All along this process, every time I've not been able to do something, I've thought, "When will I be able to do this?" or more commonly, "Will I EVER be able to do this??" First, it was lifting my foot off the floor or the bed. Then, it was lifting my whole leg in the air. Most recently, it has been about being able to step onto a step without pulling myself up with my arms. (Which I can now do, by the way!)
The most long-term, lingering issue has always been the stiffness in my leg which everyone attributes to internal swelling. The Doc and the PTs have all said it will go down with time. Well, I have never been a particularly patient person. As this swelling and stiffness has persisted, I've often asked myself, "WHEN will this be gone?" My PT told me that I should be able to do whatever I want to do at 3 months. Does that mean all the stiffness will be gone then? Not necessarily.
Well, today, at 7 weeks, I am here to report that there has been progress in the category of stiffness and swelling !!!
First, as I reported the other day, I bought school shoes. On Saturday, Sunday and Monday, I tried a pair on each day, and wore them around the house for about 2-3 hours. I wanted to make sure they were going to be comfortable enough for a school day. On Saturday, after wearing pair #1, when I took them off, I noticed that the sausage was significantly smaller. It was still bigger than the other foot, but most (90%?) of the puffiness was gone. WHAT? Can this be? All it took to get rid of most of the swelling in my foot was to put on a shoe?? Seriously???
Now, I have to say that for the last 7 weeks, NO ONE - let me say that again - NO ONE has suggested that I could reduce the swelling in my foot by wearing a shoe that comes up over the top of my foot. Did you hear what I said? NO ONE! When I asked the PTs about my sausage, they would tell me to do ankle pumps. Ok - so I diligently did ankle pumps for the first 3 weeks, and it made NO difference. I put ice packs on my foot and ankle, and it made NO difference. When I asked my Doc about the swelling in my sausage, he told me it would go down over time.
So, all summer, I've been barefoot. Sometimes I wear ankle socks. When I need to go out with shoes, I wear my sandals with the stretchy straps. No regular shoes for 7 weeks. Let's imagine for just a minute how different things would have been if I'd been wearing shoes maybe 4-5 weeks ago? All those times when I thought my skin was stretched so tight it was going to explode???? Ha! SHOES!
Well, you have to know that I am going to share this revelation with my PT on Thursday! I hope she doesn't give me that, "well of course you need to wear shoes - everyone knows that!" response, because she will get an ear full if she does!
For my faithful readers who are headed for this surgery, let me add this to the "Learn from Amy" list: You already know you need to do your exercises faithfully if you want to see progress. Now you also know you need to wear SHOES!
My second revelation for today is a little more subtle and a little harder to quantify and to put into words.
Background: Sunday, when I got up, I felt even more stiff than usual, and it seemed to take longer during the day for the morning stiffness to wear off. Just doing my usual exercises didn't seem to help as much as usual. I wrote it off to cooler weather. Yesterday, I was much better - more "normal" or typical. I did my usual morning exercises, and then in the afternoon, we went to our local park and walked again. This is the second time I've done this. We took a different path in the park, but I think I probably walked about as much - about a mile (of course with frequent sitting). When I got home, I put ice on my leg for about 30 minutes, and generally felt very good.
Last night, I sat a lot. Ok, The Bachelorette was on - it's my guilty pleasure, what can I say! I sat glued to the TV for that 2 hour period. At 10:00, I got a bee in my bonnet to do some school work. I decided to work on creating a new website for one of my classes. So, I proceeded to sit at my computer for the next 2 hours... with no break. Not good. Usually, when I get up from sitting, I have to give my leg time to acclimate to standing, and it usually takes walking about 10 steps before it is "working" again.
Well, here is my second revelation: Last night, when I got up from sitting at my computer, the usual stiffness was almost gone! I just started walking - normally - without limping at all. There was no need to stand for a minute, or stretch or hobble around until my knee decided to work. It just worked!
Then, when I went to bed, I started out lying on my back with Bessie out straight - when I bent her, she didn't feel stiff at all. It was almost like - dare I say it - like 10 years ago?! During the night, I was very conscious of a difference. There was a new ease of movement, and a significant decrease in stiffness when I changed positions. Likewise, this morning - I got up and just started walking without having to stand by the bed and wait to be ready to take the first step.
So, to what do I owe this change? Could it be the influence of shoes? Could it be the walk at the park? Could it be the diligence of exercising? (Have I mentioned how important exercising is, kids?) Could it just be a matter of time?
Right now, I'm going to go with "a combination of all of the above" as the explanation. Whatever the explanation is, the result is that I'm VERY excited!!
That's all for now... I'm going to get back to my school website. Thanks for reading and hanging in here with me!
:)Amy
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