{"id":8854,"date":"2020-12-02T17:33:27","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T17:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eaumaison.us\/?p=8854"},"modified":"2020-12-02T17:50:16","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T17:50:16","slug":"foot-surgery-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eaumaison.us\/index.php\/2020\/12\/02\/foot-surgery-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"Foot surgery progress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s been about six months since I started physical therapy in June. I have finally accepted that it might take me the whole year, or even longer, to get to where I want to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pain during exercise is still worse than before surgery. But the pain while plain walking is less than before surgery. I still wear only my MBT shoes when I am active. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One sign of improvement is that I can wear my Dansko clogs and my snow boots for short periods of time. My feet ache afterward, but prior to surgery I couldn\u2019t wear those shoes for even a minute without acute pain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I\u2019m still diligent about my physical therapy. I keep track of my exercises everyday. I do yoga or tap on MWF and hit PT hard afterward. TTh I do PT only, and weekends I do just 1 or 2 sessions. I used to go hard every day, but my therapist agreed it wasn\u2019t sustainable. Before I ran out of sessions with her in August, I worked out this alternating pattern. Never a day off, but some days have more rest. (Actually, Thanksgiving day was the first day I skipped PT entirely! But I was on my feet cooking all day, so it wasn\u2019t super restful \ud83d\ude05 )<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding yoga was a no-brainer. It’s gentle on the joints. The stretching helps balance all the strengthening exercises I do in PT. I decided to add tap classes online because I missed dancing. I tried doing remote Zumba classes over the summer and it was an empty echo of the classes I used to attend. I think if the gyms were still safe and open I would have jumped back into my old classes and limped along. But all alone with a screen in my kitchen, with aching feet and no smiles to share, it was disheartening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fall I embraced a new physical therapy attitude – Do It Now. To reach my activity goals I need to practice them now. First, I incorporated the pique step, which I haven’t been able to do for 4 years. I still can’t. But I’m getting closer. I can pique to retire, instead of only coupe. Sometimes I can do a few without a barre assist, but either the pain or the bad balance (from not being up high on my joint) takes me down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I started looking for free tap classes on youtube. I fulfilled a dream to learn tap in 2014, and if I had time and money I would attend more classes. Tap is super hard on my joints. It’s literally pounding my joints into the floor. It’s balancing all my weight on the ball of my foot. It’s about control of feet articulation. It’s everything I DON’T want to do with my feet. But I realized there’s no finish line to recovery where I will suddenly be able to tap easily, so I might as well start now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first it was so painful to wear the shoes with short heels and do basic flaps and shuffles. My first attempt was only 6 minutes of an online class. Now I can go a full hour! I’m pretty terrible, and it still hurts like the dickens. But I’m proud of my progress and I look forward to tap class days. (I LOATHE yoga. I only do it because it makes me feel good later.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n