Tuesday, December 9, 2014

NWB part 2

The four weeks were hard. Mentally, it was very difficult for me to “shut it completely down,” but frankly I had no choice.  I hadn’t taken more than a week off in over 16 years, and now I faced the prospect of …who knows how long. I had to cancel planned races, watch all sorts of people running and biking in the wonderful autumn weather, and yes, it was mentally difficult. Physically, after a week of NWB, I had almost no pain at all.  However, I didn’t dare risk putting any weight down, so I had no way of knowing about response to pressure/resistance.

I also made a point of taking supplemental calcium with D3. Matt indicated that it was probably unnecessary for me, since my diet was already fairly good, but I felt that it couldn’t hurt (and it also made me feel as if I had some input/control toward my healing). I continued to eat as healthily as I could – lots of fruits/vegetables/meats/dairy. Very balanced.  I also tried to increase my caloric intake to help with the healing.

By mid September the latest Xray showed notable callus growth. By the third week, the tension side looked very good (thank heavens), and the compression side was getting better. I also began to put weight on the leg, essentially doing “toe touching” for a week with the crutches.  Believe me, this little graduation brought tears of joy.


A week later (last week of September), I was allowed to go back to the pool, swimming only with a pool buoy (and absolutely no kicking or pushing off the wall). Ironically, my leg and hip felt fine. I had experienced no pain for over two weeks, and even the gradual increase in weight with toe-touching produced no pain.


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