Improving every day

I'm in that golden period now where the swelling as stopped, the sharp twinges have petered out and life is returning to normal. I still get a searing hot pain in the side of my foot around 9 or 10 at night and I end up balancing on the other leg to relieve it. It usually happens when I'm cleaning my teeth! It is totally unrelated to how much I've pushed my foot that day. All day on my feet or feet up most of the day - no difference.

Returning to running is going really well. Yesterday I went than Achilles New Zealand training session and had an excellent fartlek session. I had gone in planning on walking and ended up running. It was the start of my journey to the New York Marathon 2015. I'm really going to try out the handling of my new foot.

I'm still trying remember to massage the scars as much as possible but they don't seem to cause any problems in shoes, which is what I was concerned about. 

They're still pink but are quite unobtrusive and definitely not worthy of gross out status. No one runs screaming when I reveal my naked foot.

Time seems to have both flown and dragged. I'm surprised at the speed of recovery but I'm also surprised that the six month mark is still so far out. It seems so long ago I was hobbling around in my shiny pink cast.

Three months post op

The three month mark is nearly here. Tomorrow I have a check up with the orthopedic doctors. Hopefully they'll be happy.

My foot still swells if I even think about walking but not to the bursting point any more. I have pretty much ditched the moon boot apart from longer distances. While it definitely stops any pain in my heel while walking it is doing back things to my knee. I think the lack of ankle flexion means that sometimes my knee is forced to try and bend the wrong way and the knee cap protests.

I have had one Physio appointment which we both thought was a waste of time. She had instructions to not touch! She was only allowed to give me stretches. Considering that it was 11 weeks after the op and I'd been on my own until that was pretty redundant, I had already been doing them on my own. Tomorrow I am charged with begging them to let her touch my foot.

The ankle is almost fused. There's very little movement through it and I can barely point my toes. It's calling out for a bit of manipulation! I still feel like I have a bad case of plantar fasciitis with pain focussed on my heel. What I discovered the other day is it hurts just as much when I run as when I walk so I'm hoping that I'll be moving faster sooner rather than later. The idea of 'some patients are able to resume running after 9 months' is not a cheery one. Particularly since the ligament repair is causing no pain, it is only the "bonus" surgery on my heel that is causing any ill effects.

So hopefully tomorrow I'll get a new set of instructions and have some idea of where I am on the continuum of healing. Watch this space!

Six weeks

While my leg was in the cast I had no problem with swelling but after being freed my foot went crazy! Initially I had ankle swelling - a cankle - and it felt like I had a sprained ankle. Later on that day the whole foot swelled up and went a dull reddish colour. It continued to protest about any use of the ankle or toes. It had been perfectly happy sitting at a 90degree angle to my leg and would like to continue to be so.

I propped it up on a few pillows whenever I was sitting down or lying down, pretty much what I'd done initially post surgery. I did have a bath and it was divine! It was also pretty gross by the end. I used a loofah and a pumice stone to sloth off as much of the gross scaly skin that I could. The area around my screw insertion point was too tender to attack and the tendon resection spot above my ankle and the bone cutting point along the side of my heel where both covered in steristrips so too hard to get to. 

It was a success and now my leg is smooth, hair free but also scrawny.

Today I drove and that was fine once my brain got back into driving mode. I walked the dog with two crutches and a moon boot - fun! I also had a walk around the neighbourhood with the moo boot and one crutch and did a small supermarket shop. My foot still appears to be normal sized and happy. The only time I hurt it was when I whacked the heel against the shin of my other leg. My advice is to look after your heel. It will be tender because, as the registrar said, someone bashed around in there with a saw and cut it apart.

I am certainly enjoying being able walk relatively normally and being able to put my foot down on the floor when I hop out of bed. I also enjoy being able to wear jeans instead of sweats and yoga pants, being able to put a sock on my foot since it's felt like an ice block ever since the surgery.

Day 16 - up and at em

On the back of my big walk yesterday I have been on my feet (or technically foot and knee) more today. I took my dog Millie for two short walks, which was nice. She was excellently behaved, walking at a sedate pace and walking beside me and keeping an eye on me going down our steep driveway. I took a walking stick as well for added stability on the hills. I probably didn't need it but it helps me feel more confident that I will make it home.

I also baked a batch of ginger nut biscuits because I really felt like something with a bit of a bite to it. 

I also ironed ten shirts for the husband while watching the shopping channel. 

Then we went off to buy some chocolate for the husband's birthday but I'm self-propelled in the wheelchair because sometimes it's just nice to sit down. No leg board but it felt fine.