jla2010’s AchillesBlog

I began PT and wearing two shoes in the house last week. (I’m still wearing the boot when I go outside) The therapist did the evaluation and said I am doing very well and am ahead of schedule. He knows me well since he worked with me after my rotator cuff surgery as well. (Complete rupture there as well) It’s great to work with someone who knows me and knows that I’m highly motivated to get back to normal. I’m sure that’s why he warned me about overdoing it.

We’ve done three days of PT so far with all of the exercises that I’m sure all of you who are doing PT are already familiar with. We’re doing two 10-minute sessions on the “bike” each day with the balls of my feet on the pedals as well. It feels great.

I feel very fortunate that I’ve had no pain or stiffness since my surgery. I am pain free after PT as well. (Unlike rotator cuff PT, which can be extremely painful) I was most surprised at the first PT session by the “clunkiness” of my foot. I was prepared for the weak calf muscle but every muscle in the foot seemed to have forgotten how to walk. But I was also surprised that after only two days of PT, how quickly the foot responds. By the end of the third day, my foot seemed to be remembering what it needed to do and my gait has greatly improved. This past week, my longest time at balancing on my bad foot has gone from 5 seconds to 50 seconds, though it’s inconsistent. I still have a long way to go but it is all very encouraging.

Although I’m only wearing two shoes inside for now, it feels great to be out of the boot whenever possible.

Any advice on this stage from those of you who are well past this stage of recovery?

That’s it for now.

Keep healing.

Hi all, I recently had the following discussion with duncmck and Norm on the Site-Wide Recent Comments about balancing out our hips while in the cam walker to make walking easier, more comfortable and less likely to cause hip, back or knee problems.

— “I put insoles in my good foot’s shoe but that isn’t quite enough to balance me as much as I’d like. It doesn’t make up for the thickness of the sole of the cam walker. So I took my right shoe (good foot) to a shoe repair shop and he put sole material under my shoe until I felt balanced. After these measurements, the shoe repairman is going to add a 3/4″ sole to the bottom of the shoe to even me out. It should make walking more natural. Keeping my fingers crossed.” —

Well, I picked up the shoe today and walking is so much easier, more comfortable and , the added bonus, I can walk faster. I have an almost normal gait in the cam walker now. I wanted to pass this information along, as I know that there are quite a few discussions about how to make walking easier in our cam walkers. I thought I’d add this solution that is working great for me to the list of solutions others have shared.

I used an old pair (well one shoe really) of running shoes that was pretty much worn out since I won’t be using the shoe again after I’m on two shoes full time. (Unless I want to do the other shoe as well and have the Herman Munster look.) The shoe repair shop simply added the additional ¾” sole to the bottom of my shoe. Because it’s a running shoe, the sole conforms to the bottom of the running shoe and is rounded like the bottom of my cam walker. The result is easy, comfortable walking in my cam walker.

I know there are other solutions on this great web site but I hadn’t seen this one yet, so I thought I’d share it.

That’s it for now.

Keep healing.