Random recovery thoughts

Recovery?
I'm not even sure I should write anything, I've been so boring.  Recovery has been going well.  I've been a very good patient.  I'm doing my lovely at home PT exercises: pointing toes, seated heel lifts (still make my calf shake), writing the ABC's with my foot, pushing in and out on a pillow, seated calf stretches and spreading my toes.  Fun times.  All are pretty easy with the exception of the calf raises (shaking leg) and the complete lack of being able to spread my toes.

Why can't I do this?

The toe thing kind of bothers me.  I can completely focus on it and nothing.  I wonder if it's nerve damage? I don't have any pain or numbness associated with it at all, and I can curl my toes just not spread them- so what ever muscle/tendon that does that, isn't happy.  Does it matter if I can't spread my toes?   My foot doesn't appear to be swollen except to me, I can notice the subtle differences. I'm hoping that the DR will explain that to me tomorrow.

I'm hoping to be done with the boot, since this weekend I haven't been the good patient and I've been walking around without the boot at home.  I wanted to test out the ankle, and it feels weak and stiff, but not painful.  Then when I shower, standing on it for 20 mins it hurts a bit.  The few times we've gone out for errands, I can do about 2 hours in the boot before it hurts enough for me to call it quits.  What does that mean? I guess I'll let my Dr. make that call.

Exercise?

Yep, my exercise buddies on the recumbent.

I started last week going to the Rec for a weights class which is pretty good. I'm sore the next day but not crippling sore like TRX.
Also, I'm riding the recumbent bike for an hour.  That sucks. Not going to lie.
1st- I hate sitting in the angle that seat is at, it hurts my butt and unlike a spin bike, you can't get out of the saddle to get relief.
2nd-Old people like the recumbent, and unfortunately some of them have the old person smell, which makes me gag.  I've only had to leave the bike once and do something else and wait for them to be done.  Good thing, is they don't ride the bike for more than 10 mins.  I cringe everytime someone gets on the bike next to the one I'm on.
3rd- It's not spinning, it's hardly a workout to me. But, I do sweat and get my heart rate up, so... I guess it kind of works.

Footwear?
The thing I'm anxious about, other than the toes, is standing on my ankle in 2 weeks when I go back to work.  I'm able to chill out at home right now, go out a bit, but sit when I need to.  I'm not sure I can stand for about 6 hours.  I'm always tired after for the first 2 weeks or so when I'm healthy, but now?  If I have the boot still, my hip will be screaming at me-since the whole lopsidedness is bad (even with shoes about the same height). If I don't have the boot anymore, I have to pick between cute shoes that have no support and swollen feet or practical shoes (i.e. running shoes) which are not dressy at all.  I hate to be so casual the first few weeks back to work.  I've been so casual the last 2 years with all my foot problems and I really miss wearing cute outfits but running shoes and maxi dresses just don't go together nor do the khakis with running shoes look.

Old Runner's Worlds?

While elevating my foot and chilling out, I went through all my old Runner's World magazines.  That was sort of depressing, but at the same time wishful thinking.  I always try to save the workouts that I want to try and/or stretches and exercises that would be helpful to me. I end up tearing them out and then putting them somewhere and forgetting about them.  I took an idea the my DH does for work and I took pictures of all the articles/workouts and created an album on my phone so that I can access the exercises when I'm at the gym.  Brilliant!

Running update

11 weeks post injury- this is this AM before I've really been on my foot today.

•  Dr appt went well, told Dr my problems that I am still having, he again focused on my now hard lump in front of my ankle.  He thinks I might have an impingement which is why I can't flex my ankle.  I'm supposed to get an MRI...which is another story. 

 

• So Mon is Dr appt, I'm to get a call to schedule MRI, I wait til Thursday after work- still no call, grrr, call the Dr office, get call on Fri, "Oh, Dr never put in the MRI order, but it's in the office notes.  You'll get a call next week".  Yesterday, I get a call "Scheduling you for a CAT scan" "What?!, I'm supposed to get a MRI." "Oh, the note says MRI but the order is for a CAT scan, I'll call you back after confirming with the Dr".  So, here I am, day 2 of my vacation- waiting to get this MRI scheduled.  I don't want to take time off of work for the MRI and the follow-up appt if I can help it.  Seriously, people!  

 

• Ran again this past Saturday since the sun was out and the temps in the balmy 50s.   3.1 miles in 28:40.  Ankle hurt the entire time...grrrrrrr.  BUT I RAN 3.1 without stopping.  Yay for keeping my cardio up with spinning. Ankle was a bit pissed off after, but Hey, f- it. 

 

• Walked/Ran on Easter Sunday, again the beautiful weather drew me out and of course, being curious, my walked started with a small run to test out the ankle, then ended about 1.5 miles later.  Again, ankle not happy with me. Good thing it's cold out this week again- probably won't try anything for a while considering I could hardly spin last night it hurt so bad.  

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• So that's were I am...I've reached the F it stage.  I am tired of not running.  It's been 11 weeks.  I am happy I still have cardio so I'm not out of breath.  This running once a week is not making me happy.  

Yes, I'm alive and well

I haven't been in the mood to blog lately.  I haven't been doing much with my bum ankle and I've been feeling sorry for myself.

Ankle Update:  It's been 3.5 weeks since I injured it and I've got 2.5 weeks left (until it's healed?).  I keep going between: optimism- this will heal quickly and I might still be able to eek in some training before the Flying Pig (13.1, 10k 5k) and pessimism-I can't workout, I'm stressed, everyone and their mother is telling me it's going to be a long recovery and I shouldn't push it.

It's still swollen but compared to my last post- down a ton.  I'm still pretty swollen along the joint line, and behind the (c)ankle. I still have a weird pain on the medial side of my ankle (opposite to my injury) although it's not as bad as it was.   I'm wearing the boot still at work- since I'm on my feet most of the day.  At home, I'm using an elastic brace that gives me mild support.  My ankle is feeling not as weak as it did last week.  I'm doing my ROM exercises that I prescribed myself along with Dr. Google.  Don't worry- nothing that causes pain.  I've tried last weekend to go boot free to go grocery shopping.  It hurt- but I think it might have been more my cheap ankle brace (ditched that one- it rubbed against my ankle bone- not good)  Anyways- moved my Dr appt up to Monday so I can at least start PT soon.

Yesterday, I went for a massage.  Wow.  I figured she'd not touch my ankle, but no, she worked on it very gently and reduced the swelling in the front joint line and along the ankle bone.  She thought it was weird that I was swollen on the joint line too. 

Anyways, she told me that a great homeopathic anti-inflammatory was castor oil.  I guess you wrap your ankle in strips of cotton soaked in castor oil, wrap that with Saran Wrap, and a sock and leave it overnight or use it with a heating pad.  She swore by it.  Needless to say, I'm trying it.  It can't hurt, can it? We'll see how it goes, since I'm doing it right now.  I'll let you know if works.


Then, I WORKED OUT!  My god, I've never been so happy to workout!  Not only did I spin, but my fav instructor happen to be subbing!  Double yay!  I used my soft ankle wrap, clipped in my shoes before hoping on the bike.  The first few minutes were a little rough- my ankle was stiff- but it worked out.  I kept resistance down.  I even stood- i know, but I can't sit in a bike saddle for 50 minutes straight!
 Today, I felt fine, no damage from last night, so I'm going to get back to spinning. Yes, I'll take it easy.   My mood has been so much better today as well.

A few quotes to inspire or make you laugh.

That's not what supposed to happen!

my "before" shot- was planning a muddy "after"  shot

. Note my cute little left ankle

So I had a fabulous week last week with running.  My IT band has decided to cooperate and I ran 13 miles with in the week  2 five milers and a quick 3.1 on the treadmill.  I was feeling great, so on Saturday the local running club (which I just joined finally) was having an 8 mile trail run- the weather was going to be in the 60s in January in OHIO.  It was going to be muddy and fun.  My running partner couldn't make it, and it was going to be in the woods so I didn't ask my dh if he wanted to go- since the boys wouldn't be able to see anything.  I figured I was just going to run this for fun, I  haven't run 8 since Indianapolis so it was just going to be a workout.

OF COURSE, that didn't happen.  The first part was going well, muddy, puddles, narrow trails exactly what I wanted.  Then it all fell apart.

I was heading down a narrow path on a hill, it was really muddy so there were roots that were kind of packed down and made for good steps down.  At the bottom of the hill was a small ravine with a bridge over it.  On the last "root step" I stepped, slid, rolled my ankle, heard a pop/crack and wiped out.  I landed on my hands and saved my face, but I didn't care about that at all, since my ANKLE was in so much pain, immediately it was swelling (crazily fast). I said every swear word in the book. I knew it was bad.  I'd take natural child birth again to that pain. 

  Everyone behind me stopped since I was blocking the bridge, but 2 guys helped me up and got me over to the side- other runners ran ahead to get help.    After the initial pain, it stopped hurting too much and just kept swelling.  One of the guys that was with me found a y shaped stick that I used to prop my foot up while we waited for help.  We talked about the Air Force marathon and various races and running groups in the area, anything, to help me take my mind of my now grapefruit sized ankle.  Runners kept coming by and asking if I needed any help, then commented on how it was swollen and bruising. I texted dh to come to the race to pick me up.

 The race director showed up pretty quickly and told us where they could carry me to get me to a car.  So Randy and Steve (my heroes) carried me up a muddy hill and across a huge field to a back parking lot of a nursing home and the race director picked me up in his car.  By then, the pain had returned, since it wasn't elevated.  The race director had the paramedics check me out at the elementary school to make sure I was ok.  They wrapped up an ice pack on my ankle and cleaned out my skinned knee (hadn't realized that until then).

My dh showed up and we headed to the emergency room.  I just got my flu shot last week, so when we showed up and a about 3 people have face masks on- i got super paranoid.  Yuck- I don't need the flu on top of this.

 Hours later...  I got my diagnosis.  FRACTURED FIBULA- but what it really was, as the ER Dr. explained, "Your ligament ripped off the bone and took a bit of the bone with it". Gross.  Really gross.  She explained that it would be treated like a severe sprain.  6 weeks before I'd be able to run again.  So I was given a lovely Air Cast and crutches and instructions on calling an orthopedist on Monday. 

Getting ready to leave ER. Love the sock- traction on both sides, but it keeps the toes warm so I'm still sporting it.

Nurse Chester

Since then, I've been on the couch with my foot up and taking various lovely pictures of my ankle as it grows and gets more colorful.  My cat, Chester, has been watching over me.  Sleeping next to me, yet not on my lap like normal.    I have found that my foot doesn't hurt, but my chest and arms are so sore.  I think it was the combination of falling and catching myself and holding/supporting myself on the hike out of the woods.  Plus, to insult to injury- since I skinned my knee I had to get a tetanus shot.  So 2 days after, I can hardly lift my body off the crutches to move.  So tomorrow is my Dr appt. to see what the real damage is. 

Anyone, dealt with a severe sprain?  I've been googling it like crazy.  I'm going to have to just wait to see what ligament isn't attached and if I messed up the others.   I'm also going to have to figure out what I can do to stay in shape.  Hmmm, core, arms, swimming? I guess more Qs for the Dr. 

So, my goal of running 13 13.1s in 2013 has been delayed- but the contest is still on! 

Ready for some yucky pictures?   Don't scroll down if you don't. Lucky for you, I had ice on my ankle at the hospital otherwise you'd see a grapefruit under someone's skin. 

18 hrs after

about 1.5 days after- can you tell where the brace was

AM of day 2 (I couldn't sleep with it elevated)

starting to bruise on the opposite side from injury  2nd day am

2nd day about 48 hrs since I did it.  (after icing) Getting colorful!