Many people ask me about the recovery following the ankle surgery to correct subluxing peroneal tendons. Most doctors say that it will eat up about 6 months, but it actually hasn't been that long with both of my surgeries. I am mainly just going to cover exactly how the recovery went according to my last surgery, since it was only 9 months ago and it's still fresh on my mind.
I had my surgery on the morning of December 21st, 2011. I was terrified. Even more-so because I remembered how horrible the surgery and recovery had been after my first surgery in Oct. 2007. But I went in to the hospital with my wonderful husband, who stayed by my side for as long as he could (basically until I was taken to the anesthesiologist).
After the prep, surgery, and short recovery time in the hospital, by that afternoon I was ready to go "home" to my parents house. We decided that I should stay with my family for the first couple of weeks following the surgery (plus it was their year for us to spend Christmas with them!)
I was put on a week of strict bed rest. This may sound like the most boring thing ever, but I was so groggy the first couple of days home from all of the medicine administered at the hospital, that I pretty much spent about 20 hours per day sleeping. The remaining 4 hours was spent eating and watching movies. Below are some of the pictures of my "home" on the couch for the first week following the surgery.
The nerve block put in at my knee started to wear off on Christmas Eve. For most people, that just means that it's time to start taking the heavy medications. For me, it means either take the heavy meds and become violently ill (I am allergic to lortab, percocet, etc.) or don't take the meds and suffer through excruciating pain. Tough choice, and I did a little of both. I was extremely sick on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I slept through most of the present-opening festivities, and spent the remainder of the time wishing I could die, and vomiting.
Luckily, that was the worst part of the whole recovery, and after I made it through that part the rest was a piece of cake! Two weeks after the surgery, my bulky hard cast was removed. I was then fitted for a walking boot (but still to use crutches for the first 2 weeks). Four weeks after getting the walking boot, I was fitted with an ankle brace. I was to wear the ankle brace for about a month, and start going to physical therapy 2 weeks after being fitted for it. Therapy was supposed to go 8 weeks. So for those of you keeping track, that's about 5 months from start to finish. And really only one month of using crutches. After the crutches are gone, the recovery is easy. So there is really only one month where your physical activity is extremely restricted. Heck, I bet you could even do a basic treadmill workout as part of your home therapy after getting used to wearing your walking boot.
Now, the recovery is going to vary depending on your doctor. I would say that you should probably go into the whole thing expecting 6 months before being totally back to normal, but don't be surprised if it's actually a lot shorter.
Remember that if you have a question, or would like your ankle story to be featured on subluxingperonealtendons.blogspot.com just email me at emmagreenie@live.com. I would love to hear from you!
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