Road to fitness starts here

Had my second appointment with the physio yesterday and things are progressing well. I have just about got a full range of movement in the ankle, no pain at all and the scar is just about healed (disappointingly small).

This time I had to try lifting myself up onto tip-toes. Initially, using both feet together and the wall as support. With more weight on my good foot, this was fine, however, as soon as I tried to use my left foot only, I couldn't lift at all. It's a strange sensation as you look down at you foot, send signals from the brain saying 'lift' and watch as nothing happens. The whole area is obviously still protecting itself, so I now need to build up greater strength and confidence.

To this end, I have some far more dynamic exercises to do over the next few weeks. Lots of going up onto tip-toes, initially, both feet together, then more and more weight on the weak foot until I can do the lift on one leg only. In a similar way, doing concentric and eccentric soleus muscle contractions on a stair with my heels overhanging the edge. (A classic tendonitis exercise) I'm also going to make use of a balance cushion to sharpen up the muscle reactions around the joint.

Most importantly, I have been told to start using the cycle turbo trainer. I CAN DO SOME CARDIO-VASCULAR EXERCISE!!! This is the moment I've been waiting for as I haven't done any form of proper training since April. So, I'm going to be a good boy and start easy, build up slowly and hopefully start to lose a few of these extra pounds I've put on.

For those with some medical or anatomical knowledge, I received a copy of all the post operation notes that were sent to my GP. It turns out that when they opened me up, they found that the bursa sack that pads the tendon from the bone had burst/spilt so it was no wonder the tendon had started to fray. It has now been removed and the bone shaved back further from the tendon to compensate for this. (At least that is how I understood all the long words)

The more I think about the whole situation, the more relieved I am to have caught the problem when I did. This had full tendon rupture written all over it!