Snowboarder vs. Ankle Distraction Therapy

After yesterday's doctor's appointment and quick visit to work, I was exhausted -- that was the most active I'd been in several weeks. When I got home, I crashed and did not wake up until this morning. I'll need to be more careful about pacing myself.

This morning I decided to try walking around without crutches -- and, of course, I captured it on video.

It's an odd feeling to bear all of your weight on 6 k-wires and 2 large screws in your foot and tibia. I can feel a lot of my weight on the top screw on the top ring, so I'll start using crutches to ease the burden on the ex-fix for the next few weeks. Walking on the ex-fix doesn't hurt, but it also doesn't feel amazing.

I'm using large rubber bands to help pull my toes up while I walk so that I do not stub any of my toes while walking. This also helps stretch the toe tendons -- especially the big toe. Without substantial flexibility in your big toe, it's very difficult to walk. This will be another thing I'll need to focus on for the next three months.

The next video shows you how to unlock the ex-fix to release it for moving the ankle.

You can see our dog, Spunky, was extremely interested in this instructional video. Oh, by the way, please don't tell Brooke I let her on the couch. I'll get into a lot of trouble.

Unlocking the ex-fix feels weird. You can feel the large amount of tension used to pull apart the ankle joint move from the two rods in the front to the rest of the ex-fix. I fear that because it's so difficult to unlock one of the rods that I won't move my ankle as much as I should.

What I need to do is come up with a schedule to exercise my ankle since I intend on walking on my foot everywhere.