And Start Forward

I will readily admit that last week’s post was grouchy.  I feel compelled to issue an apology for that because the people who have been managing my medical care and the people close to me, presumably the people who are reading these posts, have consistently expressed concern about my recovery.

At the same time, I intend this blog to be a forthright and honest account of this entire post-surgery rehab process.  Honestly, it hasn’t all been pretty, and at many times, it was quite painful—physically and emotionally.  Last week, I had four medical appointments, all of them related to rehab.  In addition to that, I worked my full work schedule, and I taught my summer class.

I am honestly exhausted by all of this, and the loss of the past year of training—and life force!—has been irritating, to say the least.

Some days are better than others, as the saying goes.

Today, though, I did return to the real treadmill at full body weight.  I’ll break down the surgery stats below in the usual way, but up here I’ll just say this: it was a weird feeling.

Running on my ankle hurt, and I limped off of the treadmill when I finished. This leads to me to believe that the AlterG treadmill did actually do something, because I never felt any discomfort while I was on it, aside from the space apron, which remains one of my least favorite things.  Still, I was wrong, it seems.

Both my posterior tibial tendon and my peroneal tendon felt extremely stiff and rigid right around my ankle.  When I started, my Achilles tendon also felt pretty tight.  The foot overall felt rigid, and I ran tentatively.

I am assuming that this is all normal—I have been assured that this kind of thing might happen—but it is still a little nerve-racking.  It is amazing to me that my ankle still, seven months out and many hours of rehab later, does not fully move.  My range of motion is still somewhat limited, and the soft tissue stiffness really is quite uncomfortable.

However, I actually ran today’s workout faster than I ran my final workout prior to my official diagnosis (even if today’s distance was shorter).

Progress?

Let’s call that progress.

More running on Wednesday.

5/6/19—first day of running on the AlterG treadmill (final day on AlterG was 6/13/19)

6/17/19—first day of running full weight on a treadmill (previous day of full weight jogging was 9/17/18)

—June 17, 2019