758 days post surgery to full foot function
I twisted my ankle badly in the 1980s when I was a teenager playing basketball and was told it was just a bad sprain and to get on with it, no x-ray given. I hobbled around for a few months with it strapped, then adapted my gait etc. Fast forward, I turn 50 after a very physically active life, and find that sprain was actually a fracture of the navicular, from which grew a bone spur which destroyed the ligament holding up the arch. I was also getting knee pain. On 12 April 2024 I had a left tibialis posterior ligament reconstruction, medialising calcaneus osteotomy (heel cut in half and moved), excise of a level 3 navicular tuberosity, and tendon advancement (flexor digitorum longus - which operates the two little toes) which was repurposed and threaded through a hole drilled in the navicular and sutured using polyethylene Arthrex FiberWire to the remains of the posterior tibialis tendon).
Because I had walked on the outside of my left foot for 37 years, twisting my hip around and back, it has taken me 758 days of rehabilitating it almost every day to get back to full function because I not only had to stretch out and realign ligaments in my foot, but also twist back into alignment my lower right back, left hip, inner right knee (still have some nerve impingement there), underneath outer left ankle, and back behind inner side of left ankle, plus an awful lot of Achilles tendon work.
I had the giant screw removed from my heel in January 2025 because it was bothering me.
I did lots and lots of stretching, yoga, ankle weights and desk treadmill, and weightlifting which helped set gains from stretching and yoga. I also did a lot of walking in soft sand at the beach and also on the sloping harder sand both directions to stretch out ligaments at the sides of the ankles and Achilles, because my heel was cut and moved. Barefoot shoes with arch support inner soles for out and about.
I just want to advise that recovery is a long painful journey, but never give up.
I'm ecstatic and wanted to share this good news!