Thursday, June 18, 2015

Updates from the DL

Mama Bear and I officially postponed our trip this morning. It was just not really feasible to imagine that my foot would be healed enough to do much of anything in the next week, and the prospect of going on this wonderful vacation in a BOOT without being able to hike and climb and explore was totally bumming me out. We pushed it back about six weeks, and will now be heading out the last week of July. It's a bit of a letdown to not be heading out in a few days, but it just makes a lot more sense and I am a little relieved to not have to go and try to have a good time while incapacitated.

I went to physical therapy for the first time yesterday evening. It seemed weird/fruitless to start PT already when my foot is still broken enough to keep me from walking, but PT Guy was ready to jump right in. Me, not so much. I forgot how skittish injuries make me. I am still totally spooked about re-injuring myself,  so in the session I kept questioning everything he wanted me to do... like, "are you sure that's not gonna hurt?" "are you sure I'm not gonna make it worse??" Thankfully PT Guy was super nice about it and promised me I won't hurt myself doing his silly calf stretches and towel scrunches and such.

Want better balance? This Towel Scrunch exercise will help to activate the muscles of your feet and add to better balance and coordination. Place your foot on a towel and scrunch up the towel by curling your entire foot- not just the toes. Combine this with stretches and soft tissue therapy for the foot and you will really be rocking! To learn more exercises and techniques- visit www.prehabexercises.com: Prehab Exercises, Scrunch Exercise, Visit Www Prehabexercises Com, Visit Www Prehabexercis Com
surprisingly difficult...

Still swimming (badly). Does anyone know if biking is okay? I've been doing some on the recumbent at the gym, though it makes me nervous. I'm not technically weight-bearing, which is what everyone tells me is the key, but it still freaks me out a little to be using my foot at all. I am going a little stir crazy with the constant sitting around, but you know, it's just a few weeks. I won't get horribly out of shape or gain huge amounts of weight or develop heart disease or something from a few weeks of being sedentary. Right?

And finally ARGH IT IS STILL RAINING. Literally, it has been raining for days and days and days and it won't stop. Why can't the heavens send a little of this weather out to California? I'm so over it. Rain is the worst. THE BOOT IS NOT WATERPROOF.
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4 comments:

  1. JSJune 18, 2015 at 10:37 PM

    Idk how your bones are in general-- endocrine + craziness = have had stress fractures in the area where my shoe laces rest on the top of my foot before, so perhaps not the best advice here, but you can definitely worsen/create fractures with cycling. If you use flat bottomed/hard soled shoes, it distributes the weight better (and you can pull up with your foot as well as press down) vs. just a pedal which transmits weight directly to your metatarsals.

    Have you thought about erging? that uses legs a lot more than you'd think, but weight is even across the whole foot.

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    1. KayleeJune 20, 2015 at 6:48 PM

      yikes okay maybe I better be more careful. The fracture is actually on the bottom of my foot - at the base of the third toe. I've been trying to place my foot further up on the pedal so there's no pressure there, more like in the arch area...though it makes me a little nervous and maybe I should trust my more cautious instincts on this one. my bones were in pretty crappy shape about four years ago when I got my last scan (z score was like -2.4 if I recall correctly). I've gained a lot of weight/am much healthier etc since then, so I'm not sure how much it might've improved. thanks!

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  2. CammyJune 19, 2015 at 11:21 AM

    I don't know how advisable this was, but I kept doing the recumbent bike while I was off running to let some stress fractures in my shins heal last fall, and it wasn't painful and at least didn't prevent the shins from getting better, although I guess it's impossible to determine whether it affected rate of healing.

    For me, times of restricted activity have always led to an increased risk for falling into exercise obsession -- my exercise issues didn't become hugely time consuming until I had to give up running in college due to multiple overuse injuries just becoming too much. I started doing TONS of other stuff chasing that runner's high that never came. I just bring this up to say that maybe that should be on your radar -- not to let this period of restricted activity wake up the exercise monster in your brain. It's okay to take time off to heal so that eventually you can run and do whatever you choose, it's a routine thing even for athletes, you know? I know it's hard, thinking of you and have my fingers crossed for a fast recovery.

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    1. KayleeJune 20, 2015 at 6:57 PM

      ouch I am having sympathy shin pain reading your comment, that sounds HORRIBLE. do you remember how long it took them to fully heal? did you have any formal treatment or was it just the standard rest ice etc.?

      that's interesting - I have periodically given up running/told myself I will never be a serious runner again because it seems like the injury potential is just so dang high. Plus NOTHING wreaks havoc on my menstrual cycle, weight/mood/energy/metabolism etc. worse than excessive running (meaning, as compared to other kinds of exercise) yet I always find myself coming back to it despite the costs. What's frustrating is that I had gotten myself to a point where I had the running totally under control volume-wise... unfortunately I think where I might've slipped up is by failing to account for speed and intensity, which definitely got ramped up recently and I think that may be responsible for the injury. In any case, if nothing else this was a good wake-up call that the exercise is maybe not as under control as I thought. thanks Cammy

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