Broken Ankle Week 21
Oh no! I overdid it and did too much walking in the past week. It was totally worth it to see friends and get out and about in the neighborhood. My ankle let me know it was too much by swelling up, like it hadn’t in a while, and sending out new little pains. I relented, stopped going out for walks for a day or so, gave it lots of ice wraps and elevation and rest. Now it’s much better.
I’ve been using and not using the cane. I don’t need it on flat ground and I do need it on hills or in crowds. Basically that means I take it with me when I leave my house because I live on a hill and in a city where there is usually a crowd somewhere.
Discomforts
- Seeing my ankle swell up and feeling like recovery had regressed
- Pain in/near tibia continues. It’s short sharp pains every once in a while, not even every day. PT says it is probably nerve pain and it’ll eventually go away.
Improvements
- Stationary bike for 30–40 minutes helps ankle feel more flexible (and makes me feel good)
- Working on toe raises. On my right leg I can easily do one legged toe raises because that’s an exercise I did before the injury. On my left leg (with recovering ankle) I can now to one legged toe raise about an inch. That’s a start. Progress to come.
- PT suggested doing yoga since I feel frustrated with what I can/can’t do. Brilliant! I opened up the yoga app I hadn’t used before injury and am seeing what I can do — sometimes with props.
Reminder
I copied and pasted this into a note a while back during the 11 weeks of no weight bearing and am putting it here as another reminder:
It will be a very long process to restore the strength, muscular endurance and proprioception throughout musculoskeletal system because the entire body is effected when there is a prolonged period of non weight bearing.
