Day 48: First day of PT!

The entire time since my surgery, the only thing that I could do to help my healing is to keep my foot iced and elevated.

Now that I can go to PT, I get to actively work towards getting my life back.

My prescription is for 3x a week, with the goal of working towards full weight bearing in a boot after 2 weeks, and in an ankle brace and tennis shoe at 4 weeks.  I think these timelines are absolutely crazy, but we shall see if I can do it.

The first appointment was an evaluation.  I was told to take my boot and shoe and socks off.  The PT took all kinds of measurements of my legs and feet.  The most interesting facts were that my left calf is 5 cm in circumference less than my right calf, and the swelling around my left ankle was 3 cm more than my right ankle.  I knew that my leg muscles had atrophied quite a bit, but after this evaluation it was apparent that I have a lot of work to do to get not only my muscle strength back but my ankle flexibility.

My PT ended up touching my foot much more aggressively than I was comfortable with because my incisions were still really raw.  She told me that I had to get used to it!  We did a few ankle range of motion (ROM) exercises and then they iced my ankle.

She gave me some at home exercises to do and sent me on my way.