Baby It’s Cold Outside + Post Surgery Follow-up 2

Once the boot was off, I was allowed to walk one slow mile a day. Monday – very miserable. The foot hurt a lot and Twilight kept looking at me with an "Are we really going to walk this slow?" look of disbelief on her face. A very unimpressive 2.3 mph pace. Tuesday was slightly better and I got up to 2.7 mph and it hurt a bit less. Wednesday I had to walk a bunch for other things, so didn't walk.

Today was my second post surgery follow-up with Dr. Royall. I was expecting to hear that I would still be limited to 1 slowwwwww mile a day. Instead, he said my foot was coming along well and that the plantar fascia was nice and soft – which meant it was healing well. New rules:

1. Walk one hour a day at 4 mph for therapy.
   
2. I can still only do two hours at the New Years Revolution Run.
   
3. No running until pain is no more than a 1 or 2 at the worst during the day. Then only increase no more than 20% every 2 weeks.
   
4. Sleep in a night splint/Strassbourg sock.
   
5. Stretch the foot before getting out of bed.
   
6. Ice the foot 1 or more times a day, ibuprofen as needed, Biofreeze 3 times per day
   
7. Start stretching the calf and ankle.
   
8. I can start riding the Elliptigo again for cross training since it is not a pounding motion. Yay!
   

He thinks that the numbness I am experiencing on the top of the foot is from the boot and that it will gradually go away.

At the end of the appointment, he asked if I would consider being a sponsored athlete for him. In exchange for some race entries in local races, I would wear a shirt advertising his podiatry services. I indicated that this is definitely something I would be interested in.

One month more until the next follow-up appointment.

Taking my "therapy" to heart – Twilight and I bundled up and headed off on a walk to the library and back. The heel is still tender a bit and I had to push myself to get up to the 15 mm pace, but soon got in the swing of things. Dang! It is cold outside. Usually by now my body has started to adjust to the cold, but not running for four weeks has put me behind. This is going to take some adjusting to.

Coming back was when I realized how quickly the body gets out of shape. The last two miles were harder than the last miles of my last two marathons. The legs are stiff and heavy. Speed was okay – but it was definitely forced. I'm going to feel it tomorrow. However, it sure feels good to be getting back on track.