(How I broke my leg and subsequent surgery)

Post-Op Recovery

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WEEK 3

Wednesday 9 July -  12 days post-op/18 days post-break.

Today was my first post-surgery checkup. A friend drove me in to Auburn 45 minutes away and dropped me off at the x-ray place across the parking lot from my OS and I went and got a fresh set of x-rays (that was interesting, trying to crutch while clutching the big x-ray envelope).

OS took a look at the x-rays and was very happy. He said that he thought I'd mend just great and that I wouldn't even know that I'd broken it when all was said and done. He was very pleased with how it looked and said to stay in a non-weight bearing cast for another 4 weeks, at which point I'll probably be able to start partial-weight bearing.

Brady (his assistant) then cut off my plaster cast splint (which had been like wearing a nice warm norwegian winter sock... in 114 degrees) and I got to be blissfully bare for about 30 minutes.

She said that the iodine they use for surgery works like glue and everything sticks to it - including grime. And it doesn't wash off, you have to sort of rub/wear it off. So my leg looked filthy. She used a damp cloth to unstick all the left over fluffy from my poor, wimpy, shrivelled leg. It felt wonderful.

When it was a bit cleaned up, she took out the staples in my leg. The incision was shorter than I anticipated, which was nice - no Frankenstein impersonation for me. There were 14 staples and only about 3-4 of them made me squeak when she took them out with her staple remover. OS came and looked at that and said it looked great too.

Then she left me alone to go off and do something, so I spent a happy time rubbing iodine grime/dead skin off my leg and picking off any little bits that would get sealed up inside the next cast. There was one little crust of blood that had been jammed under the splint on the top of my foot that had been hurting all week, so it was a relief to get it all somewhat cleaned up. I also got to take a gazillion pics from all angles and inspect the whole leg minutely to see what was going on. Right now, the tenderest part is on the inside of the ankle, which is odd, considering I was kicked on the opposite side. The incision is prickly painful too, but only if I twist wrong. The bruising is still quite spectacular, esp on the inside of my arch. And astonishingly my calf muscle has completely disappeared and I have a stick leg instead. It looked so sad, lying there on the table next to my strong manly leg.

Afterwards, she put me back in a waterproof fibreglass cast. I'm allowed to shower in it in a week's time (by which time the incision will be healed shut), and in two weeks I can soak it, which I guess means I could maybe swim in it. I'm going to have this cast on for four weeks and then he'll probably put me in a walking cast (partial weight bearing, still using crutches).

This is what goes under the fibreglass (blue) 
cast - it's like lil' foamy squares glued on plastic. 
Apparently it was developed for the US Swimming Team, 
so that they could continue to swim even when they were broken:

So when I went to the front desk to make my appt,  I told them I have to go to a wedding on Aug 3, so could I have my next appt before then? (so at least I'd be a little bit weight- bearing by then -  I'll still be using the crutches though). She's booked me in for July 30th. Yay! (and I think the walking cast will look stupid with a dress, though. They call them "Darth Boots" because they look like something Darth Vader would wear.)

I had a really good day today and quite upright and sprightly. My pain is not too bad and I only had to take a couple of pain pills and that was mostly precautionary because I was upright with a dangle leg for so long.

On the way home, we even dropped by the supermarket in Cool and I got to drive in the electric shopper which was really fun :))))

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Thursday 10 July - Well, yesterday's antics wiped me out. I slept a lot of today and was pretty achy. My quad on the broken leg felt like I'd done an endurance ride. Pathetic. Didn't take enough pain pills throughout the day and paid for it later. Right now I'm lying with my horse ice boot wrapped around my cast and because its the thinner cast, the cool is seeping through which feels good.

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Friday 11 July - Slept a lot, got really fed up, and eventually crutched down to the barn in the early evening and sat and cried. Highly productive. 

Saturday 12 July - I crutched outside quite a bit today and spent some time lying in the hay/grass, which was a good change. My foot/ankle didn't feel like it was swelling from all the dangling, but I did come in and take a pill in the middle of the afternoon and sleep for a while. Apart from that one pill, I didn't take another until midnight, but really could have used one before then - by the end of the evening I was quite squirmy and my leg really wanted to be cooled down with an ice boot, as it was baking in the cast. And here I am, cooled off, but still awake at 3:30 am. <sigh>

Sunday 13 July - Went pain-pill free all day (decided I was liking those pills just a little too much and that the pain wasn't *that* bad). By the afternoon, I was about as low as I could be and spent a few hours in tears. Not sure if it was the meds or just general frustration.

Except for going out to breakfast, I did nothing all day except sleep (mostly related to not getting to sleep until 4:30 am the previous night).

WEEK 4

Monday 14 July - 17 days post-op/23 days post-break

Lots of vivid dreams in the night, but I'm still off the pain meds and it's bearable. Mind you, I haven't done anything yet today, sp we'll see how that goes. I'm going to try and do some quilting today, in an effort to stay upright with a dangling leg....

Update later in the day: dangling leg + lack of pain meds actually wasn't so bad. I had to crutch around a great deal today because the man came to mend the well and I needed to be downstairs, out front, in case he had questions. I had to crutch up and down the 25 stairs twice, so got a good work out.

Once I was back indoors, I spent some time playing with my rolling office chair in the living room/kitchen. Apart from getting stuck on various rugs and having to reposition the center island in the kitchen so I could fit through the gap (luckily it's moveable), it was quite satisfying zipping about the kitchen, getting things out of the fridge without having to teeter, and even managing to do some chores like unpacking and repacking the dishwasher.

After my nap and subsequent celebratory shower, I did some quilting in the evening - first time I've sat at a desk in an upright chair in three+ weeks! My ankle throbbed and I ended up propping it on a little stool which helped a bit, but I still had to fidget and kept moving it up and down. I'm used to using my right foot to run the foot-pedal on the sewing machine, so that took some getting used to. Apparently my head is still mushy, though - I worked on a block for an hour and when I was done, I managed to trim the 1/4" seam allowance off the sides by mistake, so now it's too small <sigh>.

Thursday 17 July - Spent the last two days mostly in bed, recovering from Monday's activities, although Tuesday evening I made supper for the first time in weeks. Using my wheely office chair, I zipped about the kitchen which felt great having that kind of "freedom" (relatively speaking).

Friday 18 July - mostly spent in bed reading, although we did go over to Ann and Jess' and watch a video in the evening. By the end I was very uncomfortable and just wanted to lie down in my bed with my pillows.

Saturday 19 July - had a pretty active day - a trip to the feed store in Auburn (crutching up a few steps and then around the store a bit), then to the quilting store (crutched across the road, along the walkway, the around the store. Had to sit a couple of time, but did OK), then back across the road to meet pft in the bicycle store and stand chatting with an acquaintance. By the end of all that, my leg felt like a sausage inside its (formerly baggy) cast. The whole cast felt very tight, particularly around the ankle.

In the evening I did some quilting with the leg dangling down for several hours, which was encouraging even if the leg was swollen. The swelling makes it sore, so then I go and lie down with it wrapped in a horse ice boot and propped on a couple of pillows.

It feels good (painful, but good) to stretch my foot/ankle as far as I can in the cast. It feels stiff and bruised, but not nearly as delicate as it did. I can wiggle my toes enthusiastically and it feels like a good stretch in the arch of my foot. 

Too much wriggling and twisting though reminds me that the leg is still broken and I wish I hadn't done that :)

Sunday 20 July - more quilting, more leg dangling, and had to take a long nap in the afternoon because I was wiped out. My whole body is aching from the crutching the previous day. I'm still using the padded-hand bicycle gloves, but it doesn't help much with the bruised feeling on the heels of my hands.

In the evening I was able to do some more quilting/leg dangling. I can put my foot on the ground and rest the weight of my bent leg on it without any pain. My toes get a little numb from all the swelling, though.

WEEK 5

Monday 21 July - 24 days post-op/30 days post-break. Slept for 8 hours, which was a first in a while. Achy arms and shoulders from crutching. Enjoying sitting up and quilting, even if it does make me sore. Once my leg is all swelled up from dangling down, at times I feel like there's something wadded up under my second to last toe and keep poking at it just to see. Nope, nothing there, just a weird numbness.

Tuesday 22 July - Hah - that'll teach me. My two good days of sitting with leg dangling caught up with me and I slept until 10:30 this morning, got up for a few hours, and then had to go back to sleep for a few hours. Funny thing is, I had no idea I was overdoing it that much, necessitating sleeping. At least I'm starting to be able to concentrate on reading books (if I can stay awake).

Wednesday 23 July - Patrick poked around in the end of my cast near my little toe and was able to reshape some of the packing which I'd managed to wad up around my little toe. Much better - now I have room to wiggle it again. I woke up this morning very uncomfortable. My whole body is still aching, almost like mild flu, and the leg has become hypersensitive - I can feel every little crease and lump in the cast and wish fervently that I could take it off if only for 30 minutes. My broken parts ache and burn, such that lying still is very welcome. It hurts more now than in the last couple of weeks where everything was numb from being swollen.

Sunday 27 July - Well, I wouldn't have called last week productive - I went nowhere, I did nothing, I slept. But I do think I'm starting to mend. Yesterday was a first - I managed to stay awake all day and not feel wiped out, despite going out to breakfast followed by a taxing visit to the quilt store in Auburn. I've read two books this week and pieced together a quilt top. Yay!

WEEK 6

Wednesday 30 July - 32 days post op/39 days post-break. Today was my latest Dr visit. This was supposed to be the one where he cut off my cast and sent me skipping into the sunset, in partial-weight bearing bliss.

Luckily Patrick had the sense to mention to me last night "You know, he might not think you're ready?" ...and he was right.

Got my latest set of x-rays and Dr Christensen took a look and said "Let's go another couple of weeks and then maybe try for a walking boot". I couldn't really blame him: on the x-rays the gap in the tibia looks bigger than it did three weeks ago which is a bit disconcerting. He wasn't worried about it and said it just takes time. Fair enough.

I'm a little disappointed, but having seen the x-rays, I understand completely. But I am sick of this blue cast :)

Ann took me in to Auburn for my appt and with all the errands we had to do, it was the busiest day I've had to date - and my leg feels it tonight. My cast is so tight I can't move my ankle at all and it is doing a creditable impersonation of a stuffed sausage.

I got a temporary disabled parking permit from the DMV - that's welcome.

Thursday 31 July - Monday 4 August - We were due at a wedding up on the north coast and it was my husband Patrick's birthday, so we took a few days for a road trip.

My crutches fit nicely across the down top of the miata and for the first time in weeks it didn't matter that I had a broken leg - all I had to do was sit and look out the window. Very nice.

'Course, I wanted to get out and run about on the beach which wasn't going to happen, but still...

I took along a soft blankie to pad my leg while we were driving which helped cut down on vibration and rubbing when I had it propped against various surfaces.

Dealing with strange showers was hard - I hadn't realised how nicely my shower at home was set up for poorly legs. We took along my folding stool which helped, but I was pretty wobbly (and managed to drop a clean towel in the toilet by mistake - oops).

One of the nights we stayed at a hotel with an indoor swimming pool, so I got to try out my waterproof cast properly and swam for about 30 minutes. It felt so good to be able to move around so freely for the first time in six weeks, although it made my leg ache and trying to dry out my cast in foggy weather was tricky. I ended up blowing the hot hair dryer down it, but you never get the ankle dry.

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WEEK 7

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 4, 5, 6 August - Given that this trip was the first time I'd done anything strenuous in six weeks, I thought I coped pretty well with it. 

It took us 7 hours to get home on Monday, which was too long for my poorly leg - mucho fidgeting in the last few hours trying to get comfy. 

When we got home, I proceeded to sleep all day Tuesday and then instead of not being able to sleep that night, I went to bed and slept for another 10 hours. Hmm. Didn't realise it took so much out of me.

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WEEK 8

Monday 11 August - (44 days post op/51 days post-break) Today was the day - the x-rays looked a little better than two weeks ago - the gap is vaguely starting to fill in, so Dr Christensen said I could go in a walk boot. Woo hoo! Brady got out her tools and extracted the puny worm leg from its prison.

	First she showed me her rotating "saw" and explained that it doesn't cut so much as vibrate... I'm glad she mentioned this since as it hummed along close to my pointy bits it was a little nervous-making. She sliced all along the right side and then used her "prisers" to splay the fibreglass apart. Then she whirred along the left side before cutting through the padding with blunt-nosed scissors.  And finally, voila! the puny leg is revealed ...poor thing.
	And then having made it nekkid, Brady realised that the place that supplies the CAM (controlled ankle motion) boots was closed for lunch, so she wrapped the back of my cast like a back-board with an ace bandage to get me through the next hour or so (Ann and I went to Annie's for lunch - yum) until I got my new spiffy footware.

The leg feels very strange indeed (no surprises, given that I've only seen it once in the last seven weeks). I have virtually no flexion in my ankle in any direction and it feels very tight. If I close my eyes and "point" my toes and it feels like they are pointed to the max - and then I open my eyes and the foot is virtually straight up and down. Too weird.

I can feel the lump on the tibia on the inside from where the bone is cracked outwards and I think I can feel the tops of some of the screws (although in reality, who knows what I'm feeling...).

I've very gingerly put weight on the leg (tightly encased in its new boot) and the bones aren't jiggling around any more, which is a relief. There's a sensation of sinking slowly downwards as I put my weight on it, it might just be all the padding on the boot. No sharp pain though - Dr said to back off if it hurts too much.

Best of all, I got to scrape 7 weeks of dead leg off in the shower!

Until my tibia x-rays show it to look less broken, I'm not getting on a horse - too much potential for setting me back months if I prang it when it's not properly fixed which is just not worth it to gain a few earlier weeks on a horse. They'll still be there when I'm ready. But it's driving me nuts - esp. being enthralled by the olympic equestrian stuff right now.

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Wednesday 13 August - I just came back from carefully waddling down the corridor to turn off the a/c and then waddling back with only one crutch. It feels very odd - I haven't hurt myself yet, but I've been going very, very slowly and stepping down and loading up that leg very carefully. It's scary as heck since I'm visualising the x-ray of that broken tibia at each step.

I spent the afternoon practising my flexion - well, actually vacuuming the house (talk about several months overdue... eck). The easiest way to do it is to walk around on my knees which forces my foot to do its plantarflexion behind me, although it isn't even vaguely comfortable to do. And my knees now have carpet burns and I was quite pooped out by the end.

My dorsiflexion is already a little better than it was on Monday... "better" being a relative term.

Tight, tight, tight!

I'm booked in for my first PT appt on Tuesday - they couldn't do me on Friday (<pout> now I wish I'd tried to go yesterday). The first session will be an hour of evaluation - I guess measuring my leg and angles, etc.

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Thursday 14 August - Although my range of motion was quite good first thing this morning (after sleep, when the leg is at its most deflated), I did too much yesterday and had to sleep much of today. So much for being "mended".

I did manage to walk without crutches a little tiny bit, very carefully. "Walk" is perhaps too lively a term - slow motion hobble is probably more accurate. That made my leg ache. I'm not sure what's better - to walk further with the aid of crutches, or walk short distances, but really make the leg bear weight.

I put together some comparison photos of the x-rays. This first is viewing the leg from the front:

And here's from the side (although that second photo is a slightly different angle):

WEEK 9

• He had me spend 10 minutes on the reclining bicycle - I did my best to pedal as hard as I could for the last few minutes considering the complete lack of muscle in the poorly leg and managed to go 1.75 miles, so I was pleased about that. I actually felt fairly strong, which surprised me, but will probably pay in the morning. Bleached worm leg said "wha...?".
• Finished up by spending 10 minutes hooked up to a pulsing machine while my ankle was wrapped in ice to get the swelling down.

Friday 22 August - Second PT Session

1. 10 mins of bicycling (to warm the area up?). I managed 1.8 miles and felt great. Now, five hours later, my muscles are all wobbly, sore and twitchy ;-o
2. Some resistance exercises - pushing against PT man's hands - up, down, side to side (a friend who broke her leg mentioned that her PT had her put 5 lb rocks under her desk to push sideways back and forth... maybe start with lighter rocks?). This would be a strengthening exercise. He said something about doing it with some tubing next time around. When you work on resistance, make sure you're pushing/pulling with your *foot* and not moving your heel/lower leg.
3. Stretching the achilles/hamstring/other tight bits. He had me stand with my foot on a wedge of foam to dorsiflex my bad foot (is dorsiflex a verb?). The wedge was 25-30°. 
   • With a straight leg, I was to lean forwards (I had a table in front of me to lean against) and hold the stretch for 30 seconds. Repeat x 3. 
   • Same thing, except this time, slightly bend your knee (he said this would work your achilles more), hold for 30 secs, x 3
4. Wobble board. He had me sit on a chair and put my foot on a round board 15" in diameter. 
   • Without moving my knee, I was to flex my foot forward and backwards, trying to get the edge of the board on the ground (plantar was fine, dorsi I really had to work at). 20 reps (a forward and back counted as one rep) x 2.
   • Same thing, except side to side, 20 reps x 2.
   • When this was done, I worked on rotating the whole board so that it touched the whole edge to the floor - kind of like twirling your foot. That pulled on some stuff.
5. Got a nice massage to my lower leg (bliss) for about five mins. He pushed pretty hard on those muscles and it hurt - but in a good way.
6. Ten mins on the pulsing machine wrapped in ice.

He said to continue with my alphabet exercise and my pulling against a towel. Oh, and something else I thought of. PT man said don't just mindlessly do your alphabet while, say, watching TV - take notice of what you're doing and work on precision. The exercise is supposed to give you better control over your foot, not just stretch stuff. Cursive is easier for me, since the letters end up smaller and rounder, while capitals are harder - doing diagnoal straight lines (like "A" or "V" or "W") are where my ROM falls down. Letters like "O" also show where your limitations are - that movement is the only time I feel the plate in my ankle, when I get to about 5 o'clock to 2 o'clock on the circle it feels funky.

When I look back on what I did today, it seems wimpy, but I came home and took a nap and woke up stiff and sore. :)

Saturday 23 August - Post PT

This morning my foot is still really achey - particularly my "index toe" (the one that corresponds to my index finger on my hand). The tendon attached to that toe stretching down the middle of my foot is evidently *very* tight :) I almost feel like I have mild flu.

My leg is sore walking, so I'm going to take it really easy today.

Sunday 24 August - Breakthrough

It seems a combination of hard use, followed by rest/ice/elevation really does the trick. When I got up from the sofa to go to bed around midnight last night, my leg felt almost normal. Almost.

I've been walking around the house with a nekkid leg for a couple of days now - very, very carefully, since I know it doesn't have any support and could easily fail on me. But having a nekkid leg helps my ankle motion be more normal. (When I have to go out and walk in "real life", I'm wearing my boot diligently).

Up until now, whenever I stood up to walk, it would really hurt (particularly in my heel) for the first 30 seconds or so, and for the first few steps until everything settled down. I thought this was from fluid being squished out of places it wasn't supposed to be, but now I'm wondering if some of it was tight achilles tendon. The whole leg just feels more loosened up and less taut, which is a very, very good feeling.

WEEK 10

Tuesday 26 August - PT #3 - The only new thing was an exercise where I lay on my back and pushed against a spring-loaded board with my legs - moving from bent to nearly straight. That pulled pretty good on my achilles tendon since I worked to keep my heel on the board. It also worked my quads good and hard, using many of the muscles I use for distance horse riding, so I was pleased about that.

(I'm hoping to get to a four-day endurance ride over Christmas/New Year, although realise that might be a little ambitious at this stage - have only been FWB for two weeks but my PT man thinks there's no reason I shouldn't start riding again around the end of September. Whether I can get me and the horse back in enough condition to do 50 milers in less than three months remains to be seen :) Time will tell.)

The FWB is going pretty good. Despite not having been given the go-ahead by my OS yet to do so (I see him tomorrow), I've been walking around the house with a nekkid leg rather than using my Darth - the Darth tends to torque my leg weirdly because of the lack of ankle movement, so I'm actually more comfortable without it. That said, I've been walking around in barefeet to really get good feedback and not overdo it.

After I've done all my exercises and my flexing, getting up and walking is a lot easier and less painful. I guess I thought that the "bone is pushing out the bottom of my heel" feeling when taking those first few steps was from the bones settling into place, but can see now that it is from tight everything - and if I've loosened up the pain just isn't there and I almost feel *normal* (relatively speaking).

Anyway, I'm very pleased with how it's working out and already see some muscle returning to my runny-pudding calf which is gratifying.

Wednesday 27 August - Dr Visit and X-rays - The x-rays looked good to me (esp. compared to last time), but he peered at them and said "well, it's getting there, but slowly".

I told him I'd been walking around without my boot (very carefully). He said on the one hand, that was good because it let my ankle get more flexible, but on the other hand it was bad because flexing my new bone might make it not heal properly and instead of putting in new hard bone, it'll just fill with flexi-bone and then I'll be stuck with a mal-union and have to have a bone graft.

WHAT?

He said "don't worry, I don't think that will happen, I'm just mentioning it just so's you know".

Oh.

He said continue as I am (walking around the house with a nekkid leg and wearing the boot when I do more walking/go outside) and that he'll look at it again in six weeks and see what's happening.

Hmmm.

Although he didn't say there was a problem, he still planted the seed of doubt in my head, so now I get to subconsciously fret for the next six weeks that the bone isn't knitting properly.

He did say I can go back to work on Wednesday, though (but to make sure I wear my boot).

WEEK 16

Monday 6 October

(Photo shows comparison of today's x-rays and those from six weeks ago).

This morning was my latest x-ray-n-Dr-visit - the last one was six weeks ago.

The x-rays weren't as promising as I'd hoped - my bones are still visibly broken, but there are definite signs of mending which is a relief. It has been 15 weeks since I broke.

As my husband and I waited in the consulting room peering at the x-rays, I concluded that my Dr probably wouldn't clear me to ride, so was pleasantly surprised when he said "oh yes, no problem, go ahead - do whatever you can tolerate". 

That said, I don't have much confidence that he has any idea what "riding" entails when it comes to the type of riding I do (endurance riding), so I'm still a little hesitant to just leap on and get on with it.

First things first - I'm going to practice getting off the horse (particularly getting off the horse in a hurry) without hurting myself.

I'm less worried about doing damage from the actual riding part - that will definitely go along "as tolerated" - it's the sudden exits that worry me more. That said, I'll have to see after I actually get on a horse, hopefully tomorrow...

At this point, my Dr didn't think that running was a great idea - better to swim and bike - but that I could walk as much as I could tolerate.

Next x-rays will be at the beginning of February in four months.

Physical Therapy at This Point

I've been going to PT twice a week for seven weeks now. Everything had been going pretty well the last few weeks and I really felt like my leg was getting strong - particularly the last couple of weeks. My one-legged balance was improving in leaps and bounds (this after I could barely stand on one leg in a shoe without looking like I was surfing), my RoM was nearly back to what it had been (except that I really had to push to get it to look the same, while the good leg could maintain the same posture completely relaxed).

Up to now, my PT consisted of:

• 10 mins stationary biking (gradually increasing the difficulty level)
• stretching dorsiflexion/achilles on wedge (30 secs x 3 leg straight/30 secs x 3 leg slightly bent)
• side to side motion on wobble board (10 x 3)
• standing on one leg in bare foot on a cushion, throwing a ball against a trampoline (great for regaining balance)
• stepping down 8" (10 x 3) - stepping up came quickly, stepping down was harder - it felt like I had a blob of something in the crook of my ankle stopping me bending my foot up.
• 10 mins elliptical machine (gradually increasing the difficulty level) (whee - you can almost pretend you're running!)
• leg presses (10 x 3) on a spring loaded board
• heel raises and dips (10 x 3) on a spring loaded board - these were the hardest to do.
• 10 mins on the pulsing machine, wrapped in ice (ah, that's better)

Last Friday, my physical therapist upped the anti a little and put me on the "real gym machines" - this meant leg pressing, leg lifting, leg pulling and finally heel raises and dips 40 lbs (10 x 3 each exercise). Ack. By the end of that, I was down to managing two weak actions before having to stop and recover for 15 seconds or so. So much for feeling strong.

My biggest problem last week, which luckily we identified before it got too ingrained, was a lack of side to side motion, causing me difficulty walking on side-slopes (which we have a lot of here at home, living on a hill). It also made it uncomfortable walking on generally uneven ground, because of lack of RoM.

On Tuesday we did some more intense side to side stretches and wobble board and although it felt like things were tearing in the side of my ankle, but the following day my gait had improved greatly to the point I wasn't weaving like a drunk anymore.

On Friday the physical therapist did some massage around the incision and below my distal malleous. That was fun - not - with him digging (seemingly as hard as he could) trying to release any adhesions.

Pain

The area around the back and bottom of my distal malleous is what seems to hurt the most - although "hurt" is probably too strong a word. I never had a lot of swelling in the ankle, but this region has continued to be a little puffy. It bothers me when I drive sometimes and we're speculating that this may cause me to have my HW removed in a year or so. That said, I don't know if the area is aggravated because a tendon is passing over the plate, or if the area is already aggravated and that's what's causing the tendon to rub. Sort of chicken and egg.

Another thing that bothers me is a burning feeling on the bottom of my heel. When I think back, I had this when I was in my cast. It could be some kind of nerve damage since my heel doesn't feel warm. The weather is cooling off, so I'm less inclined to want to ice my ankle than I was a month or two ago when it was in the 100s.

The broken area aches occasionally but not much, and the bottom of the incision is a little sore where it covers the malleous (this got rubbed from my darth a couple of weeks ago). When I've been on my foot for a long period of time, it's the bottom of my heel that aches.

Darth

I stopped wearing my Darth completely about a week ago. Prior to that, although I went barefoot inside my house (this to remind me to take care when I was walking around - it kept me slow and methodical) I was wearing it if I knew I was going to be walking a lot and (per Dr's instructions) I wore it at work.

It caused its own problems in that it made me lopsided and gave me backache, but there were times when I was glad for it. At the end of September I went to help out at a 100-mile endurance ride and was up (and on the leg on and off) for 24 hours. Surprisingly, at the end of that, it wasn't too bad.