I'm baaaaack

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd posted here. Things are good. I am back to pre-injury levels on everything, if not beyond. My calf still gets a little tired when I'm running but it's much better. Aside from learning more about the mechanics of the human leg muscles than I ever intended to, this injury has been a great lesson in patience.

Happy, Merry & All That

Well, it's officially the holiday season now. Why? Because I have completed the three things necessary for me to get in the holiday spirit. They are: 1) listen to at least part of Elvis' Blue Christmas CD; 2) watch Bad Santa; 3) make at least one sugar- and butter-laden holiday treat. DONE.

I am now able to use the exercise bike and am working diligently to eradicate the last vestiges of the limp. Then I can think about reincorporating squats, and running intervals for cardio, in my workouts.

Normally this time of year I am not terribly motivated, and this year is no exception. It has been cold and rainy as usual, and with a sore leg on top of it, I have to really chastise myself to get out the door to the gym. Usually any sort of motivational phrase that includes the term "lard ass" works nicely.

Happy Holidays to all.

In the home stretch

Now at the 4-week mark, I am in the home stretch on this injury. Kevin rated muscle function at 4+ (on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being normal) on Friday. I am still limping slightly...but apparently that's all in my head. When the injury is off the radar, I don't limp, but when I think about it, I do. It's as if, even though I know it's better, there are still some trust issues.

That's just going to take time to work itself out. I have been used to babying my right calf for the past month, and there's also some fear involved, since the injury was so painful. I have always been strong and was always able to keep going despite sprains, strains, etc. but this was a whole new ballgame.

Dave, the IT guy at work who is one of my friends and who played college football at Virginia Tech, has had this same injury and has eerily predicted everything I have gone through, leading me to dub him "Dr. Dave." He gave me a few pointers on eradicating the limp, and predicted I would be over it by New Year's if I followed his advice.

Kevin (my physical therapist) upped the ante today by saying, "you can't do any of your power lifts till you are walking normally." The reason for that is I could actually make the limp worse that way.

Thankful

Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, I got the news from my physical therapist that I am now running about 1 week ahead of schedule on recovery. I walking almost normally now and am able to generate a decent amount of power with the injured muscle. So now I get to do some resistance work to continue building the muscle back up, and some light stretching. I am very happy about that and will probably get to add dead lifts back to my workout routine soon.

I went to karate class on Saturday (exempted from running or jumping, of course), and we learned a very cool technique for quickly bringing someone down by exerting pressure on the right point of their hand while twisting the wrist. It's amazing how little effort it takes. I have been practicing it on every victim I can find, ever since. :-)

not as bad as it looked

Positive news from today's physical therapy...Kevin revised his assessment of the injury down to a 20% tear (versus to 20-50% as he'd said initially). He was very happy with the mobility and level of strengh I am getting now at nearly two weeks. The muscle had basically shut down right after the injury, and that's what worried him and led him to estimate more of a tear. I am making good progress, but I am still looking at another 3 - 4 weeks to heal. Yay, I get a gold star for actually doing what I was advised to do. ;-)

Of course, I then had to ask whether I could quit wearing the Ace bandage, start using my exercise bike yet, etc. etc. Kevin just gave me a wry little smile and said, "you know, you've made such great progress so quickly, I want you to just keep doing what you are doing." He knows me pretty well after about 8 years of repairing various injuries, so I can tell he's trying to keep me from overdoing it. And he's right...I probably would, if he gave me any wiggle room.

Meanwhile, Cory has me using the weight machines and then picking up my feet off the ground to engage the core and further take weight off my injured leg. That made things challenging and interesting enough that I didn't miss my power lifts too much...yet.

hobbling along

I am happy to report that I am walking in a more normal fashion, though still more slowly than I'd like.

I came down with a cold early last week and by Friday, I had laryngitis. That was pretty much it for me - I thought, "OK, I can't walk, I can barely breathe, and now I can't talk either." So I crashed on Friday night, cancelled all my plans for the weekend, and hibernated. That was definitely the best thing for the cold, and all that rest helped my leg heal too. There's a lot less swelling and bruising than there was a week ago, and I'm sure that has a lot to do with easier walking. And it really doesn't hurt...that much. Of course, I am doing (mostly) what I was instructed to do, with resting, ice, etc. so that helps too. We'll see what Kevin says later this week when I go for physical therapy.

prognosis

This just in from my physical therapist: I have torn 20-50% of my soleus muscle, which is the larger calf muscle that's a bit deeper on the calf (as opposed to the gastroc, which is more external). That is pretty much what I thought had happened, and although this means at least 4 - 6 weeks of no power lifts, no running, etc. it's not nearly as bad as an achilles tendon rupture or a detachment of the muscle from the tendon, either of which would require surgery. I am very blessed that this injury wasn't worse; it easily could have been.

The treatment is physical therapy twice a week for at least a month, plus I am supposed to keep it elevated as much as possible, ice it 3 times a day, and do some mild stretching. My PT is using a laser to reduce swelling and move blood into the area, and short wave to speed healing. When he was diagnosing the injury, he asked me to quantify the level of pain in various parts of my calf. When he got to where the tear is (a couple of inches above the achilles), there is a lot of bruising from blood leaking from the tears, I said it was a 6 (on a scale of 1 to 10) and he said, "I would hate to see what your level 10 is". :-)

I can still work out - I did a nice back workout last night on the machines and some free weights - but my power lifts are out because of the strain they would put on the calf. And I got a "get out of jail free" card exempting me from cardio for a couple of weeks, which I can't say I mind. I will be able to use the stationary bike after a couple of weeks, most likely. The biggest challenge for me will be not getting frustrated at my impaired level of movement and reduced speed.