PWB Check-in
I hope everyone had a great holiday! After a somewhat daunting doctor’s appointment nearly a week ago, I’ve made quite a bit of progress. I can now with ease (and without nausea) move my foot correctly into a neutral position. I am still using crutches since I am PWB until this Thursday. I have, however, been putting more than 50% of my weight on my bad leg. I haven’t had any pain in my achilles, but my foot swells in my walking boot and my ankle becomes very sore at the end of the day. I am flying next week, and I am nervous that my ankle will be in pain for the flight(s). Has this happened to anyone else?
I also went to the gym for the first time in a month and felt awesome afterwards! Per doctor’s orders, I did not perform any lower leg exercises. I just lifted weights using my upper body, completed 100 push-ups on my knees, and performed quite a bit of ab exercises. I am so sore today! On Thursday, at my next appointment, I plan on inquiring about lower leg cardio or weight lifting exercises that I can perform when I am FWB in the boot. When did everyone start doing body weight squats and lower leg lifts/hamstring curls? Do you think I would be able to do these in a walking boot?
I am excited for my check-up this week as I finally feel like I am making some progress!
January 4th, 2015 at 7:33 PM
Hi Lauren…if you put “flying” into the search engine on the top right of the main page you’ll see all the blogs that mention flying. You can use that search engine to find anything. I was going to fly at 2 weeks post op to travel to my family for Thanksgiving & opted not to but one thing I did learn when I was researching was to wear a compression sock on the leg to help with swelling.
I’m glad you’re feeling better and are enjoying what you can do!
I did hamstring curls and leg lifts in my boot with no problem. At 8 weeks and in two shoes, I was just given lunges and squats by my PT.
You’re blog looks great!
January 4th, 2015 at 8:58 PM
Thanks, Donna! This is super helpful. I think I will carefully try hamstring curls and leg lifts tomorrow at the gym (with light weight). I will definitely buy some compression socks for the airplane. I’ll obviously be discussing this on Thursday with the OS. I hope you had a great holiday
January 4th, 2015 at 9:12 PM
Hi Lauren- I didn’t start body weight squats until I was a few weeks out of the boot- there is lots of Pilates stuff that you can do with a boot on though.
FYI my foot still swells at the end of the day and can be achey if I have done a full slate of exercise- as long as it recovers over night then all is OK
January 5th, 2015 at 7:02 AM
Hi Lauren - Glad to hear you were able to get to the gym. Core work is always okay. For squats, I waited until I was some time into two-shoes. Squats require proper form and that can be hard to maintain in a boot. I did not try to do some smaller squats just to work the quads a little. In a boot, I did do leg lifts (side, back raises) and hamstrings as long as I felt steady but I did not try to too push too hard. If your doctor or therapist okays it, you may be able to bike in a boot. (I did not bike in the boot, but some doctors are okay with it.)
January 5th, 2015 at 7:30 AM
Lauren - Small typo … “I did try to some some smaller squats”
January 5th, 2015 at 9:31 AM
Fully agree with cardiojunkie there, squats are effectively impossible to do properly in the boot, you need to be able to push your knee forward while keeping your weight on the heel, and until you can do that, you will just end up shifting the weight to the other leg… Also, if you are talking about doing hamstring curls in a machine, I would be careful with that early on, as the machine puts pressure on the tendon. I would much preferably recommend deadlifts for hamstrings / posterior chain, keeping in mind that then it’s really important you have your feet level to maintain good form. Or alternatively good-mornings…
January 5th, 2015 at 11:20 AM
Just to clarify Lauren, while in the boot I did hamstring curls and leg lifts with my own body weight, no machines. At 7 weeks I did take off my boot and add ankle weights at PT to do both. PT said some people can’t tolerate the ankle weights due to incision, I could.
I was just given lunges and squats to do, again with only my body weight and I am at 8 weeks. I can’t do a proper lunge yet, but I can do a proper squat. Am also doing squats with half my body weight on machines.
January 5th, 2015 at 11:36 AM
Thank you everyone for your helpful responses! I think given your experiences, I am not going to go rogue and attempt any lower leg exercises until I talk with my doc this week. For now, I am going to focus on upper body and ab workouts, and continue babying my achilles. I need to be more patient!!
January 5th, 2015 at 11:54 AM
Bi’s, Tris, shoulders, back, chest, abs…so much that you can work out…YAY you!