Life and leg update : 9 weeks post injury

 It's been 9 weeks since Tough Mudder, since I broke my ankle, since I started the most challenging uphill battle since I began this fitness thing.
And don't get me wrong, I really love the uphill stuff. It makes me stronger. I just really hated this one, because it made me physically weaker and set me back months.

Let's talk first about where I'm at with this leg, shall we? I'm out of the moonboot and walking (relatively) normally and pain-free in normal shoes. Apart from a little localized swelling, the ankle itself looks normal and is back to a pretty normal aesthetic. Internally, the bone is fusing itself back to where it needs to be. It's an avulsion fracture, so I actually tore off the chunk of bone that's attached to the ligament. To make it heal, well, that's a game of hoping it attaches in the right spot and that the bone grows well enough to cover the weak spot. In terms of timeline for a complete heal on it...it could be 12-18 months.


In the meantime, I'm still doing physio every 2 weeks. We are trying to strengthen the ligaments that I sprained in the fall, and build up the muscle that I lost in the moonboot. At last measure (2 weeks ago), muscle mass in my right leg was 30% less than my left. That's actually quite good, according to my physiotherapist.

It aches if I stand on it for a long time. It aches badly if I push too far when I go walking. It's the way that I know how to progress with my training. I'm not cleared for running yet, but my walks are up to 2.7km, with some pain afterwards, but not into the next day (which is how the physio said I'd know that I had done too much.)
At the moment, it's just a bit of a pain that I can't do really simple things. For example, some kids were running around in the shopping center (where the parents were, I have no idea), and one of them almost ran straight into me. A quick sideways movement was just out of the question (and really painful when I tried). Another example is crossing the road. I needed to jog the last few steps yesterday, as there was a car coming (too fast), and it was painful to run on it.

Baby steps. Literally.

The service track at Birdrock beach

In terms of training goals, I have a few for the coming year. Within a month, I want to do Birdrock again. It's my most difficult, and favourite, training ground. There's a set of steps, and a service track. We walk a round trip of 6.5km, with this thing right in the middle. The gradient on the track is 45.7% and it's an amazing feeling to get to the top. People run it. I'd love to be able to do that.
I also would like to do a half marathon and a full marathon, just walking. I'm definitely training towards that, and expect to achieve both in 2014. I may even modify the Birdrock walk and do it 3 times with some extra distance on it for my half marathon. I did it twice in a training session a couple of months ago, and it wasn't so bad.

We have a couple of things planned as a group in 2014. We are doing the Neon Run in February, and probably a relay for life later in the year. I'm sure there will be other things that we can get involved in.

I've volunteered to work at Tough Mudder in March. I won't be running the track again, but I really loved the atmosphere there, and wanted to get involved. Also, my brother has his own goals, which involve the Mudder, and I really want to be there to support him.

Other than the leg, life is going really well. The boys are happy and healthy, and I'm getting over a throat infection. We're doing lots of odd jobs and improvements around the house in preparation for my boyfriend's visit in February. I really can't wait for that. We've been apart for 2 months, and we have 3 more to wait, but at least the end is in sight now.

LIFE/INJURY UPDATE

So, as you all know, I've been a bit cooped up in the house lately following my injury, and I wanted to update you all on how that's going, since I've had some lovely messages asking after me.

It's been a pretty long 3 weeks since it all happened, and I've had lots of doctors appointments and hospital visits and different pieces of equipment to help me get around.

First, I started out in a makeshift cast, a "back slab" of plaster, bound up with bandages. I couldn't walk on that at all, and needed both a wheelchair and crutches to get around. The picture here on the left is how my foot looked when we took the plaster off. The swelling and bruising had subsided considerably, but it still looked quite a mess.

After my first hospital visit with the Orthopedic surgeon, I was fitted with a moon boot and told to remain non weight bearing for 2 weeks. That was a loooong 2 weeks. The boot is heavy and not the most comfortable thing in the world, but at least I can take a shower and sleep in comfort because I can remove it pretty much whenever I need to.

A few days before my 2 weeks of non weight bearing was up, I started physiotherapy. My therapist, Caitlin is amazing, and she tries to be as gentle as possible, whilst also getting the best results we're able to. She informed me that I'll be doing physio for at least 2 months, and gave me exercises to do every day, which I'm trying to make sure I do enough of. One of my main concerns is that the injured leg has lost quite a bit of muscle mass, and I know that's to be expected, but it's still quite shocking to look at. We'll be slowly rehabilitating my leg and getting me to a point where I am fully functioning again. That time cannot come fast enough for me.

Right now, I've been weight bearing, hobbling around on the moonboot for about 5 days, and it's getting easier. The ankle aches at the end of the day, but I think that's pretty normal. I'm weight bearing in the boot for 2 more weeks, then the boot comes off and I learn how to use the joint properly again without the support of the boot. I believe it will be braced for a little while, just with a basic ankle brace that I can get at the chemist. Here's what it looks like now. It almost looks like a proper ankle again, not a big swollen bruised up mess.

I'm looking forward to getting on with my fitness goals, and have set myself some new achievements to unlock. I'll be walking a marathon at some point next year, after I'm fully healed and I've worked my stamina back up to a point where I'm happy to push myself again.

I'll do another update in a couple of weeks when I'm out of the boot and on the road to proper recovery. Thank you all, those of you who have been concerned and asked about it. It means a lot to know you all care.