One Year Post Op- Severed EHL Tendon

One year post op.  I've measured all my milestones and always had a sense that the future is far enough away and that all would be well. I’m still waiting for it to be -- as it was. Pipe dream of course.
 It’s November 2012, I’ve whittled down my Physiotherapy to once a month; barely. I’ve been running for about 6 months now. I’m doing 5k without a hitch. Well, there is one hitch – pain.

Not sure how or why, but a new slew of problems have crept up because of this whole severed EHL fiasco. The Iliacus muscle in my right hip, most famously known as the hip flexor has been severely aggravated and shortened. It’s an oxymoron, because I require extensive stretching of that whole muscle area, which is still quite challenging. I had discovered a few months ago that I was pronating only on my right foot. As a result, when I run I’m extremely conscious of my step in. I mentally correct it with each stride. It tends to work if I really concentrate. Yesterday I went out for a run. It wasn’t particularly cold, the conditions were not out of the ordinary, I had a stressful day at work and thus mentally let my guard down on my run, put the pedal to the metal (so to speak),  but by the time I was rounding the 3^rd km, I was in severe pain. Every step was gruelling.
I recall early in my physiotherapy, I was told to refrain from limping or favoring the injured side at all costs. It would come back to haunt me. All those months I spent afraid to twitch or stretch the EHL in the wrong way have had a severe downstream impact on the whole right side of my body.
My ankle is another nightmare. There is no such thing as walking softly. As I walk there is a soft and annoying click that comes from my ankle. This is from the 2^nd casting process being off by a few degrees. What a piece of work.
The EHL has stretched out ever so minimally over the past year, it’s nowhere near normal. My toe still dorsiflexes upwards. If I point my toes downwards, the big toe still faces up! I continue to do my stretching exercises. It still burns even after all this time.

I can do pretty much everything that I used to, as long as I modify. For example to do a cat stretch in yoga, I require a soft mini pillow to support the top of my foot as I’m down on all fours. My big toe does not flatten and is not in line with the others. It’s not stretched out yet. If I can cradle it during certain positions it would be fine. I also modify by resting it on the other foot for certain positions.
I tried playing soccer (really just kicking the ball back and forth), the top of my foot swelled and I had to ice it for hours. There are a lot of sensitive nerve endings and tissue that still require healing.
Swimming is hilarious; it’s like having a broken flipper. I had to modify that too. I tend to stay in shallow water just to be safe from cramping.

Occasionally I have the most severe cramps underneath my foot. It’s quite painful, but kind of hilarious. My toes have a life of their own in those moments, involuntarily contorting and twitching until the cramping passes. I basically hit the deck when it happens; I shut the world out and breathe through it. I had the misfortune of having this “attack” on Halloween night at one of my daughter’s friend’s parents’ house. As they graciously invited me in for wine and cheese, I had to hi-jack their living room while I went through the motions and wriggled on the floor going through these ridiculous foot spasms! Nice introduction.

I’ve changed a lot of things in my life and raised the bar on cynicism – too cheeky even for myself sometimes.  I laugh at the fact that my children still consider mom as handicapped. I wonder if I’ve had the worst case of severed EHL Tendon ever!!!

 This has been quite the Shit Show..

Peace.

 JZ