Whoa. It's day 73 post op. Photo is day 69+. I had my 10.5 week Doc appt yesterday, I was so nervous and anxious I didn't really sleep the night before. I was so happy going into the Doc's office yesterday morning! He came in, asked me how I was, for the first time I responded that I was great! He looked at the xray and said it is awesome, gave the ankle a tug and said "oh yeah, that is rock solid" and I don't remember feeling so good! At least not in the last 73 days. :) I expected a lot of pain, but to my surprise, my ankle didn't slide out of socket like it used to when he pulled it! I told him to grab the other one, and he looked at my with this "holy shit" look on his face and said "oh my god...". Yeah, lefty's still pretty messed up. But we'll worry about that guy later. Focus is on righty's recovery right now. :)
Anyways, he said I can walk, he said I can swim, I can ride the stationery bike, etc. Pretty much, I'm free to go! I was so confused when he told me I could walk.... I asked him if he know how painful it was to put weight on it...he said "well it's going to take some time to ween yourself off the crutches. Probably 5-7 days." I told him I thought that was pretty aggressive, but go figure, 2 hours later I am practically running around my office at work... I still had to use the crutches but was putting 80% of my weight on it!
The nurse was really helpful. I couldn't touch my toes to the ground, and I was having so much pain in the ball of my foot (and the top of my foot...Doc said there's nothing wrong, the pain is from not using it, that it would get better)... but my toes didn't touch the ground, so I wasn't sure how to walk... She slowly pushed my toes down to the ground (I am holding my breath during all this), she held them there for a few seconds, picked up her hands, and voila! Toes were touching the ground, they stayed! It was exciting!
I spent most of yesterday with 80% of the weight on my foot. By the end of the day it was as swollen as it was 4 weeks post op. But I iced and elevated, and it went right back down, thankfully! They gave me a good go-by...she said put 25% of my weight on it for 25% of the day for 2 days or until I don't feel pain when doing so, they move to 50%, etc. It was pretty sore this morning, so I might have to take it a little slower, but I did get to swim today! That was really fun. I felt so free! It was SO NICE TO ENGAGE ALL OF MY MUSCLES AT ONE TIME! I'm so tired of isolating a muscle group to work out! Ahhh! I swam for 20 minutes and did maybe 8 laps. hehe. Pretty slow but I don't mind. I used a noodle under me for most of it, wasn't using my legs the whole time, I was pretty nervous. But it was less painful than I anticipated! I'm going to wait until I can bear 100% of my weight on it before I move to the bike. I think that's smart. I'm so happy to be able to go to the gym again.
After today, I have a very positive feeling. A much more positive feeling than I did after I had my last ankle surgery. I have my first PT appt next Friday, but I probably won't go too often. It's not like I have to gain a lot of strength back...the surgeon fixed that for me! I'm wayyy better off now than I was before surgery! I don't need a PT appt to make me do the exercises. I am PLENTY motivated on my own. :) I will just go check in so they can monitor my progress, but don't want to spend thousands of dollars having them watch me do the stupid theraband. :) Besides, the Doc already told me I have my strength back after the little test he did.
Okay, enough for now, but yippie!
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