Posted on June 11th, 2019 by sharkmok
Tonight watching the NBA finals and saw KD get hurt after coming back from a calf injury, I fear for the worst. At the post game, it was confirmed my fear that KD has an achilles injury. Now we will wait and see how bad it is. I feel really bad and down. And some how I am feeling some soreness on my calf this evening. I’m icing now before I go to bed. I’ll be going to PT tomorrow and I’m sure it will be part of the conversation.
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Posted on May 18th, 2019 by sharkmok
Today marks the 5 months post-op. I seems to be doing OK. Depending on the day, i’m still limbing a little. To tell the truth, I’m not happy with it but its part of the course I guess. I’m continuing PT. I still cannot do the single heel lift on my bad leg. But my cliff is almost same size as the good leg. I can now go up and down stairs in normally. We had a fire alarm on last Tuesday and I was able to walk down 5 flight in normal pace. Since last week I’ve been going up and down stairs at work if its only 1 floor. Having tried running yet but I have done a few fast pace short walk.
Yesterday, I stood around the most since my injury. Within a 6 hours period, I stood around for about 4 of those. The last part I stood around for 3 hours. Although I lean more weight on my good leg, by the end of the night, I was very tired and the achilles tendon was soar. I did ice before going to bed and this morning is still soar. I’m icing it now and will skip my daily exercise routine today.
Its about 4 weeks to my up coming trip to Asia. Hope to continue to get better as I’ll be walking a lot during the trip.
Side note: Today is World Whiskey Day, so I’m going to drink with some of my buddies.
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Posted on April 22nd, 2019 by sharkmok
Its been just over 4 months post-op. I’ve been getting better slowly. Still walking with a slight limp but sometimes people cannot tell. It all depend on the day. Most days are good but on the exactly 4 month post op anniversary, I had pain in my achilles tendon and was limping badly. My PT thinks is just normal up and down. Nothing seems to be off. I’m now doing exercise bike for 10 mins and its still feels like my foot is rolling in an oval instead of circle. Need to work on it more to get the balance between the 2 leg before I can get on a real bicycle. I can now do 1 leg stand on my bad leg for 15-20s. Finally, last week I walked 30km total according to my phone. The longest was 3 30 mins walk with 5 mins rest in between. Also, i drove my manual transmission sports car for the first time in months. I was driving using left leg on brake when I was cleared to drive and man, it takes some getting use to the heavy gas and brake paddle using only my right (bad) foot.
Overall, Im glad with my progress and mostly back to normal life except no major exercise and a little slow walking. I’ll be traveling in the last 2 weeks of June and will need to walk a lot. Hopefully I be ready by than.
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Posted on March 25th, 2019 by sharkmok
Its been just over 3 months post-op. I had my checkup with my surgeon last Fri. It was pretty routine and said that I’m doing well overall.
Will continue PT for another 6 weeks and see him back at that time. He mentioned that will probably be the last visit.
I’ve been on 2 shoes full time without crutches for about a week now. Still walking with a slight limp and very slowly but getting more normal by the day. The soreness on top of my feet is almost gone but I’ve been pretty tired for the whole week. On Sat, I had the longest walk since my injury, walked around a park slowly for about 30mins and it felt OK. Was pretty tired afterwards and achilles tendon has a little soreness.
I celebrated my 2-shoes with having a Whiskey tasting party with my friends Sat night. Had 14 different whiskey from around the world and it was the most fun I had since the injury.
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Posted on March 8th, 2019 by sharkmok
Its been 3 PT sessions and I’m getting a little better overall.
After practicing walking barefoot at PT, I’m now walking more barefoot at home. Still, I’m wearing the boot and bring my crutches when i got out or to work. My therapist has me tried standing heel lift on both feet and I cannot really do more than a few. That will have to come a little later. But one side effect is that I’ve enough confidence to stand in the shower again. I still put the chair in the shower just in case or to to hold the arm rest if I’ve turn around but it was rejuvenating to have water flowing all the way down through the legs to the feet.
Goal is still the same, trying to get to “normal” walking by end of the month.
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Posted on March 1st, 2019 by sharkmok
Have my first PT session today. The therapist was very nice. After going through what happened so far and answered some of the questions, I was measured for ROM and strength. I also walked barefoot for the first time to show her my current condition. For ROM, my injured side feet is 100% when pulling up but about 10 degree less when pointing flat. 100% point outwarda and about 5 degree less when I point inwards (to the left) as compare to my right foot. Strength wise, I’m a little weak on pushing and also pulling to the left side. I can even see my feet shaking when I pull to the left against her hand.
I often feel a stickiness of the tendon to the skin when I move my feet and she give me a good massage on the tendon and told me that there are some soft tissues and swell that can be massage away. It felt very good and I don’t have the stickiness feeling through out the whole day.
The exercises were simple, using the band for left/right, up/down pulls. She also recommend I do some bridging on the floor. One interesting exercise was toe curl, my toes were not curling as much as my good feet. Even through I’ve been curling them since right after the surgery. She mentioned depending on my progress, we will do different exerciser next time.
I felt the first session was a good start. Although I still walked out of the clinic in boot with crutches, I was definitely feeling better. It will be 4 more weeks of 2 session per week. The goal is to walk without limping by the end.
The real icing on the cake is that I’m allow to drive!!! Freedom!!! Cleared by my surgeon and the therapist. I was able to change from boot to my shoes with the heel cup and drove back home. It was about 15 minutes and it felt great. I was extremely careful and used my left foot for braking. My left foot control is good since I normally drive a manual car. I’m going to drive automatic for a while and my manual car will have to stay in the garage a little longer.
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Posted on February 22nd, 2019 by sharkmok
Saw my surgeon this morning. After examination, he had me put on my shoes and walk. He feel that I’m not ready for 2 shoes yet because I was still limping. The fire alarm down 4 flights of stairs definitely aggravated the tendon, so I’m still in the boot. He told me, I can try 2 shoes at home but definitely in the boot outside and most of the time inside. Still no driving. Its a little set back but I rather take it slow than risk the recovery.
4 weeks of PT has been prescribed. I’ll see if I can get it started next week.
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Posted on February 21st, 2019 by sharkmok
It has been over 2 months since I’ve been to the office. Been working from home since my injury as my office is over 25 miles from home. As of last weekend, I was finally able to start walking in boot without crutches. Got a co-worker to take me to and back today. I was actually pretty excited to go back to the office. Everything was OK until the fire alarm went off and was told that it is not a drill. So, I have to walk down 4 flight of stairs. And it was a false alarm. That was slow and painful. Afterwards, I noticed that my achilles tendon starts to swell up again. I pop’ed 2 Advil to help control the swelling. I’m now resting at home with my leg up on ice. Swelling has gone down and hopefully it will be fine tomorrow.
Going to see my Surgeon this Fri to see if I can move on to shoes and drive again.
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Posted on February 1st, 2019 by sharkmok
Saw my surgeon today at 6 1/2 weeks post-op. I’ve been in boot for a week now. My ankle motion is about 90% of my good feet. My strength is ok but still not string enough to push myself up. Heel wedge is gone and told me to continue to put more weight on in the boot. The goal is to be able to walk in boot without crutches in 3 weeks, if all goes well, I’ll be in shoes then.
My feet’s still swollen, more after I walk around. He said it’s ok. My blisters are mostly dried up and now my skin is flaking off like crazy. There is still a little itch but the medication cream helps a lot. There are still many dark spots underneath. Will see dermatologist again next week.
I was a little surprised that my surgeon did not prescribe PT yet. He said, I’m doing ok and just keep doing them simple excerise he showed me and it is good enough for now. PT can come at the time of the shoes.
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Posted on January 28th, 2019 by sharkmok
Its been 3 days on the boot, with 50% weight baring. Even with crutches wnd boot, I fount walking to be a luxury. Just touching my feet on the ground is a joy.
Instead of scootering around the house. I try to walk as much as I can. My Achilles is quiet stiff when I woke up. But about 5 mins of moving my ankle around to loosen it up. I can put my foot flat 90 degree with my leg. I do limit my walking to a couple of minutes a time because the Achilles start to feel tight. I don’t want to over do it at this point. I have the boot remove when I’ll sitting down to work and moving my ankle most of the time to loosen it up.
Last week with the cast, I was so down, due to the itch and pain. Also could not sleep when most night I just lay there in discomfort for 3-4 hours not able to fell asleep. With the cast off, I’m getting full night sleep. Even with a blistered leg, I’m feeling so much better both physically and mentally. It gave me a burst of optimism on the road to recovery.
Will be seeing my Surgeon again this Fri and hopefully he will clear me to start PT.
As for my leg. It was 90% covered with blood blisters when they open the cast. 2 of them were larger than a penny and full of dark blood. It was a big disgusting mess. The dermatologist gave some Triamcinolone cream and it helped a lot. Pain is gone but still itchy (less than before). She taught me how to wrap with bandages when I put my boot on and going to sleep. The blisters has mostly dried up today and I see some of them flaking off. She think I must be allergic to the cast lining because there isn’t any around my incision and my foot where they were covered by another lay of meterial. Anyway, it will be a few week before it all heals up and there could still be some dark spots left afterwards.
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