Day 88 (June 17)

I had my follow-up appointment with my surgeon yesterday.  He took new x-rays and had me walk.  Said everything looks great.  I read the report from my physical therapist and she noted that I was making excellent progress and ahead of schedule.  My surgeon said I was about average as far as progress.  A bit confusing.

I am able to walk with a very slight limp.  I went for a 25 minute walk on the golf course the other day and my quads were pretty sore the following day.  Had to negotiate a fair number of hills.  It's going to take a while for the muscle to come back.  I did try to go up on my toes using my repaired leg only.  No luck.  Need to keep strengthening that calf.  I still experience very slight swelling after physical therapy but it goes down over night.  Most of the swelling occurs where the ligaments were fixed as well as on the medial side of my ankle.

I asked my surgeon about travel and he said I should be fine to fly.  Recommended compression socks as well as aspirin to minimize risk of clotting.  He's not worried about it though.  Just said I'm at a slightly higher risk due to the fact that the vascular system in my leg is still recovering.  I also asked him when the heel pad will start to feel normal.  He said probably another six months.  Great.

One thing to note is that I started taking Tramadol as my pain lessened and didn't need the strength of the Norco.  Be very very careful with Tramadol.  It's marketed as non-addictive but the withdrawals from that were/are 100 times worse than the Norco.  I had 3-4 days of withdrawals when I stopped the Norco and it was mostly malaise, anxiety, and upset stomach.  The Tramadol withdrawals are anxiety, horrible ache in the legs, upset stomach, short temper, inability to sleep, and are lasting much longer.  I strongly recommend having valium (Diazepam) available for when you stop taking the meds.  Need it to sleep and does make the days more tolerable.  I took the Norco for 60+ days and only took the Tramadol for a week.  Crazy.