Broken Ankle - The Down Side

This week marks week number 7.  Finally I am out of the splint and into a Big Black Boot.  Last year I had one of these boots and it did wonders for the discomfort that I had with my ankle problem in my left foot.  This however is much different than that.  I am sure now that the severity of this injury is a bit larger than what I was allowing myself to believe.  For seven long weeks I was finding it very difficult to see the end of this road.  Now with another week almost under my belt it seems as though the fog is lifting.  The Boot:




They say that this week I am to put 10% weight on the foot.  I am not sure I know how to assess this percentage of my weight.  I mean I surely can figure it out in lbs (even though I may not really want to do that either) but at what point do I know when its 9% or when its 13%.  The funny thing about it is that I really dont know that answer nor do I know exactly where to get it from.  I wont elaborate on that either, but that is where I stand on it.  So after this week it supposedly goes to 50% for the following two weeks.

My assessment of what I am to do this week is a.) walk on my right foot with 10% body weight and b.) do what they tell me at the physical therapy office.  I am told that this ten percent is probably the equivalence of using my foot to balance myself when/while I stand.  This is a bit of a relief as my left leg sort of gets taxed after standing for too too long.  I am also using the foot just to roll through the bottom of the boot to get my entire leg back in the motion of walking.

Today was day 1 for physical therapy.  Prior to this I have been trying to stretch my toes and achilles as much as possible, however without knowing my limitations I was unable to know how much to push.  After today this is much more understood.  While its nice to know how much I can push it, I can also say that its not as easy as I thought it would be.

While I had many excersizes that will get my range of motion back, there was one that was interesting to me.  My therapist goes and gets a tupperware bowl of marbles and sets them on the bench.  After some of the previous rom excersizes he puts them on a towel and has me use my toes to pick them up and put them back into the container.  While this seems rather simple a task for someone who hasn't used their foot for anything for seven weeks, it easily tasks the muscles.  Here is an image:  (I think I will be purchasing some marbles soon)

All in all today was a good day.  It allowed for me to learn that regardless of how hard I want to push this to heal and heal faster I do have to wait on the limitations of my body and its ability to heal itself.  I also have come to the conclusion that I have to accept that with age my body is going to take a little more time.  I did also learn a good deal of things that I can begin to do on my own.  I will spare explaining them because I am sure that its just as easy to google them and get a better explanation.

All said after the excercises they apply heat as well as electronic stimulation.  Very warm with four electrodes in four locations around my ankle.  I know that its supposed to stim the muscles and help speed up the recovery process but sort of not exactly sure why.  I think its for 15 minutes and then thats all she wrote for the first session.  I imagine depending on the measurements for the range of motion come this monday, that will determine what the next steps are in the process.

Hopefully after the next three days of going through the ice and excercises I now can do on my own, progress will continue on into the upcoming weeks.  While it may be a long road ahead I do believe that with the appropriate amount of determination and will it may begin to take place a little more rapidly.

Hopefully the next will be of some sort of activity!