Week 13 - Doctor says come back in 3 months (if needed) March 4, 2009
Posted by neteng in Uncategorized.trackback
I have been working really hard at improving my ROM by doing calf/achilles streches. This was working pretty well and I was finally able to get past neutral by a significant amount this past weekend. It really reduced my limp a great deal. I was walking without my “heel lift” shoe on around the house this past weekend and things felt good. I must have overdone things as on Monday I began to have pain in my tendon for the first time since going to 2 shoes a month ago. It got so bad that I could hardly bear any weight and contemplated dusting off my crutches. I have been icing, massaging and resting my achilles as much as possible this week. It has gradually been improving but no where near to how good things were going this past weekend. I was on my feet a lot today and could barely weight bear by 6pm this evening.
I had my 13 week appointment yesterday which was my first since going into shoes 4 weeks ago. My doctor said “Come back in 3 months. But if you feel fine cancel the appointment.” So I guess I am on my own to just walk this thing off as no PT has been prescribed. The only guidance I have gotten from him is to keep wearing the “heel lift” shoe and don’t do any sudden motions or tiptoe type motions. He prescribed Voltaren yesterday for the inflamation and pain I was having. He said everything looked fine and I probably just overdid it this weekend.
I am frustrated that I have had this setback and my doctor has pretty much signed off on me. Hopefully, things will just take care of themselves and 3 months from now I will be much further along than I am now.
Hey Neteng, I go for my next Ortho appointment tonight, I have been going to PT 2 times a week for the last month and I think it is helping. I start out with 10 minutes of electric stimulation and then stretch it out a little and then do some heel raises followed by 8 minutes on the elliptical. I also do some balancing exercises on a wobble board along with a few other exercises before finishing up with 10 minutes of electric Stimulation. I walk about a mile to and from the train station each day, but I still have a slight hitch in my gait. Hopefully that will go away once I build up more strength in my calf. If I stand for a long time I definitely start to feel it in the tendon. I hope once your inflammation goes down you can start doing some strengthening exercises. When does your doctor want you to stop using the heel lift? My doctor never wanted me to use them. If you want me to let you know all of the PT exercises I do just let me know seeing as we both had the surgery on Dec 2nd
dont feel too bad , i was treated the same way .
they told me to start doing sports slowly and if i dont make it back to sports or have problems in 3 months to keep the appointment - otherwise i dont have to come back anymore.
I was 4 weeks in a cast no weight. Two weeks in a weight bearing walking cast. Two weeks in a removable walking boot then back in shoes. Had a limp for awhile, but PT took care of that. Now it’s just getting the strength back to 100%. Today I’m 7.5 months POST OP.
Good Luck
Glen