2nd PT appointment

Had my second physical therapy appointment today. Nothing much new to report. I’m FWB now and often forget where I’ve left my crutches which I find amusing. But for the PT appointment I brought them and pretended like I was using them more than I am. She said if was fine if I wanted to just use one crutch so I asked when could I go full weight bearing. She said not until you transition to two shoes. What? That doesn’t sound right, so I’m going to ask my doc.

Anyway, she said my range of motion looks good. She gave me some more exercise to do like seated heel raises, theraband exercises and some leg raises. I’ve already been doing a ton of leg raises and thigh strengthening, so I feel I’m ahead of the game there. I wouldn’t mind some more challenging exercises, but I’m not going to push it. I tend to go full bore on stuff like this and end up overdoing it, and I really don’t want to do that this time.

I’m also not super thrilled with my PT person. She’s nice enough and qualified but I’m thinking about going back to my PT guy that I was seeing before the injury. I saw him for about 2 months in a last ditch effort to address the achilles problem. Oddly enough, he did help a little bit…I guess just not enough. Anyway, I feel like he knows where I was at physically and what I’m capable of achieving. Also, he’s young and cute (just kidding).

I have a appointment on December 13th with the doctor and I’m really hoping that he’s going to give me the okay to drive. The no driving thing is absolutely killing me. I always have to leave like an hour ahead of schedule to get anywhere. Since we live outside city limits in the country, it takes an Uber/Lyft for-ever to get out to us. Then another eternity to get where I’m going. Half the time I end up getting to my destination super early, the other half late. Very unpredictable. I’m even okay staying in the boot a little longer, if I could just DRIVE! And if I can drive, I can go to the gym! Yes, I could take uber to the gym, but each way is like $12 and my gym membership is only $45 a month. $24 a day to go the gym seems a little ridiculous. So home workouts for now.

Overall, the foot is feeling pretty good. I still have a bit of a cankle going on, but I’m icing every night and doing my exercises at least twice a day. I imagine cankle will be with me for a good long time. I get to take another wedge out tomorrow, which is exciting. And sad. Sad that this is exciting to me. Ahhhh, what a small little life I lead right now.

Travel Question

Hey all! Since we’re coming up on the travel season and plans need to be made and tickets bought, I have a question for anyone that cares to chime in. After reading ZRobs post about traveling/flying at 5 weeks I was feeling pretty confident that I’d be able to fly cross country in week 10, but now I’m not so sure. I have no idea if I’ll be out of the boot or not and I most definitely will have to catch a connecting flight so I’ll be hustling between gates. So. Anyone out there travelled during this time frame and if so, how was it? Or if you’re coming up on week 10 or already passed that milestone, what do you think? Thanks in advance.

First PT Appointment

Had my first PT appointment today. Well, it was more of an evaluation. She took some measurements and tested my foot strength in different directions, which she said was good. I’m about where she thought I should be at the 6 week mark. She also showed me a few ROM exercises to do at home….you all are familiar with them. Heel pumps, alphabet, circles, towel scrunches. Just a few reps, three times a day. She said lower reps but more often are preferable at this point. She also said I should still be icing for the swelling, which I have not been doing. The swelling hasn’t been horrible, but yes I have a significant cankle going on, so I will add icing into my routine now. She said to expect some swelling in that ankle well into the 6 to 10 month range. Ugh.

I also got to take a wedge out of the boot so now I’m down to two wedges and PWB with the crutches. Boy I definitely notice a difference in that one wedge! My little achilles is not super happy with the added stretch. But I suppose that’s the purpose of this and will get better with time. I find using one crutch on the opposite side a little easier than the two crutches. I have set aside my iWalk for now in the hopes that I will never have to use it again (at least with this foot). It was invaluable for getting around those first 5 weeks, but I hate it. I might consider strapping it on in the morning just because I am so tight in the morning before the tendon warms up a bit.

I searched through the blogs for people who have had the Haglund’s procedure done with the detachment and reattachment of the tendon and shaving the heel bone down. It did not set my mind at ease! A lot of those people seemed to have a much harder time recovering from this then the standard ATR. A large number of the posts I read seemed to say that even a year later they were not at a 80-90% or so recovery level. My only consolation is that I know cserpent has had it done twice! and she seems to be cruising along in her recovery. My inspiration!

I am grateful that at least I am at PWB status now (so much easier to get around the kitchen). I try to remember that everything is in baby steps and already I have come so far. Those first 5 weeks were some of the most difficult of my life.

Question for all the gimpers out there…when did you transition from PWB to FWB? I forgot to ask my PT and the doc didn’t really give me a timeline for that. I’m not trying to push my limits, just curious. Was it after all the wedges were out or before?

Happy healing everyone and don’t overdo it on the Thanksgiving festivities!

1st Post Op

Today I had my first post op appointment at 3 weeks and 1 day. I was so excited, like Christmas Day excited, to go to this appointment. Since my husband is out of town, I had to Uber it there and I didn’t want to miss it. So I ended up getting there like an hour early. That’s okay. I had my ipad and coffee.

They took me in and cut of the cast and cleaned me up. My doctor’s PA came in and went over the protocol for the next couple months. I got a boot today (yay!) with heel lifts. 2 weeks and 3 wedges NWB. Take a wedge out. 2 more weeks and slowly start putting a little weight on it. Take a wedge out. 2 more weeks increasing the weight. She wanted me to start physical therapy next week but explained it will really only be toe exercises and light flexing. Second week of December I got back to see the doc.

I got the sutures out and after 3 days I can shower without the plastic cover and let the water run over the incision. She said I don’t need to wear the boot to sleep but if I get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night (which I always do) I must put the boot on and use the crutches. Fine by me.

Even if I wanted to put weight on it now, I couldn’t. That achilles is so darn tight…it feels like a steel cable in there. I can’t even flex it to neutral position at this point. I know I’m over reacting but I have my serious doubts that I’ll ever walk normal again. But I know all of you have been through the same thing so it must be doable. I keep telling myself I just have to be patient. It’s going to take a long time.

I asked about exercise and they said anything upper body is fine but nothing else. No recumbent bike or rowing machine, which I was kind of hoping for. *sigh*. Well more chair aerobics it is.

I must say, ignoring the scar, I love my new smooth heel…no golf ball size deformity there anymore!