My 24th physical therapy session was Friday and with only 4 more sessions left, we decided to decrease the frequency from twice to once per week. This will allow me to spend more time at home building strength while we concentrate on balance and skill exercises at physical therapy. After the usual warm-up and stretching, my therapist increased the weight on the leg press machine for the one legged hops. He then had me do step over lunges using the Bosu ball. Next he had me balance on my ATR foot on the top of the Bosu ball for 10 seconds with 10 reps. I then did some exercises on the wobble board with 10 lbs of weight attached to it. After that, it was side stepping with a green Thera-Band around my ankle for 200 feet in each direction.
Once that was done came the inevitable question, “Would you like to do more?” to which I automatically respond, “I’d like do more.” So he put a board in front of me that was mounted on some stiff pads. He then told me to do 2 sets of 10 vertical leaps with my feet coming a few inches off the board. I thought to myself that I’m really in trouble now. Still I took a deep breath and did it. It turned out to be neither that scary nor that difficult. Towards the end I was trying to keep myself from jumping too high.
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July 16th, 2012 at 10:54 am - Edit
That’s great Starshep!! The thought of vertical leaps makes my stomach turn right now, but it’s definitely encouraging to see all the great progress a lot of the members are making! From the sounds of it, it’s more of a mental game rather than anything really potentially going wrong physically that’s the hard part to wrap your mind around.
July 16th, 2012 at 2:09 pm - Edit
I want to leap, too, Starshep! You give me hope!
July 16th, 2012 at 2:38 pm - Edit
Eva:
It’s a combination of mental and physical. You have to trust that the therapist will not tell you to do anything until your tendon, muscles and balance are ready. Then it’s a matter of clearing your mind and doing it.
Kimjaz:
Don’t get too excited. I only went a few inches off the ground. Not very practical unless I want to avoid a cockroach that’s about to crash into my shoe, or crawl up my leg
July 16th, 2012 at 3:44 pm - Edit
This “trust your PT” thing is another tricky tightrope thing. I was reinjured and set back for a month ~12 weeks after my ATR #1 by following my PT’s instructions. And when another Achilles blog asked all their reruptured patients what caused their rerupture, “Physio” was high on the list, maybe right behind slips, trips, and falls for #1. We’ve had a few people here who’ve reruptured by doing crazy too-soon exercises prescribed by their PTs.
Many PTs WON’T go nuts and tell you to do something dangerous, but quite a few will. Check out the sequence of exercises and moves in well-tested protocols with low rerupture rates, like bit.ly/UWOProtocol (which got excellent results with and without surgery). If your PT tells you to do something that is ahead of that schedule, I’d certainly ask “Are you SURE?” And I’d also probably “just say no”. Wish I had 10 yrs ago.
All OSs and PTs have access to all the studies and protocols and literature that we have access to, and more. But more of us have time and motivation to actually read the stuff. And many of them think they know better than to follow somebody else’s recipe, just because they’re that kind of people. Find a health professional who’s very creative and imaginative, and you’ll be at risk attributing God-like wisdom to them. I’m just sayin’. . .
July 16th, 2012 at 9:38 pm - Edit
Norm,
Recovering from this injury is certainly not risk free. Yet how can anyone who has not gone through this before judge what is too great a risk for them? Anything you do outside of sit in a wheel chair involves risk. Yet if we don’t take a leap of faith in our assigned professionals, a life in a wheelchair (or at the very least walking with a slow limp) might be what we have to look forward to. Still you do make a good point about “professionals” who go nuts. I’m sure we’ve all seen a few where we wonder what clown college they may have gone to for their training. Part of the reason I wanted to give a detailed account of my therapy sessions is so that others could see what I am doing and the steps that preceeded my getting there. Maybe I’m more fortunate than others but before I attempt something my therapist is the one asking me if I’m sure I want to do it.