PT Help

[skihard]

Looking for some Physical Therapy help recovering from my broken foot injury last spring.

 

Spent 6 weeks in walking boot and slowly started my return to skiing. This summer has been full of challenges that have been very saddening to say the least. One day I feel good and 5 days I don't as both my foot and ankle hurt.

 

Is there a specific set of exercises I can do that will help me strengthen the tendon on the top of my foot (which by the way is now worse than the broken foot) as well as help keep the pain in the outside of my foot from continuing to come back after skiing?

 

The tendon on top is what is the worst currently as when I am crossing the wakes my ankle actually compresses and it hurts! I find that strange because I can point my foot out like a diver and it doesn't hurt. Yet the compression of hitting the wakes or even walking down a set of stairs can be killer painful.

 

Summer is almost over. I do ski year round but this injury doesn't seem to want to go away and now I seem to have by product pains if that makes sense?

 

Any help greatly appreciated!

[bkreis]

Being in a boot for that long you may have scar tissue causing restriction of movement and definitely weak foot muscles. Try to get a script for pt and massage and get it mobile and strong. What exactly did you break?

[MrJones]

Have you been to PT during your recovery and it's just not working, or did your physician just let you out of the boot and tell you the x ray looked good so go for it??

 

From what you are generally describing my guess is that you are having some impingement of your talus in the ankle mortise. That's just a fancy way of saying that one of the joints of your ankle is stiff and causing pain. It could also be one of the mid foot joints a bit out of position.

 

If you have not been to a PT, or your PT is not doing a lot of hands on mobilization of the joint, you need to find one and/or find one that will manually get the joint moving. A chiropractor who sees sports injuries and does good extremity work might be helpful if that is easier for your to access.

 

One last thought. I don't know anything about your case, but occasionally foot/ankle fractures can take a long time to heal. They may actually look good on x ray, but on MRI/CT they may still show a micro fracture is present. From your description I think this unlikely.

 

Foot and ankle issues can be nagging as we put multiple times our body weight through the on uneven surfaces all day. Truth is that you really need somebody where you are to look at your case and examine/treat your ankle. Good luck with it.

[KJackfrost]

Nobody will be able to give you as good of a tip as a professional physical therapist could, which is what I would strongly recommend. I am lucky enough to be married to a PTA, and I understand they are expensive and sometimes don't understand the sport as well as you'd want them to, so my best tip would be to do the "heel walk."

 

Provided that this doesn't cause you additional pain or stress, the best exercise that I have done in rehab for the top of my foot is the heel walk. What you do is lift the balls of your feet off the ground (both legs) and just walk on your heels. I usually would do 5 reps of 50 steps each leg, 100 steps per set, 500 steps total. Take steps that are about 6 inches apart and walk in a straight line. If you have a carpeted area long enough this will really help strengthen the tendons and muscles around the top of your foot and ankle. Don't pick your feet up much either, just a nice soft slide across the carpet will do the trick. Also, wear socks to prevent carpet burn.

 

Hope that helps!