Walking

After a little more than two months, I’m now back up on my own two feet and walking without the aid of a boot or crutches.

The tibia and fibula feel fine, but the surgically repaired ankle still feels sore, swollen, and stiff. It feels like I’m recovering from a bad ankle sprain (which, I am), but you’d think that would take less than 3 months to recovery from. I definitely underestimated how stiff it would be after getting out of the boot. I also have some mild twingy-ness in the knee, which I’m hoping isn’t a sign of anything worse.

Also going to the pool to do "aqua jogging" for about 45 minutes, 5 days a week. That’s nice, if not the most stimulating thing I’ve ever done.

The big challenge now is re-learning how to walk without a limp. At first, I couldn’t do it at all, but I’ve been working with the PT to build up to faster walking with a normal(ish) gait. Today I walked 14 minutes(!) on the treadmill with a max speed of 35 minute-per-mile pace. So yeah, slow going. But it’s an improvement over where I was even a few days ago and way better than I was a few weeks ago (not walking at all).

  

The big looming event is my next surgery scheduled for May 14^th. After that I’m in a boot again for another week or so and will have to go to the exercise bike rather than the pool, as the sutures can’t get wet. Prefer the pool, but sometimes injury beggars can’t be choosers.

All in all, everything seems to be going to plan. I want to be able to walk 30 minutes at 20 minute-per-mile pace before I start jogging again. I was thinking June 1st for a hopeful "first jog back" date, but with the soreness in the ankle that might be a few weeks premature. Ultimately, it'll happen when it happens. If I push too hard I'll just end up going backwards. 

One step at a time (this time, both literally and figuratively).

Weening

I had my 6-week post-op appointment on Wednesday, and now I'm progressing toward my first steps of real human walking with no crutches since the injury.

I'm weaning off the crutches for a week, and then, after that's done, according to the plan, I'm weaning off the boot for 8 days. In 13 days, if all goes well, and the pain is manageable, I should be walking around the place like a normal person.

I've been swimming 3 or 4 days a week, averaging about a mile every time I go the pool. I usually swim with a pool buoy between the legs to stabilize the legs. Just recently, I started swimming a little using my legs to kick, and that feels a little funky, but it's doable and not too painful. I may even start driving one of these days, and with that, I'll probably start exercising 5-6 days a week instead of 3-4. I'm also now cleared to exercise bike and can soon do elliptical if I want to (which I don't).

In terms of healing, doc says everything looks fine. In terms of the eye test, things are looking way more normal than a few weeks ago. My leg has atrophied lots and looks skinnier than it was when I was in junior high, but that's to be expected.

I have another surgery scheduled in 32 days (the next one is just to remove the "hardware"), which is not as big of a deal, but it's still surgery. So it'll probably be another two months before I'm jogging, and maybe another month or so before I'm running. But I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, as they say. And every day I'm regaining independence, which is in many ways more important than the running thing.

Eager to spend more time outside and just move. Given that most of life is a matter of relative expectations, I'm enjoying the process well enough as I progress in that direction.