9 weeks - slow steady progress
Well, after about 5 weeks, I’ve hit the dreaded “plateau”. I’m still making steady progress, but it’s slow. I’m still in the boot, my surgeon wants me in it until week 10. But at home I walk around without it. My strength is improving. I’ve been swimming regularly now, and doing “aqua therapy”, walking around in the shallow end. It feels good to walk “normally” in the water. On land I’m still walking on my heel. I can do a calf raise with my bad foot in the shallow end with the water at my waist. One more week and I start official physio and can re-start doing range of motion stretches (my surgeon had ordered me to stop stretching it since it was progressing too fast.) I suppose I’ve done good at that; I haven’t gained any flexibility in the last 2 weeks since my visit with the surgeon. It’s frustrating just having to wait, since my flexibiliy is really what’s holding me back from walking properly. One more week, and then I’m out of the boot and can start stretching again. I’ll still put the boot back on for biking though. Maybe I will get a lighter brace of some sort eventually, but for now I am addicted biking in my boot. Maybe for road riding I can go without the boot sooner, but doing jumps and drops and such I think I want to keep the boot on. I’m thinking of going to Whistler Mountain Bike Park next week.
swill Said,
June 12, 2009 @ 12:56 pm
Hi Peter-
It sounds like you are doing great. Don’t get discouraged with a plateau. I think it’s great that you’re progressing so well. And the aqua therapy sounds great. I’m only a little past 2 weeks, so to me you’re practically running marathons!
Hey, I’m curious, what do you mean when you refer to your tendon getting too long? or too flexible? These may be dumb questions, but how is that a bad thing? and how do you control it?
BTW, I’ve never been to Whistler, but my husband is a HUGE mountain biker and he talks about Whistler all the time. He does MOAB a lot, but always talks about Whistler.
Take care.
peterh Said,
June 12, 2009 @ 1:17 pm
Hi Swill,
Well the good news for you is that if you think I’m “running marathons” and I’ve been at the same level since week five, then you’re almost there!
I was a bit confused when my surgeon was talking about the tendon getting “too long”, or “too loose”, or “too flexible”. I think these all mean the same thing, that the tendon is simply too long. If you read jgsquash’s blog, this is what may have happened to him. Basically, the muscle can only contract so much, so once it’s at it’s shortest length if your foot is not fully plantarflexed then you will have no strength in the last bit of movement. I think the fear is that in the early stages of tendon healing when you put tension on it then it will get longer since it’s not fully healed yet. I think my surgeon is fairly cautious about this, as I have a long way to go before I reach this condition, but better safe than sorry I suppose. So basically the moral of the story is don’t worry about getting your ROM back until after the first few months, that way you will ensure that it doesn’t get too long. At least that’s the opinion of my surgeon. Frustrating, but probably for the best in the long run.
I live in Vancouver, so Whistler is close and really great. Interestingly enough, I’ve always wanted to check out MOAB, but haven’t had the chance. What’s it like there?
doug53 Said,
June 12, 2009 @ 5:12 pm
Hi Peter,
I remember reading your post about your doctor’s worries about your tendon getting too long, even though your ROM was nowhere near normal, and it struck me as odd. For what it’s worth, my current ROM (nearly four months postop) is that I can get my normal leg’s kneecap about four inches in front of my big toe tip, while my injured leg comes two inches short of that. But that’s pretty much where I’ve been since four weeks postop. I have plantarflexion strength through the entire ROM, so my tendon isn’t too short. Keeping you so far from normal ROM strikes me as excessively cautious. Once you get the green light, though, I suspect you’ll get close to normal ROM pretty quickly, anyway, so in the long run, I doubt it will make any difference.
peterh Said,
June 12, 2009 @ 5:22 pm
Yeah, I think my surgeon is very conservative. It’s been 9 weeks now, so I think I will start stretching again. There seems to be very little risk of the tendon elongating since I’ve been doing calf exercises in the last 2 weeks and it hasn’t caused any increase in ROM, thus the tendon seems to be “set”.