Clunky Walking
After two days of crutches, I was able to put some body weight on my right foot while it was in the walking boot. But I needed footwear with a heel high enough to match my walking boot.
Enter my plastic mountaineering boot. Normally used for cold-weather mountaineering ascents, the plastic boot fit two key criteria for getting me around the house: it was as tall as my walking boot, and clean.
I wore both boots for days 3-7 after PRP, and became extremely easy to locate. My footsteps with two boots and a crutch went something like this: bump, clunk, CLUNK, bump, clunk, CLUNK.
Return to bipedalism
It was quite freeing when I was able to drop the crutches completely. It meant I could carry my tea to my workspace without first putting it in
a thermos and then putting that in a bag. I have read that being able to carry things, like food, was one of the evolutionary forces that got us bipedal. It was nice to achieve what my ancestors did long ago.
I was reminded, however, of just how uncomfortable plastic mountaineering boots are, and will likely try to replace these with something more comfortable before I do any future cold-weather mountaineering. (“Comfortable” being a relative term. There are no comfortable mountaineering boots, just gradations of discomfort).
Exercising with an Expensive Ankle Weight
I also started to be able to exercise again, just core and arms. There are some great YouTube videos for exercises you can do when you can’t weight your foot. The video I used was put together by a woman who somehow manages to smile while doing intense core exercises that had me laying on the floor and moaning. On the plus side, the aircast acts as an ankle weight, for added resistance!
My second workout was one I made up on my own:
- 10-15 push-ups from knees
- 1-armed rows from a table-top position, so I was weighting my knees instead of my foot. 25 lb weight, 10 reps each arm.
- Shoulder presses from a sitting position. 13 pounds each hand, 20 reps
- internal and external shoulder rotations with a band
- wrist curls and wrist extensions. 5 lbs each hand, 15-20 reps each.
- Sit-ups. 10-20, with a 10 lb weights
- Pull-ups, however many I could do. Usually 4-5. Very careful getting on and off the bar so as to not weight my left foot.
I took the mountaineering boot off for these exercises, to avoid it turning into a puddle of sweat!
