Randy – Status

About to enter week 4 and the change has been remarkable! I am still stiff and sore, but some careful stretching, heat/cold and of course P.T. have me able to reach my left foot again and after last night’s session I was able to dance out of the office without the cane. (Please, don’t ask me to actually dance. No rhythm, no grace. Really.) My therapist was, shall we say amused, slightly disgusted and a bit proud of the rapid progress. I should leave the cane behind in a few weeks for good and will be practicing to use all those important secondary muscles.

I expect to try a BIT of very slow jogging in a month – nothing more than a tenth, walk a tenth, jog a tenth for a few cycles, then see how it feels the next day. The one thing I picked up from others here and elsewhere was GO SLOW to prevent problems. I tried a bit of light water running over the weekend – just 4 laps of the pool, as much floating as  ‘running’. Very sore hamstrings were the result. Who knew that recovery meant rebuilding muscles that were fine just a month ago? Other than that it was fine. Swimming didn’t go as well as I really only do breaststroke, and the frog kick is a bit much just yet.

While recovering may I suggest using  a treadmill? It’s not as nice as a walk in the park, but it really helps to straighten out and walk correctly, with zero chance of falling. Pace it slower than you might think, 3-3.5 mph so you can get those muscles used to working again. And get used to sore muscles during recovery. Just avoid sitting too much, it really cramps things up.