November 25, 2016: Getting back to practice

Despite the fact that she could not walk and needed to be sitting with her foot elevated most of the time to keep the pain under control, Mia Rose was back in the gym doing conditioning and some bars just 5 days after surgery. This video was taken just 8 days after surgery as she was learning how to do bar skills with the weight of a cast on her foot (she put an ankle weight on the other side for balance). After a while on bars the first few weeks she had more discomfort in her foot, but not enough to cause problems, and she would elevate after that by walking on her hands and doing handstands…aka getting her foot as far above her heart as you can get.

Initially she was at the gym for just two hours a day, but within a couple of weeks she was staying for the full practice and started lifting some weights as well. Despite the fact that she still needed a lot of help with every day tasks at home like getting food and drinks and showering, at the gym she was able to feel a little more independent and “normal.” She was absolutely determined not to lose any strength and to be ready to jump right back in to competing as soon as her foot healed (in 4-5 months), so she knew that she needed to put in the time and hard work to stay strong.

As crazy as it sounds all of the time in the gym really helped to keep her sane during a very difficult time.  Competing and being at the gym training and working along side her teammates has always been where she is happiest, so that was where she wanted to be as she recovered. In the gym she was able to do something productive and keep her mind on things other than being sad and in pain.

Throughout her recovery she used a combination of the iWalk 2.0 and crutches depending on where she was and what she was doing. The iWalk was great for making it possible to hold things while moving about and helping to keep her quad and glutes active on the left side, but in the first month post surgery she could only use it for short periods because the jostling of her foot would cause increased pain and swelling. In the gym crutches were more functional because of the uneven surfaces and the fact that she could put them down and pick them up quickly.