Shoot Me: Part II

  Yesterday was my second follow-up appointment with my podiatrist.  It was a good appointment, but I should explain my Physical Therapy appointment first. 

  Therapy was at 8 AM.  I got there about 40 minutes early, so I hit the cross-trainer for some cardio first.  I ended up going 20 minutes at 190 strides per minute.  It was far from easy, but I really needed to push myself.  My ankle hurt, but not too much.  The range of motion on the cross trainer isn’t that large.  I then proceeded to do all of my leg work.  I did the leg press, toe raise, and “running” exercises on the reformer.  I also did lunges, squats, and step ups on the evil bosu.  Then a few other balance and proprioception exercises.

  Jamie, my therapist, also wanted to work on my stairs.  See, I can’t go down them very well.  I typically point my toe and land on the ball of my foot when coming down stairs.  I explained to her that the inside of my ankle hurts when I do that.  Honestly, I thought it was my deltoid.  After some discussion and prodding, we located the source of the pain.  It wasn’t the deltoid, it was the posterior tibial tendon.  I had tendonitis.  I had all of the classic symptoms: pain on the medial side of the foot, fatigue after minimal activity, and pain when rising on the ball of the foot.  Jamie wrote a quick note to my doc and I took it to him.

  So, at the doc’s I handed him the note.  He read it and said that he figured that’s what I had.  He said that dealing with this injury is like peeling an onion.  Last time we treated the joint line of my ankle, as that was the most painful at the time.  Yesterday, he gave me another shot to address the tendonitis.  He gave it to me under ultrasound and did a great job.  He hit the trigger point of the tendon exactly, as my the tendon fired almost immediately upon the injection of the med.

  Today, my ankle feels about 80%.  It’s not perfect, but it’s to the point were I can work on range of motion and flexibility much easier.  I’ve very happy about that, although I think I’ll need another shot in a couple of weeks just to make it 100%. 

  I’m sad to say that I’ll be missing the 100th running of the Cincinnati Thanksgiving Day Race tomorrow.  I was really looking forward to running it, but my ankle is nowhere near ready to run.

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Shoot Me! Please?!

  It’s been a long time since I’ve posted so I’ll do a quick recap.  On October 27th I went back to my podiatrist for a follow-up on my ankle.  At that point, my doc told me that I was allowed to begin bearing weight on it.  It was a slow process, but about 10 days later I was “walking” on it without the crutches.

  Since then I’ve been to Physical Therapy twice a week.  We’ve been working on Range Of Motion, stretching, strengthening, and proprioception.  I’d love to tell you which I need the most work on, but I think it’s all of them.  I’ve made some progress, but am still limited by the swelling in my ankle.  This swelling is causing me pain when I try to increase my range of motion.

  Today, I got to go see my doc again.  He was very happy with the stability of my ankle and feels confident that the ligaments are healing correctly and are not in the joint.  So, that means no surgery.  I did discuss my limited range of motion due to the pain.  I also mentioned my plantar faciitis, which is to be expected after not moving it over a month. 

  The good news is that he shot me up.  That’s right, more of the MLB players fix for what ails you….steriods.  Kenalog in fact.  He gave me the shot in the medial side of the ankle, right near my deltoid ligament.  Within about 2 seconds a tingle shot up my foot and it was completely numb in about 30 seconds.  Of course, I did joke around that I wouldn’t be able to drive home.  Oh, and I should note, I took him about 20 of my world-famous Chocolate Chip cookies.  He wanted a lemon meringue pie, but those don’t travel too well.

  My next stop was at Physical Therapy.  I went there immediately afterwards so that I could get in some of the beating while I couldn’t feel the foot.  I did more today that I have any other day.  Of course there is the reformer and the calf board stretches.  But, I also did some work on the flat side of the Bosu.  Balance, squats, throwing and catching a medicine ball, and generally any other torture they could think of while I was on there.  I also did 30 modified lunges (I’m really feeling those right now!)  and then Jamie massaged my plantar fascia as well as my entire ankle.  We finished up with ice and stim, which felt great. 

  I’ll be interested to see how it feels tomorrow but it’s kinda sore right now.  I’m hoping to be back to running within a few more weeks.  There are no promises, but I’m going to keep working toward that.  All in all, I’m back to most of my activities but still no running.  Stairs are still a small issue due to the proprioception.  And, I really have almost no lateral strength in the ankle yet.  But, it’s getting better every day.

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