Rehab has begun and on the road to a good outcome

So I’ve neglected the blog a bit over the past week. I’ve been just a tad busy and wanting to focus on the really important things in life!

Blogging can be quite cathartic so there does come a time when it is handy to spend a moment and summarize the past week.

So Monday was a public holiday and Tuesday was return to work (full time) I set a time frame of two weeks to take off for this last round of surgery and it will actually be 12 work days so technically slightly longer than two weeks.

Anyway I fronted for work on Tuesday and while it was a hard slog, as the week went on I started to adjust.

I’d be lying if I said the return to work was easy. Managing my own situation and that of my Dad’s plus the pressure work adds to the fold is quite the challenge. It’s for that reason that I’ve not tried to get clearance to return to exercise. I get home from work totally exhausted and right now the focus is sustaining the return to work, so pushing myself harder with exercise can wait.

On Thursday night I had my first appointment with my podiatrist who is going to be managing my rehab.

She has given me a very basic set of exercises to do, called ROM exercises of the toe which are done passively and resisted.

Passive is really easy, you just move your toe, resisted is where you actually physically move the toe.

When I first did these exercises I pushed too hard and put myself in a world of pain (literally)

I contacted my Podiatrist to clarify that obviously moving the toe is going to be sore but just how far do I push it?

Advise was to push into discomfort but not pain. Seems obvious, but I’ve had a few issues in the past when I’ve got exercise instructions wrong and it’s best to make sure your doing the right thing!

Over the past few days the exercises have been getting easier to do which is good.

I’m still getting pain out of the incisions and I suspect the one on the top of the toe is going to be the worst. The surgeon did mention the top incision would only be done if required and it was.

I’m still three weeks out from loosing the post op shoe which is frustrating. The height difference in my legs is so substantial the “wobble” I am doing is throwing my body alignment out. I’ll have to experiment tomorrow to see if I can get a sandle a similar height, otherwise on advise I will get a second post op shoe.

The fall out from the “wobble” is causing calf, back neck and shoulder pain. Even if I slow down and reduce the length of my stride I still can’t stablise sufficiently.

One really positive thing to come out of the podiatry consult was that better movement is already noticeable in the big toe joint, which is the whole purpose of this surgery. As long as I continue to do as I’m told and progress continues in this way then we are on tract for a good outcome.

That is pleasing as I’ve started to receive emails from the City Bay office and I’m keen to start training for the event.

Given that I’m only able to walk short distances right now (as in a few meters at a time) even the 3km seems impossible right now.

I’m hopeful to be able to complete the 6km again. Going to be really interesting to reflect back on this post in September!

Ultimately in the early stages of rehab lots of working and certainly jogging or running are out of the equation.

That said, as soon as my wounds clear and I get the all clear I’ll be back in the pool like a duck to water.

I’m getting to a point when I’d really like to go for a swim or smash myself in PT, but I’m not quite ready for either of those just yet.

As “they say” all good things come to those who wait!

That’s the trick, for the good outcome comes patience. My Father regularly remarks that he was out of the room when they gave out patience and in this regard I truly believe I’m my Father’s son!

A lot of changes have been going on in and around the house.

I aim to write about this soon.

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