Recovery: Days 20-22 - Starting PT

Yesterday I started back up with physical therapy - my first appointment since the surgery. My therapist greeted me with open arms. We've been together since May. Going on six months of PT (well, that's counting September which was mostly spent on crutches, not in therapy). As he was writing my new evaluation to kick things off we agreed that this better be the last first-time he ever sees me!

Anyway he said things look really good. He removed the tape my doctor had put on the incision last week and the wound is pretty much healed. It still looks kind of gross, but it's way better than the past times I've had to look at it. The bruising is less and the nasty blood stains are gone (ewww). He did some handwork around it to start "molding the scar tissue" so that it doesn't make my ankle joint stiffen up. Then he dug into my calf a little to find that yes, it's still ridiculously tight even though I haven't been dancing. Guess I was just born with tight muscles, haha.

He tested my range of motion and was pleasantly surprised that it was "scarily good." (It probably doesn't help - or does? - that I've been semi-dancing/marking steps in the boot while teaching rehearsals this week...) He said I was only missing like 5 degrees of flexibility when I point or flex my foot. I was happy to hear that! Although, that's not saying much considering my good foot doesn't point like a pretty ballet arch to begin with, haha. Whatever.

For another week or two we'll continue just gentle stretching and working around the scar. After I see my doctor in October we'll finally begin strengthening so I can get back to dancing. He said best case would be that I can start taking basic barre 3 weeks after we start strengthening...but seriously, if I'm out of the boot 2 weeks from now and can stand and plie decent enough, I may try a little barre. There's no sense in pushing it because I have no auditions or anything officially scheduled til my official 3 months are up. But I really really really miss dancing...

It was cool though - as my therapist was poking around my heel there was NO pain! It was an odd feeling to see him pressing on the areas that used to feel excrutiating for 3 years and now to feel absolutely nothing. It was like I was numb or something because I'm so used to seeing that and associating it with the intense pain that used to be there. I hope it stays that way forever!