Bye Felicia

I was officially cleared to start walking without crutches this week!  And I have nothing but progress to report!

No scooter.  No crutches.

Last week, I weaned down to one crutch and upped my weight to 75% on my right foot.  I was told to bring my shoe and "Superfeet" insert with me to my appointment, but not to wear them in.  I arrived, and Stephanie had me change from my boot into my shoe (with the insert) first thing.   I hadn't worn a shoe on my right foot since the accident.  It felt so strange.  I took a few steps in the shoe with the crutches.  I felt almost like a baby deer taking steps for the first time.  My foot and ankle felt so weak inside the shoe; the boot is much more supportive for my leg. She then had me start out the session with 5 minutes on the bike, and then 5 minutes on the leg press machine.  I did a set of squats and some balancing exercises on the right leg, and she felt I'd done them OK enough to be cleared to start using one crutch, and 75% weight.  Yay!  I was pretty excited, not only was this major progress, but I'd be getting a hand back.  I could carry a cup of coffee with me from the kitchen to the couch.  I could carry a plate of food by myself to the kitchen table without a crazy balancing act.  I could carry my PURSE again!!

I spent the majority of last week working on that transition, and doing all of my PT exercises in my tennis shoe.  Mostly my therapist has had me working on balance on the right leg, and I am working on this exercise where I stand in a lunge stance, and have a piece of elastic tubing hooked to the wall.  Then, I draw my A-B-C's with the tubing in the air while balancing on my right leg.  I look like such a spaz doing it, I'm sure!  I felt like I had made a lot of progress, and by the weekend I was getting around on one crutch pretty easily.

On Halloween, I dressed up as a "Bloody Beaver" and went to the Utah Utes home game vs. the Oregon State Beavers.  I decided not to take my scooter at all, and just bring my crutches.  I was pretty nervous at the thought of not having the scooter as a back-up plan, in case I was in a lot of discomfort or unsteady during the night.  But, as always, I jump to worse case scenario in my mind, and I didn't have any problems at all.  I got some comments that the crutches made me move like a zombie and it was an "excellent addition to my costume".. =/  The people in my seating area in the stadium have been witnessing my progress through these weeks, and there was actual cheering and excitement when people saw me walking with a crutch!

Yesterday, I went to another PT appointment.  When I arrived at the PT clinic, the elevator was undergoing repairs.  So the receptionist kindly pointed out the stairs to me and informed me I'd need to take them.  Are you kidding me?  Who decides to work on an elevator during business hours at a podiatry therapy clinic?!  Good thing I'd gotten far along enough in my therapy to be able to do stairs, otherwise I would have needed to reschedule.  This immediately put me in a rotten mood.  But, once I met with Stephanie, she told me I was allowed to ditch the crutches!  This was awesome news!  I'm still supposed to have them handy because inevitably I will get sore and swollen and I'll need them in order to continue walking.  After 5 minutes on the bike & leg press, I did some balancing exercises on my right leg again, and then some step-ups with my right foot on to a step, all in my tennis shoe!  Then, we put the boot back on and practiced walking in the boot with NO crutches!  I thought I'd be wobbly and unsteady, but I was so excited I was zooming around the room.  She said I could walk as much as my foot would tolerate it, but when it started to get sore I should use the crutches so that there is no pain.  I did have some heel soreness, and Stephanie said that was normal as there is typically damage to the heel pad when breaking the midfoot, and the boot doesn't have any heel cushion.  She instructed me to buy a heel cushion insert and that it should help absorb some of the stress on my heel.

One thing I have loved about this therapy and approach is that it has progressed at such a pace where I am not having any pain when attempting to walk and do these exercises.  I do feel discomfort for sure, but not pain.  And I know when I'm pushing too hard, because I start to feel pain, and then I'll dial it back down a little.  I've needed incredible patience! It feels less impossible to walk barefoot, but still painful enough that I'm not going to attempt it.   I should not be taking any steps out of the boot anyway.

I will have 2 more weeks in the boot, then we will start to wean out of it, so that I can start walking and wearing shoes on my right foot again!

I was so happy after this appointment.  As Nate and I were walking to the car, the first thing I did was I reached over and held his hand.  I hadn't been able to walk with him and hold his hand in 4 months. It felt amazing.

The Return of FrankenFoot

It's been a little over a week since my hardware removal surgery.  Recovery has been great actually.

Yesterday, I was allowed to take off my dressing.  It revealed a slightly swollen foot, with two new incisions (one on the top on my foot, the other along the side/bottom).  Overall, it did not look that bad.  The sequel is never as good, I suppose.

My incisions are a little sore still.  I don't like the prickly feeling of exposed stitches. When the blanket touches them in the bed, I want to just pull them out.   I technically should be waiting until next week to sleep with my boot off, but I am cheating a little.  Shhh!!!  The doctor originally said that there wouldn't be any stitches on the bottom of my foot, but when I took off the dressing it appears there are stitches there.   Also with a lot of dried blood on my foot, so I'm guessing the removal of that pin didn't go quite as smoothly as anticipated :)

I've been allowed to start putting as much as 50% of my body weight on my right foot!  I am slowly phasing out the scooter.  I am only using it when I a) need to get somewhere fast (midnight potty runs) or b) if I need to carry something in my hands.  Otherwise as much as possible I am using my crutches.

I went to physical therapy on Monday, and Stephanie taught me how to get the weight ratio right.   It's a bit tricky to get, but we started out with a scale and a book.   First, I had to figure out what my weight was, and thanks to surgery last week I knew the number. She marked half of my body weight on the scale with a green sticker.  It wasn't a digital scale, it was the kind with a needle.  I stood on the book with my left foot so that I would be level with my other foot, since my boot makes it slightly uneven.  I slowly started to put weight on my right foot, which was positioned directly under the scale.  I started switching my weight back and forth between the book and the scale, and the goal was to hit the green sticker every time to hit 50%.  I did this for a few minutes, to get used to and comfortable with the weight.  Then, she had me close my eyes and repeat the exercise, to see if I could hit 50% without looking.  After a couple of tries I was nailing it pretty well!

Then I started to walk with the crutches around the room, learning to walk all over again.  Starting with all the weight on my heel, and then kind of "roll" my foot so the weight then gets pushed through the arch, then the ball, and then the toes.  I had to take small steps.  How did it feel?  It wasn't painful, but uncomfortable.  The best way I can describe it, is that it felt like when your sock is kind of bunched up in your shoe right underneath your arch.  That pressure you feel on the bottom of your foot, kind of crampy and a bit achy.  I thought it would hurt more quite honestly, but with the help of the Superfeet arch supports my doctor recommended, it wasn't bad at all.

I worked on some additional exercises before she sent me home, which included some squats, a session of 5 minutes on the Total Gym doing leg presses, and balance work on my right foot.  I actually was sweating pretty good, and it felt great!  My foot was definitely sore after all that, but it was the first time I'd used it in 112 days!  Wow.

Next week, I'll start 75% of my weight, and go down to one crutch, after my appointment at TOSH to remove my stitches.  I also was told to bring a shoe to my next appointment.  A SHOE!!  She told me to get at least a half size or a full size up from my normal size.  Between the insert and swelling, my foot probably won't fit into my normal shoes.  There are constantly just left shoes laying all around the house so I hope that starts to change.

As I left my appointment, she brought my scooter over, and I was like "Hell No!  I'm walking out of here!"  And she just looked at me and said, "OK, but don't over do it!"  I got that mischievous grin on my face when I know I'm about to do something I am not supposed to.  So, Nate rode the scooter out to the parking lot while I crutched along.  We got a lot of weird looks.  One guy stopped me and said that it wasn't right!  Haha.

It feels great to start walking again, even if it's heavily assisted on crutches.  It feels impossible to walk barefoot.  I don't know when I will be able to do that again, but I don't want to attempt it any time soon.   From what I have read on other blogs, that may take a while!  For now I am just happy I can have two feet on the ground.