All Recovery...All the Time

It's the recovery channel, all recovery stories, all the time!! Sorry I know I just posted about my leg but sadly it's what on my mind recently. And as much as I would like to deny it, a broken ankle (particularly my type of break), is a big deal. I had an interesting discussion with my physical therapist this morning who told me that although she's hoping for a complete 100% range of motion recovery, it often tends to be more like 80 to 90% for trimalleolars. The plates and screws make a huge difference.

All that said, I've had an exceptionally good day recovery wise. The physical therapy is slightly painful and my foot is sore by the end of the day but I can finally see some good movement in the joint. It's faint and no where near where the other one is but I'm able to move it back and forth and side to side. It's day two of physical therapy and I already feel much stronger. I can move the foot more and am now able to put all my weight on it comfortably.

My big news for the day is that I have been walking for most of the day with just one crutch. I had been nervous to get rid of the crutches completely although I know it's the next logical step. So this was a compromise between my daring self that says go for it and the frightened side of myself that said don't rush. So far it has been working beautifully. I limp a lot but that's to be expected. And I can even carry things now. It's the little things. :-)

Mostly I'm just excited about the physical therapy. My therapist is wonderful, always careful and gentle with me, but still giving the ankle a good workout. I'm shocked at how little movement makes it tender. One of my exercises is to use my ankle to draw the alphabet in the air. I started with my good foot to try it and had no issues. But even the shift to make the A on my bad ankle is stretching muscles and tendons I didn't realize I had. It's slow going but it gives me something to work on and the feeling that I'm in charge of my recovery. And that is the greatest feeling of all.