Joan’s Summer on Crutches (and beyond)

Yesterday was my first PT session and I am feeling much more optimistic than I was when I got my cast off last week.

When the cast came off (4 weeks after surgery)  I felt down because my foot would barely move.  I could wiggle my toes and that was about it.

All throughout last week, I gave myself foot rubs (to get rid of that pins and needles sensation) and worked on moving my foot up, down and circles.

When my PT measured my ROM he found that my plantar flexion was 50 (good foot was 62) and my dorsiflexion was +2 (good foot is +12).  He mentioned that I might want to do the same stretches on my good leg to loosen up my dorsiflexion,  because that calf is tight and that tendon is sore from all the extra work it is doing.  No problem, anything to avoid this happening in my right leg also.

It was a laid back session where he mostly showed my stretches and exercises to do at home.

My favorite is the one where I stand at my kitchen counter in my bare feet and sway back and forth like I am dancing at my high school prom.  Just standing on two legs is great (although my foot feels like it isn’t even part of my body anymore).

The most challenging one is when I sit with all sorts of objects scattered around me (marbles, hot wheels cars, Legos, etc.) and pick them up with my toes and put them in a bowl.  That one is tough.

One thing that I didn’t expect is that he is having me wear a shoe on my bad foot while I’m at work.  I can’t try to walk, but when I am in my office, I put the shoe on. (I had to take the laces out of a tennis shoe to get my foot to fit.)  If I need to leave my office, the boot goes back on.   This is so that I can keep my foot moving and re-train my foot what I feels like to be in a shoe again.

Best of all, he let me take a step - ONE STEP!!  I was scared to death, but happy that he let me try.  You can’t get anywhere without taking a first step.

We won’t work on walking until at least 6 weeks after surgery because things are still healing.  That’s fine.  It is only a week away.

I go back again on Thursday and have two appointments every week for the next four weeks.

I can’t wait to see how I progress from here.

Joan