On my foot, that is! Yes, I have finally started my physical therapy! A part of me wants to say “whee!” but of course there is a lot of work involved. I got a young therapist who seems to joy in making me go the extra mile (mile? I wish!) but that is his job, to push me! My doctor has allowed me to start off with putting 25% of my weight onto the foot…so I am actually now taking real, actual steps! But I must use the walker and be sure to put most all my weight onto the handles and not my foot. This part is tricky, and while at therapy they have a computer program and device they put under your foot (in your walker/boot) that is actually able to measure how many pounds per step you are putting on your foot. At home I do not have this, but I am only walking 40 feet or so once a day. Next up is to take some X-rays to check to see if my foot is holding up well with this newly added stress, Hopefully there are no re-broken bones in there!
Most of the therapy involves working my foot muscles, mostly in the arch area as this will strengthen the area that is so vulnerable and holds all my screws and hardware from the surgery. He also has me doing exercises to strengthen my leg and hip since they have become horribly atrophied this 12 months of non-weight-bearing and will require these muscles for walking. My therapist also got me into the swimming pool once…which was enjoyable, but was such a logistic nightmare for me, really. Only because I am very chore-lazy, and the pool represents a lot of clean up work afterwards! I tried to take a shower afterwards in their dressing rooms, but it was hard to get up out of the wheelchair and under the water (didn’t want to get the chair wet!) I wasn’t at all into taking off my suit and fully bathing and getting redressed in front of everyone else, plus it is hard to get fully dry and pulling on choners (undies!) and pants half dry is a real bitch! So that meant I had to drive home in my wet suit, with towels on the seat….then once home have to wash out the swimsuit, have to wash out my water shoes (I insisted on wearing them…don’t want my feet to touch the pool or locker rooms!) Have to wash my feet, then have to wash my body, then have to wash my hair….A C K!!! You see what I mean? Though the pool was fun, (just doing leg exercises in the deep end) it just is more work than benefit, I think. Fortunatly, (though not really……) my little pinkie toenail decided to just come off (Doc isn’t sure why…probably neuropathy related and I may have loosened it in the pool and accidently tore it off with putting on a sock) but this bought me therapy out of the pool till the pinkie healed up, lol! The next hurdle is insurance related…they only approved me for 8 sessions, in a month long period, ending on a certain date…the rehab place took awhile to schedule me in so only got in 4 sessions before the end date came up…so now they have to request more therapy, get approved by the insurance, and reschedule me for more sessions. But it’s turning into a 3 week wait…all I can do in the meantime is keep up my exercises my therapist gave me and practice them at home. I will keep you updated!
-Cassandra, Charcotchacha copyright 2015