Month: August 2018

8 mo. PO this week. This month I added hills to my stamina-building walks, and suddenly feel gimpy-limpy again on those ascents. Makes me realize how normal my gait has felt for weeks on the flats.

Today in PT Melissa had me run for 20 yards down a hallway and said my gait looked great – no limp and no favoring the non-surgical side. My single-leg calf raises are steady and calves are looking strong. Woo-hoo!! I was terrified the whole time, thank you very much. Next time I’ll be able to relax more.

Any day I do too much demonstrating at work training clients (squats, deadlifts, lunges with just body weight) brings on muscle belly pain a day or two later that is deep & achy and reminds me of the pit of despair from weeks 1-13 PO, but it passes within 24 hours.

Every Sunday I look ahead at my coming week and think about how to judiciously spend what’s in my “energy bucket.” Am I training Mon & Tues morning? Probably shouldn’t do PT exercises or take my walk those days. Swimming with the kids every afternoon? Probably shouldn’t do laps or wear flippers on the days I worked in the morning or did exercises. Just sit in the water & cool off & breathe. (Challenging, since my two kids are shot out of cannons every morning, and there’s a kid in me who was once the same.)

My recovery is progressing. Could it progress faster without a highly physical job & kids? Yep. But that would be someone else’s life, and I am working hard at loving what is.