PT Round Two

Now that my metatarsals have been cleared for more maneuvering and bending, I started back today with my second round of therapy. 4 weeks, twice a week=8 sessions. I was curious to know what my new exercises would be like so today at 11am, I found out. As usual, my physical therapist was on top of it. I've been doubting my foot would ever completely heal and my toes would be unbendable forever, but it seems the new exercises will work on exactly that. I'm having new hope and at the top of the roller coaster today! The majority of the new exercises focus on the forefoot area. The last 6 weeks seemed to focus more on my ankle movement, calf stretching, and only bending and stretching my toes with my fingers. Now I can put stress on that whole area with no fear of hurting the bones as the bones have pretty much healed.

These are some of my exercises as best as I can describe:

kneel down and stretch the toes like what happens when you squat down, also curl the toes underneath my foot. This really hurts so it must be good!

sit sideways on a stable chair and stretch just my big toe with slight body weight and also curl it under.

stand up on your tippy toes on both feet. This hurts too so it must be good!

stand up on just my right foot on my tippy toes. This really hurts and my balance still sucks on my right foot.

stretch my calf while just my forefoot is on the edge of a stool, allowing my heel to drop down below the edge of stool; for 4 minutes. Foot was pretty angry after 4 minutes.

roll my foot over a baseball and scrunch my toes around the ball.

pick up marbles with my toes. I was surprised but I had no problems picking up the marbles.

scrunch a towel with my toes and try to pick it up. I can't even come close to picking up a towel.

lunges. This scrunches the toes so it's pretty painful. It also hurts my left leg quadricep and knee but that's whole 'nother story and an area that has needed therapy for YEARS.

I've done a few of the exercises at work this afternoon and the foot is now screaming a bit which I guess is a good sign. Pain while doing PT is a good sign, right? My walking down stairs has gotten much better in the past 3 weeks. So today when I went up and down stairs, I walked on my tippy toes, now that I've learned the new areas to work on.

6 weeks Post Cast

Today I went back to the doc. Got some new x-rays that are looking fairly good. Still alignment issues with 2nd metatarsal but the doc thinks it will be okay. Same advice -- if I have pain when I walk -- then let him know. He thinks I've made good progress in 6 weeks. I go back in 2 months and can continue with the bone stimulator for another 4 weeks.

I finished my 15 visits of physical therapy last week. The physical therapist said I could try to get more therapy but it would only be beneficial to continue on with her if I could walk through my metatarsals. Otherwise I could continue the same exercises at home. She wanted to know the x-ray results, first though, before I would be assigned back to her. Being able to walk through the foot would open up more variety of exercises. I asked the doctor and he approved. I think I"ll be covered by insurance for another 4 weeks, twice a week now rather than 3 times per week. I'm still not totally satisfied with the foot but hoping time and more exercising will continue to make it better. Both doctor and PT say it still could take up to a year.

Some days are better than others. I usually wake up with the foot a little tight but the swelling is down. By the end of the day, the swelling is usually worse. To help reduce swelling, I'm trying to ice my foot 5-6 times a day. That's an easy thing to do at work while I'm sitting at my computer.

Tonight I took a walk in the woods with the dogs, while it was still light. I also took one Saturday morning. My foot felt really good on that walk. Tonight it was a bit achy after about 5 minutes down the trail. There's definitely a difference between morning walking around after all night's rest and evening time when the foot is swollen. I sure hope that feature of the foot gets better. I'm anxious to just be able to go for a hike without any issues.

Before my walk, this is what I found in the back yard. I had to go get my snake handler...

Right Foot Driving

Since I'm back into shoes, I am also back into driving with my right foot, which means I'm back into my car which has a manual transmission. I started driving the Jetta April 1st and am enjoying being back into my car. Plus it gets better gas mileage for trekking back and forth 17 miles one way to work. I don't use my handicap parking privilege at work but instead park where I have to walk up two flights of stairs. I figure the stairs is good exercise for my calf muscles. The handicap parking was near the elevator but the elevator was a longer ways from my office.

Just some stats:

• 9 weeks no driving
• 7 weeks carpooling to work (thanks to everyone who helped me with rides)
  
• 4 weeks left footed driving

Things continue to improve for which I am very grateful. I spent the weekend in Crocs and my Salomon TechAmphibian "sandals". It's the only sneaker-type shoe I can get my foot in right now. It was another beautiful weekend to be outdoors so I worked a little outside raking up some pine straw, leaves, and sweet gum balls from our backyard. Sunday evening when I went to bed, my feet were tired and sore like I had been shopping all day long. But I can't say I really have pain. My toes are still tight and can't be scrunched, too much, although I'm starting to be able to crunch the outside toes working slowly towards the big toe. The big toe, probably the most important, is slow to bounce back, but I do have faith with continued therapy, it will get there. The Physical Therapist said on Monday, I'd be ready soon for some marble therapy. The swelling has come down a bunch. When you push a finger into my foot and then let go, the skin pops back into place now, rather than leaving a little indentation.

At Monday's PT, my session ended with the Game Ready ice therapy, without the electrical stimulation underneath. Maybe it was all in my head but that seemed a heck of alot colder on my foot than the ice with the electrodes. It's about 10-15 minutes of 41 degrees of C-O-O-O-L-D. I still do the contrast bath at home but that's only 2 minutes of ice at a time.

Birks

Sunday I bought my first pair of Birkenstocks. I tried on a pair of Chacos Friday and looked at shoes on Saturday at Belk. My foot didn't seem to want to fit into anything other than the Birkenstocks so I paid out the bucks and now have a pair of granola crunchin', tree huggin' Birks for the next umpteen years. I wore them to work on Tuesday and left my walking boot in the car, just in case it would be needed. I survived the day and it was nice to give my calf some exercise. The walking slowed down though from the boot to the shoe.

At my PT appointment on Monday, I arrived early so while waiting in the car, I took off my boot and started massaging my foot and bending my toes. Rather than put the boot back on, I walked into PT with my new shoes. The therapist seemed happy because that opened up a few more exercises for me to do with my shoe on. I still did the balancing act on one foot. It was easier in the shoe over being completely barefoot. Today at work, I balanced for 45 seconds in my shoe. Until the shoe gets broken in, the sole is very stiff, which is what my foot seems to need right now.

Walk with the Dogs

Today I took a walk down the trail from our house with hubby and the dogs. It was slow going in my boot but I went almost the whole way before turning back; about a 10-15 minute walk. I did it after my morning therapy when my foot was loosened up. Tomorrow, Mar 30, will be the 3-month marker.

At Friday's PT, one of the new exercises was to stand on my foot, one legged, and time myself. I couldn't make it 5 seconds without losing my balance. Today I timed myself on my left, good, foot and made it a minute. Then I timed myself with my right foot and made it 15 seconds. This was at the end of my therapy when the toes have been manually bent to loosen them up. Try balancing yourself. Your foot does a lot of minute detailing to keep your balance. That's what my right foot can't do right now, but I do have hope!!

Weight Bearing

My therapist called the doctor's office to find out if I could put weight on my foot. I was given the okay during therapy. Around the house I can wear a stiff soled shoe just a little bit. I can't walk through so the foot needs to stay flat. She said that would give me a lot more things to do in therapy now that I can stand on that leg. For starters, I can now start to stretch out my calf which is all flabby from 8 weeks in the cast.

Tonight I put on one of my sneakers that has a more stiff sole. I expected the shoe to fit tight, but it was tighter than I thought it would be. I'm feeling so sorry for my dogs, so I strapped on their leashes and walked them to the end of the driveway. My idea was to get to the pavement on the street where the walking would be easier. I decided after the 100 yard walk down the driveway, I probably shouldn't push it too far, so I came back to the house.

More pictures of the foot to show progress.

Space between the toes and weight bearing!

Game Ready

Tuesday was the 12 week/3 month mark. My therapy continues to work through my ankle rotation, and getting my toes to bend. I spend about 25-30 minutes each session and have been fairly faithful to do 3 sessions a day. Sunday was a busy day and I only did two sessions.

This past weekend I put on a Teva sandal with a stiff sole and walked from the bedroom to the kids bathroom; very carefully. I also have spring fever and am dying to get back on my bike. I had a flat tire and didn't really know how to change it so I took my bike to the shop on Saturday and had them change and check both my tires. One tube needed to be replaced, and the other tube was fine. When I got back home I gave riding the bike a try, with my boot on my right foot. The boot is big but I could carefully pedal. I rode up the street, up the hill, to the end of the street, and back home. That was enough for a test drive. I still had on my clip-in pedals which I'll be changing back to my regular pedals that came with the bike. So when I went to therapy Monday morning and told of my adventures, I was scolded. She ended the session telling me not to do anything silly like ride a bike, and walk in a shoe without been given permission. She said "Not like you'd do anything like that at all, I'm just saying".

Monday and Wednesday PT session ended with an electrical stimulation and cold therapy at the same time. Four electrodes were placed on my foot and then my ankle and foot was covered with this sleeve. So one machine, Intelect, caused the electrical stimulation. The other machine, Game Ready, made the sleeve get cold and it would tighten and loosen like a blood pressure cuff. The temperature went from 51 degrees down to low forties. Something new so of course, I took some pictures. The sleeve was a little big for my foot so the blue straps were added to help out.

The Game Ready is used for athletes to get them back in the game quicker. "Game Ready leverages NASA spacesuit technology to simultaneously deliver intermittent compression and adjustable cold therapy in an all-in-one, easy-to-use system." I believe the electrical/ice combo for me is get circulation back in my foot but I'm happy to know I'm being treated like an athlete.

Another highlight from the weekend was the wonderful spring weather. Friday was a spring break holiday for university employees (i.e. me), so we had a three day weekend. I tried to get outside all three days. I raked a few leaves, made a fire in the firepit, swept off the deck. It was great to be free of my crutches. Also, I wore blue jeans all three days!!! First time to wear jeans since Dec 30. I took more pictures because what's a blog without some pictures here and there.