Had my final doctor visit for my ankle on Monday, about 4 months after the injury. The Xrays were clean with a little bit of osteoperosis in the lower ankle. This is supposedly common and one of the things that takes the 12 months to heal completely. Unless I have complications there will be no more doctor visits.
He commented that my recovery time was remarkable given the extent of the injury. I don't know if my routine had anything to do with this, but here's a summary what I did for rehab:
– Nothing but bed rest while in the cast. Started going to the gym once I was in the "Darth" boot at 6 weeks.
– Calcium suppliments and multivitamin daily, extra hydration
– Recumbent exercise bike from first day after getting cast off week 6. Once daily 30 min sessions w/ gradually increasing resistance. (This did wonders for the initial strength, range of motion, and provided a gentle return to cardio exercise after being more or less houseridden for 6 weeks). While still using the boot, I would wear it to the gym and take it off to use the bike.
– Lightweight compression sock for once I returned to the office. Sitting in a desk chair for 8 hours was causing a fair amount of swelling and the sock help prevent this. Also iced the ankle every evening for about 20 min.
– Physical Therapy twice weekly starting week 8. The best exercise I did at the PT sessions was to stand on the injured leg and bounce a ball off a trampoline that had been angled into a backstop. At first, just balancing on the ankle was enough effort to break a sweat.
– Trail hiking starting with 5 mile outings at week 11 and working up from there. This did wonders for my over/under pronation range of motion. Theres all sorts of stabilization muscles that you don't work until you're walking on uneven ground. Wore (and still wear) and ankle brace for these trips and used hiking poles for extra stability help.
– Single leg Rotary Calf Presses srarting about week 10. My gym has a nice machine for this, which helped. I'm still missing an enormous amount of strength here- I can do 300/10 with the injured leg but have been slowly working my way up from 120/10 to 160/10. Hoping to get to 220/10 so so I can lift my full body weight on the ankle.
(Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, talk to your OS/PT before planning a rehabilitation srategy)