Give me strength!
So, the “official” physio visit went well, she was very good, confirmed I have good elasticity in the tendon. Didn’t mind that I was driving already and confirmed that swimming, static bike, rowing machine etc. were OK for cardio work. However, this visit and the visit to the “other” physio the next day has confirmed that it’s a long old road. Like most, to this point I’ve been really trying to speed the recovery, got out of the cast and boot as fast as I could, got into two shoes, started driving etc. etc. Actually I’m feeling exactly the same as the sentiments posted by Mark: http://achillesblog.com/mstahlka/2009/05/11/2-months-or-8-weeks-or-56-days-or-1344-hours-or-80640-minutes/
The focus for me is now to try and build back some strength, at the moment there is no way I can raise the heel on my bad leg, my limp is getting better but is still so obviously there. My exercises are basically to try and do this (without cheating by leaning forward!). The NHS physio has given me an exercise of sitting down, keeping the toes flat on the bad leg and then lifting it as far as the planta-flexion will allow (i.e. so I’m effectively on top toe but sitting down with the good leg there for support). Then with both hands push down on the knee of the bad leg and try and resist that. Doing this you can really feel how weak the bad leg truely is and I too have one of Mark’s “wiggley jiggly piece of flubber” for a calf muscle.
Now the initial shock of the injury and the crutches and boot are gone it does start to dawn than this truely is a marathon and not a sprint. My next target? Get rid of the limp (by focussing on walking properly - i.e. pushing off from the toes of the bad leg). After that I’d love to start some gentle jogging, but I can’t see that happening anytime soon.
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