• ATR Timeline

  • Name: oakmanii
    Location: Roanoke
    Injured during: pickleball
    Which Leg: L
    Status: 2-Shoes
    
    243 wks  2 days Post-ATR
    242 wks  1 day
       Since start of treatment
    

• Recent Comments

  • UFABET on 16 weeks, officially playing Pickleball
  • UFA168 on 9 Month Checkin, Hopscotch anyone?
  • UFA168 on 7 Month Checkin
  • mofa attestation on 9 Month Checkin, Hopscotch anyone?
  • congtogel on 16 weeks, officially playing Pickleball

•  

  September 2023

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My foot/leg is still weaker, but you wouldnt really know it. Im up to about 95% of my tournament level pickleball playing ability. I also stopped doing any strengthening exercises many months ago.

My tendons are still rearranging, as I can regularly ‘pop’ them by twisting my ankle around, it feels good.

So I keep doing these straight back, bend the knees exercises to loosen up more. I overdid it and the top of my foot will hurt for a few days. My doctor friend said to put some ice on it, and be sure to warm up before stretching.

My Achilles tendon is fine, but the whole rest of the foot has to improve. Balancing on one foot is still not easy, and jumping on one foot is harder still. Fortunately, neither interferes with regular activity.

Almost a year ago I tore mine at a Pickleball tournament in Virginia. I played last weekend in the same tournament. Success, I didnt get hurt again!

I played a bit conservatively, as also I had an ear infection. So we won some and lost some, no medals.

The next day my leg was more limber than ever, I have still had some stiffness in it. And though it is weaker, and I need to work on my balance on my bad leg, still it is not too bad, not really noticeable in everyday life or in my sports.

So there is hope at the end of the tunnel!

Not much has changed. I am not slowed down hardly at all in sports, walking, or general activity. My injured foot gets more tired when I stand for a while.

I never ice, or really elevate it. I do stretches often, if not every day, nearly every day. I restarted my mineral supplements which I think aide healing and strength.

I can do 30 heel lifts with my good foot, about 25 with my injured one. Yeah, some weakness, but otherwise I would never notice it.

My balance is still not good on my injured foot, I have not been practicing that as I should. I would like to be able to play Hopscotch again. I feel like I need a few more weeks before that!

It seems that my flexibility decreases each day I dont stretch out, and my strength remains week unless I exert effort in exercises, every other day. I am more flexible than before, but I’m writing today to ask:

Will I have to do stretching exercises forever? When can I stop my strengthening exercises (like close to 90% of my good leg)?

I saw my doctor, last check up. Everything seems fine, but still there is weakness and some lack of flexibility. However, I’m able to do what I was doing previously, walking and playing Pickleball.

However, it has become obvious that I will have to do leg lifts and calf strengthening, such as walking on my toes, or my leg will not improve. It seems to be no stronger than it was a month ago!!

I had really slacked off of PT, and it seems I really didnt improve much in the last six weeks!

I’m now counting months instead of weeks!
Also, I skipped PT for a month, and just continued with their exercises, but I’m disappointed that the last time they finally told me about a ‘missing exercise’ which seems to really help my range of motion.

Just stand with your feet completely flat, and then bend with your knees. Don’t bounce up and down, just slow stretches. This stretches a different muscle than the ‘lean against a wall’ exercise, and it seems to be what I really need now, it seems.

I’m playing competitive Pickleball again, but Pickleball is not as nearly competitive as racquetball or even basketball.

My limp is very little now. I worked in a pool 3x/week on my heel lifts, working down from 5 to 4 feet to 3 feet in the last three weeks, and then once down to 2 feet of water.

(thats not me)
My friends didn’t want to practice Pickleball with me, so I slowly played Pickleball instead. Doctor said I could play if I could do 5 heel lifts on dry ground. Today I did it! Right after I had played for a couple of hours.
So now I can officially play Pickleball! I think the doctor didnt realize how Pickleball is not nearly as athletic as tennis, and I still dont chase down any hard shots like I used to. That will come in time.

Still lacking some flexibility and strength. But it seems better after I play.

I think the key is to avoid other injuries and to warm up well, ahead of time. My knee is now weak, I notice, when I warm up. In time.

— almost. I just went to the doctor, it is healing fine. My limp is much reduced. With ice and elevation my numbness near the site is mostly gone.
I can heel lift in chest high water several times.
Once I can do it 5 times on the dry ground, I can play, but before that I can practice a few shots. I suspect another month or two before I can heel lift, as my strength seems no where close.
And I can start small jumping in the pool with water up to my neck.

He really liked water therapy. I have started power walking in 4 feet of water, sometimes 3 feet normal walking. My big new exercise on dry ground has been taking a big step forward with my good foot, and rocking and powering off with my bad foot, while maintaining my balance and some weight on my hands on the kitchen counter and a chair, or a cane. The pain from the top of my bad foot is pretty much gone, as it seems my muscles for pushing off are improving.

I wont see the doctor again until 24 weeks.

He thought I could skip the ASTYM therapy, as I have very little scar tissue, especially at this point. And I am stretching out my PT to every 2 weeks. Every time I go they give me a new exercise or advice that really seems to help.

My heel pain is pretty much gone, Last week I started using New Balance Shoes without any lift at all. I chose a shoe that was all leather upper so to give good all around support, it seems a good choice, but now it is getting hotter.

Around the house I can go in my socks.
Now I have more of a pain in the top side of the lower part of my foot, about the toes. Therapist thinks it is because of how I am walking.
Now I know why I limp! Because I am not pushing forward when I am stepping forward. I drag the weak foot along. So they gave me a new exercise where I practice the transition step from moving weight from my bad leg to my good leg, with my foot flexed, and trying to push a little more than I have been doing. It hurts when I do a big step forward, so the key is to do manageable step width.
So when using a cane, which I do not need for weight bearing, I need to be pushing forward with the weak foot.
And I’m doing water therapy, two or three times a week. Not just walking forward, but walking backward now. In 4 feet of water. Sometimes I do heel lifts, and I can now do several of them when Im up to my neck in water. Lowering the water level is my next goal.
I think my multi-mineral supplement is really making me get better! I seem to have gone to a new stage from having an impossible injury to having like a bad sprain that would take three weeks to heal (though it is more like 3 more months.)
I have been using Bodywize for years, and the vitamins have been great, but the minerals you take in the evening to help the cells rebuild. And water is so important too to flush the dead cells out of your systems while the minerals supply new material for the new cells regrowing in my injured leg.

• • oakmanii has completed the grueling 26.2 ATR miles to full recovery!
    Goal: 365 days from the surgery date.
    
    
    Click here for the Group Marathon Tracker