It has been a little over 7 months since my ATR..been back to work at UPS little over 2 months…still wearing the ankle brace…no problems at work or with the brace…question is do any of you still have or did you ever have tightness in the shin area of the ATR leg?? the muscle from about where my foot attaches to the leg(front) up to about my knee is pretty tight…doesn’t hurt but it does seem to restrict the ROM of my foot when trying to pull my toes up towards my leg….
Categories:
Today I had a redwoods tour and mentioned to my group that I’d missed 3 months’ work through this ATR. One lady, a teacher from NJ, showed me her scar from the same injury three years’ prior. She said that it was never the same again - tightness and pain come and go, with stairs being the main trouble. She was in her 50’s, quite heavy, and very upbeat. SO it took almost 5 months to get back to work! That’s awful!
Mary
By: sanfrantourguide on September 30, 2008
at 12:51 am
Hi Kev, I am only 15 weeks post-op but have had significant problems with tightness on the top of my foot and up my shin. I had less ROM pointing my toes than pulling up my foot because the tendons on the top of my foot to my shin muscle had tightened significantly from being in the cast too long. For the past 2 weeks I have been sleeping on my stomach with my bad foot flat against the bed in a pointed toes position. At the start I could not put the foot flat at all but now the entire top of my foot lays flat on the bed. It was very uncomfortable at first but most of the stretching occured while I was sleeping. It has helped significantly.
By: jenny on September 30, 2008
at 9:39 am
Kev34 - I didn’t experience tightness in the shin area, at least nothing different from the normal tightness of this injury, but I thought I’d offer a couple of exercise to try. I believe it’s the tibialis anterior muscle you’re describing. One exercise is toe raises. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and shift your weight back onto your heels. Pull your toes up toward your shins as far as possible and then return to the starting position. Repeat until you feel a good burn. You can try this same exercise with your toes hanging off the edge of a step for a little extra challenge. You can also try doing single leg toe raises with a dumbbell on your foot.
By: Tom on September 30, 2008
at 9:56 am
Actually, I had the same problem when I wore the ankle brace. It seemed to cause more harm then good, and I removed it. I was using the kind that strapped around the whole ankle, but didn’t go quite far enough up the calf to support the whole tendon.
By: Chad on October 1, 2008
at 12:42 pm
Funny you brought this up, I was just thinking about how weak and tight my toes, top of my foot and front of ankle felt. I’m 5 months post op…hoping to get the OK from Doc on Friday to start jogging. I actually had dreams last night about trying to find strengthening/stretching exercises just for this problem. My ROM pointing has been the worst. I tried a few things but my leg would cramp up. I’m just now getting to point where I don’t get leg cramps EVERY NIGHT.
Lots of suggestions/comments for you from everyone. What a great place this is/has been for me!!
By: damacar on October 1, 2008
at 4:16 pm