- rudedog has completed the grueling 26.2 ATR miles to full recovery!
Goal: 365 days from the surgery date.
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- rudedog has completed the grueling 26.2 ATR miles to full recovery!
May
18
9 weeks 3 days post-op - Hydrotherapy
May 18, 2009 | |
Hi everyone.
Just a quick update on my recovery. I am trying to walk as much as I can, but find that I need to rest every 20-30 minutes (I can only do 20-30 minutes per day). I find it more uncomfortable/agitating standing in one position (for example, waiting at a checkout queue to pay for shopping) rather than walking slowly. I still walk very slowly and with a noticeable limp.
In terms of exercising, I am still doing the stationary bike (approx 25 minutes per day - minimal resistance) and I do my PT exercises 3 times a day. The PT exercises now include stretching/strengthening my calf muscle using my body weight (which is a bit painful, but not too bad), theraband (blue band - inversion/eversion) exercises, strengthening of buttocks, balancing (standing on bad leg), and two-foot heal (calf) raises. I still find that I favour my good leg when I do two-foot calf raises - but it’s getting better.
Today, I had a 30 minute hydrotherapy session which was great. I was able to do 1-foot calf raises in the water - I’m a long way off doing this on land. I also noticed that I ended up working my bad leg muscles and the tendon properly in water as I felt more confident in doing so. In addition to regular PT, I would recommend hydrotherapy with an experienced practitioner (PT) - the first session for me was good.
I also decided to use the cross-trainer for 10 minutes today (lowest resistance) - this was against the advice of my PT who suggested I should wait a week before using the cross-trainer. However, I had purchased a cross-trainer prior to my injury and it got delivered after my injury - it’s been sitting in my room unused for the last two months - the temptation was too great and I must admit that 10 minutes on the cross trainer did give me a better work out (in terms of sweat-dripped and elevated heart beat) than the stationary bike.
Anyway enough of my rambling. I do hope everyone is progressing well at various stages of recovery. I will of course update on a regular basis.