20 Weeks Post Op
Five months after surgery, my surgeon is letting me go. Saw him today and he told me I don’t need to come back unless I’m having problems and no more physical therapy will be prescribed. Going to miss those guys! At my last session earlier this week, they gave me a black Theraband as a parting gift. Working with them made all of the difference in my recovery.
I did have a setback a couple of weeks ago where I pushed too hard (jumping, squats, jogging) and strained my posterior tibial tendon. Had a very painful couple of weeks where we backed off in physical therapy with less aggressive exercises and the PT worked on it instead of my Achilles with the deep massage. It was significantly better this week. I plan to slowly ease back into activities; the PT suggested adding one thing a week to see how it feels. My surgeon gave me some inserts for my shoes to tilt my foot and to give my PTT a break.
A couple of shoe inserts and a Theraband later, I am on my own for the rest of my recovery.
I have all of the exercises I need to work on my calf, which feels strong, just smaller than my left. I bought a balancing pad to build strength there. I do toe walks, heel walks, monster walks, and heel raises. Double heel raises are easy and I can go up two, shift to one just fine. A controlled single heel raise remains elusive. The surgeon doesn’t seem to be too worried about it. He just says to walk a lot. So, hopefully, spring will eventually arrive (another Midwest snowstorm this weekend) and I can get outside to walk. I plan to continue to focus on upper body and core at the gym while riding the assault bike. Still afraid of aggravating the PTT with rowing and squatting. I’ll add them back one week at a time. I was hoping to get back to Crossfit classes in March, but I’m pushing it back to April, just to be sure. I’m tired of setbacks, so I’m ignoring all of the other blogs that show people doing a ton of activities at five months. My body told me to slow down, so I’m listening this time.
On the bright side, I noticed a definite improvement overall this week. My Achilles feels stronger and more stable. The limp is gone and as long as I don’t go too hard, the PTT feels fine too. Feels much closer to normal than last week. Still have some numbness from the nerve block on the outside ankle, but it has no impact on anything nor pain.
Hoping today’s doctor’s visit is truly my last one!