Week Twenty

Wednesday, February 16th, was twenty weeks post-surgery. By that Friday I had noticed that I hadn't taken any Aleve the entire week, and my ankle was feeling good. The only times I noticed it was sore were days after physical therapy, and when the weather was particularly cold. On those days it was harder for me to push off my foot when walking, but I persisted and felt as though my walking was becoming more smooth, I was taking more strides rather than limping so much.

My energy level seemed to be increasing. I wasn't sure why, but maybe it was because I could see that I was improving. On Saturday I was at the shelter in the morning, then went to physical therapy, and then ran some errands. Before my surgery there was no way I could have had a day like that. The shelter would have put me out of commission for the rest of the day.

I was definitely seeing the benefits from having had the surgery, but I knew there was still work to be done. I began using the trampoline at physical therapy, and it was hard and painful to push off my left foot. I had to concentrate on increasing my ankle strength. Any type of movement that required pushing off my foot or leaning forward onto the ball of my foot was difficult. This was the next obstacle to overcome.