Week 5: Lots of Steps

Things I’m learning: you never know what kind of progress will come next, or when it will come.

The biggest development this week was that on Saturday, the pain that I had always had while walking finally went away! It had been getting better, and then just…poof! This is not to say that I’m walking normally. I’m still slow and I still have a limp, just that it now doesn’t feel like I’m only going to be able to go X far before it hurts too much to continue. I am really happy about this! Lesson learned: if you complain about something the week before, it will probably get resolved the next week.

Other things that happened this week:

Walked just over a mile (in total) to go grocery shopping on Thursday. Wasn’t sure if I was going to make it, but I just decided that I would. And then did. This was the furthest I’ve walked without crutches — and without a break, no pun intended — yet.

Starting to pass very very slow people in the very long hallway at my school. By the end of this week, I think I’ve moved up to walking at about 75% of a normal person’s pace.

Able to sit crosslegged.

I itched my fracture site a lot! Apparently this is normal.

Wore my compression sock all during the day when I wasn’t icing. Really makes things feel better.

Physical therapy:

Moved on to longer sets of more advanced exercises. The following are currently in my daily routine: standing lunges, one leg balancing, body weight squats, heel walking, heel raises (up onto toes), and 6 minutes of calf stretching 3x/day. It’s kind of a pain/annoying, and I can totally see how a lot of people would slack on everything that is prescribed. But you know what is more annoying? Not recovering.

My PT was impressed that I walked a mile four weeks out, and that I could balance only on my bad leg for a full two minutes. I was impressed with the latter myself — reaping the benefits of all my core work?

He did ask me to try to stand up on my toes only on my bad side, and I couldn’t even get my heel off the floor. It’s really bizarre to just not be able to do something like this.

Goals:

Three things that are currently in my head as milestones:

1. being able to walk down stairs alternating feet

2. being able to put my good leg into my pants/shorts/underwear while balancing on my bad foot

3. being able to rise up on my toes on just my left foot

This morning I decided that I am going to do the alternating feet thing going down stairs, with a lot of help from a handrail. Clearly it is a matter of ankle mobility/stability, but I think that trying will help. Hopeful about the toe/heel raise, and i keep trying everyday. With that, it’s a matter of muscle strength — underneath my knee toward the inside and the area above my ankle on the outside of my leg seem to be the problem spots.

Psychological, etc.

Getting more used to going to the gym to do weights. Had to stop doing dips however because of my shoulder injury. Doing a fair amount of work on my good leg (assisted one legged squats, leg press), which I think is back to normal size. Atrophy on the bad side seems to have abated as well. Tried to ride the spin bike, but I decided it was a waste of time. I wasn’t going to get an aerobic workout nor burn very many calories given the speed and resistance I was able to tolerate. Someone asked me about riding a bike on the street and I was like, are you kidding me? I’m so far off from that.

Re-asked my PT again about 12-16 weeks for getting back to real exercise (running, climbing), and he confirmed that that is what he said. 12 weeks is the end of January. Climbing will come first apparently, which is great.

Annoyed by people who think that I wasn’t being safe while climbing and that is why I broke my leg, or who claim that the padding at my gym is inadequate, or who quasi-lecture me about how people shouldn’t boulder because it is too dangerous. Still feeling like breaking my leg doesn’t outweigh how much I enjoy it. At no time have I even thought, if only I had decided to only top rope since there is so little risk in that. Or: if only my recreational activity was sitting on the couch watching Netflix. Life is risky, and yes, climbing is riskier than not-climbing, but, I’m happy to pay the price. Saw a friend with a finger injury this weekend, and it’s funny how my broken leg might heal faster than his finger. Basically, I’m starting to understand this thing as just another sports injury, and really not that big of a deal. Then I think about the fact that someone hammered a rod into the middle of my bone, ha.

Missing climbing a bit but I’m still fairly occupied with both leg stuff and work stuff that I’m not feeling like there is a huge void in my life, plus my rings and abs workouts now are still social. If 16 weeks is correct, I’m more than 1/4 of the way there. My PT thought that I would still have trouble walking when I leave in January (around 9.5 weeks out). I am determined to prove him wrong! 🙂

Pictures:
Weekly pics of my legs. My ankle is in full view (swelling is down), and the muscle on my left side is building back up. In the picture on the right, you can see the lump at my fracture site. I am not sure if this is the “callus” formation or swelling or both.

 

Below you can see the swelling on my bad knee (right picture), compared to my good knee (left picture).