Day 70 - No more Crutches and Ankle Brace!

Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 - Week 18

Today I woke up to the same tender bruised feeling around my ankle. More of course on the right ankle side because that's where the metal is. I do the usual quick ankle turns and stretches before stepping out of bed. I'm noticing the tender bruised feeling is narrowing down and less spread out. It's now more on the area closest to the scar and ankle joints on both side of my right ankle. I didn't use my 1 crutch or ankle brace since a few days before my last week's Physical Therapy session. 

I got to Physical Therapy 15 minutes early this time. This time, for the first time I warmed up on the Elliptical! I did feel pressure on the ankle whenever I took the step down to maneuver each step. No resistance added to the machine. No pain, just pressure on every push off. It felt like a pretty good warm up because it sort of took my limp away. Yep, I still have a visible limp that is slowly going away.

Colleen did the usual measurements and said that my range of motion is looking very well and improving. She asked me about walking, how far I can walk and if I am in pain. No Pain and I told her I am confidently walking around without the need of my 1 Crutch and ankle brace! I do by the end the day with a bigger limp and feeling a bit achy. As expected by her and my surgeon, I will be off of it by the end of this month! Well, I still keep a crutch on my passenger seat just in case I do get too tired. So far in the past week I was ok and didn't need to use it at all! Good bye to my crutches and my ankle braces!

Next she asked me to do some squats. This time, I was less stiff on the top of my foot where it bends. I still can't fully bend it evenly with the other foot. Then she had me walk in a line from toe to heel forward and backwards. Next she had me try out a new heel raise exercise by placing my toes on the edge of the stair step and doing leg lifts. I am still wobbly and unbalanced as I always tend to lean to the right. Even with the standing with just my single right foot baring my entire bodies weight. I can only hold it for about 6 seconds at max and then I start to lean to the right. Again I feel the pressure tender bruised feeling. Clearly I need to work on my right leg muscles to get it strong again. Getting there. She also had me do some heel lifts on the Leg lift machine (behind the Elliptical machine in the picture above) using my own body weight. This time, she added one extra bar of weight and I didn't even know it! She wanted to test me out and clearly in just a week my ankle and leg is getting stronger. My right calf still is a chicken leg compared to the ginormous left calf. I wonder if the Chinese medicine really does work? I have to keep up with my exercises and stretches. I'm healing well so far, and hope for the tender bruise feeling to go away soon! I end my sessions with the usual bag of ice which I take to go with me after 10 minutes of icing it. I went outside to schedule my last 4 weeks, once a week sessions with Colleen! This makes my full 20 sessions! So far, Colleen didn't ask for more. Does that mean I'll be done after these last 4 coming weeks? I hope so!