loose and began working out of the bone. It’s very rare but not impossible.
jayli // Mar 17th 2016 at 12:40 pm
Hi everyone - first, thanks for the words of encouragement. I know we’re all in this together but it’s hard not to get down sometimes.
I only ran about 30 seconds at the 6mph mark - I just wanted to see how it would feel and if I could hold that speed. I think I could easily jog at that pace for a while, but again - my gait is not pretty as it’s noticeable I’m not getting push off my toes in my bad leg. I can’t wait until I can run normally again, but that day remains a long way off.
To clarify, it’s not the external scar that has shown any growth - it’s the area underneath the skin, right above my heel. Almost as if the scar tissue just got thicker underneath my skin. It’s not painful, but it sure does make for an ugly silhouette. Frankly, the picture I posted does not do it justice.
My external scar has been hypertrophic for most of the time (any idea what causes that?), and I’ve used Mederma and silicone patches for a while now. Only so much you can do, I guess.
When I last saw the doc and mentioned the ankle bone pain, he thought it was stiffness that would go away. It’s improved, but very much still there. As far as I’m aware, there’s no hardware inside my leg except for the sutures that held the tendon together.
I’m definitely most frustrated by the lack of calf strength - doing a single leg heel raise that I can hold (right now I can get it up but I drop down very quickly) seems so far away.
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