What my ankle did next....recovery

So 2014 came and went, a year that was spent mostly swimming and in physio trying to sort out my ankle (peroneal tendonopathy). Sadly by November it was clear that physio was not going to work so I booked to have the surgery in early January, with the hope that only part of the year would be written off., at the same time I sadly had to part ways with thetrilife.com and my coach Mike Redshaw - he has been a fantastic coach and I hope that when this injury is sorted I can think about going back and working with him again, but for the meantime I could not justify having a coach whilst not triaining properly for several months.

The day of the surgery came and after feeling very hungry I was eventually walked down to the theatres (or OR in US speak), I was maked up for surgery:

The initial diagnosis of peroneal tendon tendonopathy was only partly correct, when the surgeon opened the tendon sheath, apart from the synovial overgrowth (that causes a lot of the issue with tendonopathy) there was a nodule near one of retinacula (which hold the tendon in place) and it was rubbing, in addition there was a split in the tendon itself. She removed the nodule, sutured the tendon and removed a lot of the synovium, before closing. Once the procedure was finished my leg was put into a back plate splint cast which held my foot at a slightly extended angle.

I was in this for two weeks before the wound was reviewed. So I went and got a CastCover (thecastcover.com) this made a big difference as it covered the bandages, kept them clean, dry and most importantly meant I had warm toes!

During this time I was on copious amounts of ibuprofen, paracetamol and codeine phosphate, partly due to the sickening pain but also as the sutures were rubbing the inside of the cast - not nice.

Last week the cast came off and was replace by a sexy neoprene and plastic ankle brace/boot.

I am in this for another month, with the hope that I can rehab quickly once the would heals. This is slow going as the wound reopened over the weekend, but we are getting there so what does it look like now?

After the sutures came out.

After it started to reopen

Today

Fingers crossed this can improve and I can can get back to training as I feel very unfit!

Races planned this year so far are: The Henley Classic and The Henley Bridge to Bridge, and the Dart 10K - yes all swims and yes all long distance 2.1km, 14.1km and 10km respectively...it is another swimming year...

Later
Iain.