Fitness Friday: Working Through the Pain

“A muscle is like a car. If you want it to run well early in the morning, you have to warm it up.” Florence Griffith Joyner

It’s been a bit of a crazy week around here, but my recovery is slowly moving along. I’m beyond ready to be able to function like a normal human being again. My shoulders are aching due to having to use the crutches for so long. The eczema on my hands is acting up thanks to the grips on the crutches – not fun.

Enough of the complaining… I have made progress – albeit painful progress. This week, I’ve been able to start putting weight on my ankle. I still can’t bear my full weight, but I can now walk on the ankle with crutches supporting a good portion of the weight. This process is quite painful, but not “you shouldn’t be doing this” painful. Part of the pain comes from not having walked on the ankle for so long.

Even with all of the precautions, I am still experiencing circulation issues, so I’m doing even more exercises to try to get the blood moving. Of course, actually walking on the ankle (albeit with lots of assistance from the crutches) is helping a lot. I have found that I need to wear the compression socks as my ankle swells like crazy if I don’t.

I’ve been enjoying a few more yoga poses and lots of stretching. I’ve been able to do some planks (on my knees) which at least makes me feel like I’m accomplishing a bit more. I’m attempting to add more movement to my day including more purposeful “walks”.

I still can’t do a lot of driving as breaking can be painful – especially when I need to hold the break down for extended periods of time. I’ve lost a lot of muscle tone in my bad leg which is frustrating to be sure. I also have an odd shape to my leg which puzzles me. I need to ask the doctor about it when I get the appointment set up.

It will be nice when I can get down to one crutch or a cane rather than two crutches. For now, it’s one day at a time and focusing on the positive progress that is being made rather than what I can’t do.