Wednesday, November 24th, was eight weeks post-surgery. That morning I went to physical therapy and was told I could begin coming three days per week starting the following week, and I should bring both sneakers so I could begin using the weight machines. So I would wear my air cast to therapy and bring along my left sneaker.
On Saturday I helped with a few errands and did some housework. My ankle was pretty sore by the end of the night! It felt good to have been productive but at the same time I wished my foot didn't hurt me so much when I tried to do "every day" things. Still, the pain I was experiencing was less than the pain I had experienced from the same type of day before my surgery. Since the recovery was slow I wanted to take note of improvements, no matter how slight, to help me look forward to being 100% again. It was important for me to realize my progress, because at times it was very frustrating that I still couldn't use my foot, even after the surgery.
Sunday morning I clumsily tripped while walking out of my bedroom and put my left foot (which was bare, no cast or shoe) down hard. The pain was incredible, and I could feel that my Achilles tendon was pulled. For the rest of the day I could feel the soreness of the tendon when walking, even with the air cast on or using a cane. I didn't do my at-home excercises that day.
On Monday I went to physical therapy and told my therapist what happened the day before. He told me icing my ankle would have helped with the sore tendon; doing that hadn't even occurred to me! I massaged it afterwards but did not use ice... made a mental note for next time around.
Physical therapy was definitely more painful that day, especially whenever the tendon was stretched or massaged. However, my therapist noted that my foot had more dorsal flexion... seems like my clumsiness the day before loosened it up a little!
I used the stationary bike for a few minutes, then progressed to the leg-lifting weight machine. Using the weights felt good... I felt so strong! When my exercises were done the ice pack felt wonderful. And for the rest of the morning I noticed that my tendon was no as sore.
While there were days when I felt bad because I still couldn't do much because of my foot, I noticed that over the past few days this particular week my general mood had improved. By Monday afternoon I was feeling great. I wasn't sure why, but it could have been noticing how much stronger I was getting at PT or being more mobile than I'd been in the past few weeks... or maybe just appreciating my good health. After going through a surgery like this I came out on top and was doing great. Life was good.
On Tuesday my tendon was not as sore, even when doing my exercises. Icing the area definitely helped. I was glad I didn't tear anything!
The next day I would be going back to work, part-time to start with, and then I would be going to physical therapy afterwards. It was going to be a long day!
Hi Christian,
ReplyDeleteIm glad your doing well by the way I hope you enjoyed your holiday. Since my last comment I had a right surgical flap, and finally told i could bear weight on the leg on Dec. 30th, since this came from the Surgeon who did the flap and not the actual surgery, Im not sure how much i can bear weight or any restrictions. I been out of work since sept 27th and finally was on weight bearing status on Dec. 30, Missed my chances on going back to work since FMLA only give you 12wks to get back to old job. So I decided the hell with it, i waited 16yrs for this surgery and fell that if it will take another 6wks for it to get someone what normal let it be, I ended up with 2 graft sites. On the last surgery the graft finally took. Im just going to do what I need to do, where I work is 12hrs shift no such thing as partial, light or pt..job. Hope everything is going well keep up with the blog so at least i can see what i should be looking out. By the way I also made and appointment with Hosp Special Surgery and they told my insurance has said no to the surgery all the while I had received confirmation 3 days prior on insurance letter head from apple insurance approving surgery from penn medicine.
Hi J... good luck with your recovery! I'm sorry you haven't been able to get back to your old job... I know that not all companies are the same; I was lucky to have the time off and go back to what I was doing without any worries. I hope everything goes well with you and thank you for reading! :)
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