I started going to Physical Therapy in November to help the tendon on the inside of my left foot work better, to help my ankle build up more strength and get the range of motion restored. Also I have plantar fashiitis in my right foot. Physical Therapy is a lot different then the first time I went to it. The first time in Idaho he gave me some excercises and sent me on my mary little way. This time I went into see Brian 3 times a week. My first appointment took almost 3 hours! 3 hours! He took me back for my evaluation where he touched, poked, proded, and turned my feet in every direction that was physically posible and in directions that weren't physically possible. He sat there and rubbed the top of my foot. I need to let you know that I have such severe nerve pain/damage from my original break that just the bottom of my pants brushing against the top of my foot causes me pain. I have to wear a sock to relieve the pain. I can't even touch the top of my foot myself. Brian is talking to me tickeling my foot trying to over stimulate my nerve. Tears are at the brink of flooding over and I am trying not to crawl up to the table to get away from Brian touching my foot. When he asked if that hurt and I told him yes, please stop he told me "No". He then went on to tell me that I had Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (you can read about it on the link if you want and here are some nasty pictures of what can happen if you don't take care of it). He then went on to explain to me that it will never go away but that I can control the symptoms and the treatment that I can do to prevent it from getting worse and over time make it feel better although it will never go away. Let me just point out here that I have now finally after 32 years been diagnosed with some kind of syndrome. I knew it would happen sooner or later. Brian also told me that he would not be working on my left foot until my CRPS was under control. Then I sighed a big sigh of relief because he stopped touching my foot. I then went back to the PT gym and started my "PT" on my right foot. Have you ever had PT on planter fasiitis before? It consists of first a 10 minute ultrasound session. Where you lay on your stomach and have an ultrasound wand rubbed over your foot where it hurts you the most. It is a little stingy and a little burny. If it is too stingy and too burny then they turn the ultrasound machine down. Then for about an hour the Physical Therapist rubs your foot to try to break down the tendon so that it can then repair itself properly. After that you are hooked up to an electrical stimimulation machine that is attached to a pad that has some mediciane on it and it is then pulled through your skin into your foot with the electrical current. After that you hobble off the table, limp over to where your shoes are, put your shoes on and go home. Only to be repeated 2 more times a week.
Brian worked on my right foot for over 2 months and I worked on the over stimulation of my left foot at home. Which started with me rubbing/tickeling my foot 5 times a day. It progressed to Nate rubbing/ tickling my foot to which I cried the first several times that he did it because it hurt so bad. When I could handle that I moved on to using the back side of my sock, then a washcloth. I then used a comb and lastly I used a brush. This was all over a 2+ month time period. But it worked folks. I still have to do mantinance on it but my nerve damage is 75% better. I can touch my own foot. My podiatrist (yes, my feet are so bad I have my own podiatrist at the age of 33 that I go and see on a monthly basis also let me also point out that I do own a pair of orthotics) has now used my crazy rubbing method (hummm doesn't sound so good) as a refrence to other people who have the same problems as I do. After two or so months Brian moved on to working on my left foot. Which consisted of me doing stretches and strengthening excercises 3 times a week. Then he would work on my right foot. So my physical therapy started (after the first initial apt) to take up 2 hours of my day which doesn't include the hour of driving time. After another month or we only worked on my left foot but, I would still receive the electrical stimulation on both feet.
In January I got an xray on my ankle and found out that I had bone spurs in my ankle. I got a steroid injection in my ankle to see if that would make it work better. The following month I was told that I was going to have to have surgery again if I wanted my ankle to bend all of the way. By the end of March there is little improvement on my ankle so the Physical Therapist decided to consitrate on my plantar fasciitis again because it was acting up. Dr. Reed also did an injection for it too. Brian was very mad that I got the injection in my foot. He wouldn't say that he was mad but you could tell by the look on his face that he was dissapointed. For the next 3 weeks he worked on my right foot and it started feeling wonderful. By mid-April my foot was feeling 90% better and I was finally able to graduate. I got a shirt and a Dr. Pepper for graduation. Physical Therapy was worth all of the hard work. I suprisingly had a fun time there. The group of Therapists were really nice and the people that were there at the same time as me were fun to get to know. I may of did a happy dance when I left. He did call out to me as I was leaving "See you after your next surgery" Not funny at all.
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