<p>Some of the suggestions aren’t going to work for you because you will go stark raving mad and you won’t feel like you are good enough at some of the machines to get a good workout. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Go to a doctor- a good orthopedist who is used to dealing with athletes or people who won’t accept “rest it for 6 weeks”. (note some of my posts me, a competitive runner, breaking my leg in February…)</p></li>
<li><p>Figure out how to deal with the chlorine thing (some pools aren’t bad) and do aqua-jogging. You can buy a floatation belt or maybe your pool has them. I know elite marathoners who have trained for races this way. You can put an IPOD in a plastic bag and put it under a baseball hat on your head and you have entertainment. You will get your HR up (wear a HR monitor) and get a great workout. You can do intervals to make it more challenging. You can also do arm exercises in the pool and can do upper body strength work in the gym.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I appreciate the post about current surgeries in the event that it is warranted, although I am pretty terrified of any anesthesia, period. I was awake for my c-section and I had to lay there with a dental vacuum to suction out my own mucus because my sinuses ran and I lost my ability to swallow. So awake, out of it, I hate it all. </p>
<p>This is such inconvenient timing, it really is. But my darned ankle area and up my calve still hurts and I am just about at the mental end of my rope with it. And it seems as if my knee on that leg isn’t all that great either, but this might be because I’ve been taking it too easy on my leg the past 3 weeks. I actually think that the problem with my knee giving out since childhood was caused by hyperextending my knees too much when I stood. Everytime it gave out, I was putting undue pressure on that leg, like leaning over into my car trunk while standing on that leg. When I stand naturally, my knees want to hyperextend back.</p>
<p>I will see what my options are, whether it be orthopedist, physical therapist, etc… I’m not sure what my insurance protocol is for this, I’ll have to see. I’m not sure if I can get physical therapy without a referral by an orthopedist. </p>
<p>I like these last suggestions by momofwildchild for exercise. I agree with all of your suggestions. I will go nuts if I have to be sedentary. I am going to try to locate a pool that is not so chlorinated. We have a membership to a fitness center, but the chlorine smell is intolerable, I can hardly stand to walk into the area, let alone swim. But there are Y’s and stuff around here that I can look into.</p>
<p>Having just gone through four months of physical therapy to get back to my normal level of activity after my surgery (for adult bone cancer… not exactly elective)—your post sends chills up and down my spine. I ignored the mild pain in my knee for years–“just arthritis”–and was lucky that I took a fall seriously, as the fall made my knee buckle under me, which made walking difficult, which meant I finally went and saw someone. When I saw a sports medicine specialist, it took him all of four minutes to figure out I had the bone cancer.</p>
<p>Yes, you need exercise. The lack of activity seems to be affecting your logic center. If you get this fixed, you will be able to exercise all you want! SO GO GET IT FIXED. I don’t know where you’re located, but if you’re in the Seattle area, PM me and I can tell you the names of several good sports medicine doctors.</p>
<p>By the way, if you wind up on crutches, you will get PLENTY of exercise. Those puppies ate my lunch. I built up to doing heartrate intervals in the parking garage on my crutches (totally non-weight bearing on right leg). I got some really cool crutches- there are better models out there now than the regular H-shaped guys.</p>
<p>crutches can be fun- but not if you have to carry anything
I wore bike gloves for a little extra padding.</p>
<p>I had foot surgery a few years ago when the Mariners were in the playoffs & it was pretty fun to have a handicapped pass and get to park inside the stadium :)</p>
<p>Please do not let your fear of surgery keep you from seeing the doctor! You can always get a second opinion, and you may want to consult different specialicts (both a podiatrist - the one I’d start with) as well as an orthopedist. </p>
<p>I did something similar 2 years ago, and I still have issues, primarily on the OTHER foot because of the amount of overcompensating I did when my left foot was compromised. I now do lots of stretching before I even stand up in the morning. I couldn’t do yoga, so I substituted pilates, and that worked very well for me. I am now back to yoga, strength training and running.</p>
<p>My DH tore his achilles 20 years ago and the sports med guy did an ultra sound treatment- DH did not like it and never went back for any treatment. For all these intervening years that ankle stiffens up after work or work outs or all day on his feet. Try to not be stupid (like my DH was!) and short-sighted- go for a physical therapist and a sports doc. Get a specific diagnosis, then treat it.</p>
<p>If you have a bad sprain you may be able to do everything if you tape your ankle daily. DD plays a vigorous sport and had a torn ankle ligament that the PT said would take a year to heal- she had to tape it every single day in sports for a year. She played three varsity sports and had to tape it to do anything, but then was fine.</p>
<p>Find out your problem and make it better not worse!</p>
<p>So sorry–I know how frustrating it can be when you are used to exercising and then you can’t do it for a while! </p>
<p>Years ago (10 or so) I tore my ACL while skiing (silly me, trying to race my then-10-year-old son down an icy slope!). It took me a number of weeks to get up the courage to go see a doctor because I too was hoping that the whole thing would just heal itself. But my leg kept giving out from under me while I was standing! (and, I certainly couldn’t run). I finally had the surgery and neither it, nor a lengthy recovery period with PT and second-round surgery for scar tissue, was any fun. The whole thing was made worse by the fact that I waited so long, and my quads atrophied a lot and that caused additional cartilage damage, plus made the PT harder when I finally started it.</p>
<p>BUT. With time, and lots of hard work, and probably the gift of a skilled surgeon, my knee is now absolutely amazing. A thin white 6 inch scar is the only way I can remember that I was completely hobbled 10 years ago. If I hadn’t had the surgery, I wouldn’t have been able to run the thousands of miles I have run since then. I am 55 and now routinely run 3 miles on the treadmill at an 8:10 pace. Not too bad for a dinosaur! I never have any knee pain or any other pain.</p>
<p>PT works for some things, but not for things like ligament tears I think. You need the repair, if you have a tear, and then you can complete the healing by good PT and regular exercises as prescribed. Or, with luck, they can rule out a tear and you can get on the way to recovery just with PT.</p>
<p>Really, ask around, find a good doctor, and take care of this before your muscles lose their tone and/or the injury causes other injuries.</p>
<p>I didn’t read the entire thread, so if someone mentioned this already… apologies. I’m a runner and was training or a half-marathon when I tore my hamstring. Then I came back too soon cuz I was getting restless not running and hurt my IT band… so now all I can do is waterjog. But I love it and think you should try it. I’ve read that it maintains your aerobic level perfectly. Pretty much all you do is put on one of this swim belt things jump in the deep end and pretend like you are jogging. Good luck!</p>
<p>An Achilles’ repair will likely require a three in one femoral block plus a sciatic block, an epidural or subarachnoid block, or general anesthesia.</p>
<p>I would just like to add to the chorus suggesting you get this looked at immediately. I avoided seeing the orthopedist for 5 months while the pain in my foot got worse and worse. I couldn’t even identify what I had done to injure it. I think that’s even more frustrating than knowing what caused the injury. Finally i was diagnosed with RAGING plantar fascitis and a bone spur. My physical therapist told me that had I treated it immediately I might’ve felt better in a couple of weeks. At this point I’ve been in therapy (including ultrasound, laser treatments and iontopherisis) for 4 months and this morning I’ll see if I can FINALLY go back to weight bearing exercise. Though I have been able to walk, with pain, I have not been able to exercise for almost 7 months, and its driving me crazy. SO I understand and sympathize, but had I sought treatment earlier this would all be fine by now.</p>
<p>Keddy- there is a little more to water-running than that. You don’t want to lapse into a bicycle motion (unless that is what you want to do) if you are trying to “run”. You have to work to keep your HR up. You can do intervals for the best workout.</p>
<p>I sprained/rolled my ankle last fall. It swelled badly, and I was sure I broke it. It was just a sprain. My ankle swelled for quite awhile after. Sometimes just from driving. I would ice it and it would be better in the morning. It still bothers me every once in awhile. My achilles hurts a little, after I run hard. One thing I did was put a heel lifet in my shoe. It was suggested to me by a coach and helped alot. I also really watched what shoes I wore. A pair of really flat shoes tended to hurt the most when I walked. Fashion went out the window for several months. I was able to do the elliptical machine without pain and easy biking.
The rowing machine is one of my favorites. I’m one of the few who uses it at my fitness center.</p>
<p>My D just ordered a waterproof shuffle online so she could swim longer. Pricey but it works for her and was her money.</p>
<p>they have plastic cases too at REI, I bought one for D when she went kayaking for her camera- it is just a bag but it works and less $ than some of the cases.
BUt I know what she means- I HAVE to have music to make my muscles move, when I go to the gym & I forget to charge it- I last about 40 min, but if I have my music I can stay 3 hours :)</p>
<p>WHATAPAINTHISIS - you have gotten some great ideas here - BUT - I hope you get a diagnosis before you try anything - just to make sure it is safe for you to do - without fear of any further injury :)</p>
<p>I’d just like to emphasize again that the risk is not just to make the current injury worse–once one part is hurt, everything else takes on different pressures from trying to compensate for the injured part, and then THEY get injured too and things just get worse. (e.g., for a while after I had my surgery, I was having pain in my left hip (right knee ACL) until my quads regained their strength. I was lucky that the pain didn’t develop into something worse and/or chronic. Really, get it checked by a good doctor…I have had little twinges in different parts (heel, shin, etc.) in the years since, and so far in every case I have NOT had a serious injury and the sports med. doctor was able to prescribe either orthotics in my shoe or exercises that took care of the problem. But without that ACL tear repair–I wouldn’t be running.</p>