Today marks my first day back to running. Now, to be fair, I ran in the shallow end of the pool to minimize impact, but I ran nonetheless. And it felt great! I had some minor pain on the lateral part of the ankle bone and like running in the deep well, the water moving over the incisions felt a bit uncomfortable. Overall, however, I felt much better than I'd expected.
I am starting to get back into a gym routine as well. I now alternate between running in the pool and working out at PT (3 days a week) with riding the bike (indoors) for 30 to 45 minutes. Neither activity has much pain associated with it, but I am definitely ready for some outdoors time with real air.
Vermont City Marathon is just a couple weeks away and I must admit, I'm frustrated to miss it for the second year in a row due to this injury. It's my "hometown" marathon and I had high hopes of performing well in front of my family and friends. I still haven't decided whether I will stay in town that weekend or not. Last year, I hid out at my parent's house, not wanting to see a city full of runners. I'm feeling more hopeful this year, perhaps because the dark cloud of reemergence is hopefully resolved by the surgery. Still, it will be hard to watch people give their all while I'm relegated to the sidelines.
I'm hopeful, however, that I will begin to run outside of the pool soon and begin the much more fun part of recovery - rebuilding a base.
Thank you for the blog!! I had surgery 1 week after you-/
ReplyDeletebilateral release of anterior & posterior compartments.
Currently I'm walking around doing simple everyday stuff. The legs
feel quite bruised and particularly sore in the evening.
I also had my lft knees scoped recently (2 weeks ago) so my
pt has been gor that. Chronic compartment syndrome
is rare here in Hawaii. I have not found anyone who has had
this. My doc treated army guys in Kosovo. According to him,
they recovered faster then again, they didn't have
the posterior done.
Anyway, just curious about your pt plan and how you are feeling now
my pt is very good but she hasn't dealt with this yet.
Like you, I am eager to be my old self again. I miss hiking and
training for races with my buddies.
Aloha
Julia
My PT plan is pretty extensive, about 6 hours a week. We always start with a warmup on the bike, then massage both of the scars and of the calf muscle. While the scar massage is not comfortable, we are trying not to get scar tissue to build up and make a new problem on top of an old. While we wait for my legs to be ready to take the impact of running, we have been working on building up my hip strength. I've done everything from clamshells and leg lifts to squats and deadlift to standing on a balance board and trying to control the board as my PT kicks it. We are also doing a lot of work on my balance.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck with your healing. I certainly feel like the recovery has been much harder and slower than I anticipated, so you are not alone.
Wow that's great Sarah! Glad to hear you're progressing. Sorry about missing the race, it's for the greater good. It's not like you're missing it for some small reason. You'll get back there. I like how conservative you're being about coming back to running. My surgeon hasn't ordered PT for me for after the procedure. I am going to ask about it.
ReplyDeleteJenn: From what I've read on CECS and the surgery, rehab is a KEY in making sure you only have to go through this once. I would absolutely push for at least a few weeks of rehab if I were you.
ReplyDeleteHey Sarah.
ReplyDeleteI've been doing some research myself but have trouble finding articles regarding post op recovery. If you find some good ones could you post them?
Thanks again, and best of luck!!
)Julia
Mango: Mine came out of a Sports Med textbook, can't seem to find it electronically. Perhaps check your local university library or do an inter-library loan?
ReplyDelete