Broken Ankle Week 28
It’s been 9 weeks since I started trying to do single leg heel raises, on the ankle that is rehabbing, and I haven’t made much progress. I can still only raise up about 2 cm. Physical therapist said this is one of my last hurdles to cross and it’s related to my difficulty walking downhill and down stairs and is probably about calf strength.
Physical therapist is really creative and came up with a new plan while continuing all my other PT exercises:
- Do more ankle plantarflexion with therabands and use stronger therabands (like this)
- Sit and put weight on top of knee/thigh over rehabbing ankle. Do heel raises while seated and increase weight on top of knee/thigh.
I’m making progress in other ways — walking longer distances, using level 2 on BAPS board, using stronger resistance bands for band walks, balancing on one leg for longer times, and step downs and lunges are getting easier.
Physcial therapist has done some cupping on my ankle to help break up scar tissue and I started taking serrapeptase to see if that helps with the crunchy scar tissue.
In a week I’m leaving on a vacation where I’m planning to do some hiking. Since downhill is still difficult I’m bringing trekking poles with me to help with the downhill.
At acupuncture this week the actupuncturist put needles directly on my surgical scars (in response to my request for help with scar tissue). The felt weird! Not bad, not good, and eventually I didn’t feel it.
I half-met my goal of being able to run (ha!) when I ran a tiny bit to get on a subway train to go meet a friend for a drink. My ankle didn’t seem to mind and I realized running a few feet made me feel less constrained. As the surgeon said — if you need to you can run for your life now!
