I packed my back with my spare trainer, a pair of other trainers and a pair of sandals plus a nice bottle of red.  Made it down the stairs, I’m getting quite adept at stairs crutches bag combo.  :).

The wine is for Dave (the best PT in the world) it is Christmas eve here and he was amazing when I first I jured myself, sorting out the MRI Ankle surgeon referral and making me feel ok in a crap situation.

So today is all good, starts out asking me questions about the past 8 weeks, then why I haven’t tried walking despite being told I could a couple of days ago, understood that I felt vulnerable and wanted to wait until he was there as I didn’t get much from the doc - shoes no shoes, warm it up stretch it, nothing.

He starts by working on my other ankle which is getting tender basically dug is bony fingers in and pressed and stretched….did explain that heat is better for this ankle than ice, after I told him I tried icing it but it didn’t help but that the bath did.  Then he moved to the other one, gentle light massages of the calf, all while ankle was supported, seemed like alot of squeezing of the tendon quite hard but didn’t really hurt, some me not very nice rubbing of the scar and sent in his massage man to get into my calf some more attention. Who worked my calf for about 15 mins, which hurt but ok all the same.

Now it’s time for a walk….I look at Dave like he is crazy and who asks what I’m worried about is it that it might snap, yep pretty much I said nodding.   Remember I know Dave and have worked with him on a torn meniscus (right knee) prior, so absolutely trust him. So I grab the crutches, he walked about 10 feet ahead of me holding a long mirror and tells me to look at the mirror and walk towards him.  I take a couple of steps (bare feet) with the crutches taking a lot of the weight. The goal here was for me to get used to walking and to feel the motion and to be aware of my step that I was straight and not hunched to one side or doing a strange hip manouver to take the step.  I did a couple (strange ones) his impersonation of me made me laugh, and then I did about 10 good steps and turned around all smiles went back to the chair and put my boot and shoe back on.   It’s at this point we have a conversation about swapping out the sole of the boot to the flat one - which we did it seems tight,  restricted like, but not painful. Not as easy to walk, just different.

Instructions leave boot on while out or having a vino over Christmas, try walking in pool preferably a kids one that gradually slopes into an adults one don’t kick just walk, and come back on Friday.

Today was all about making me feel comfortable (he did warn me to be careful, and to use crutches on stairs) - the fun begins next week!

Happy holidays everyone xx