4 weeks post injury, 3 weeks post surgery

Happy 4th of July weekend!

Recovery continues to progress well. I had a bit a swelling and discomfort the last few days as I have gotten more active and started trying to move my ankle around but it is enjoyable to get things working again. I expected some pain as I start to break the scar tissue up and form better tissues in the area. Being able to directly ice my ankle has provided some nice relief and kept the swelling down. I took an opportunity to explore some of the literature related to achilles tendon ruptures (ATR). There seems to be studies indicating no evidence of a difference with and without surgery after 6 months. Those studies might have ignored looking at differences in trajectories over time as they all seem to use relatively simple statistical analyses to compare different outcomes at fixed time points. I wonder if they are missing differences in recovery at earlier time points... More on this later when or if I find some studies I want to use in my class in the fall and really dig through the details.

I have been enjoying watching Teresa get into running in the last couple of weeks. It is early days for her doing this, but she seems quite taken with it. Before my injury, we would go for bike rides and I would often ride ahead and then loop back to ride with her for a bit. Whenever I get back to doing fun stuff, I suspect she will be giving me the same treatment. It will be a while before I get to going ahead of her again.

We have been dealing with fireworks "season" here in Bozeman, MT. In 2004, non-flying, non-concussive fireworks were legalized for July 3, 4, and 5th (I guess). This has lead to Bozeman sounding like a war-zone for about a week around the 4th. We tend to hide in our basement a few weeks to try to get some sleep and let our dog keep from overloading in adrenaline. Our personal problems with this vary depending on how much our close neighbors choose to violate the law. This year was one of the worst in recent memory... I like to think people are generally clueless about the actual laws here (Bozeman ordinance), the impacts on pets, babies, wildlife, the environment, and people that actually try to work in the mornings during this time of year. An interesting article about pollution from fireworks and a potential method of reducing it for professional shows is here. I think Bozeman's "real" show had fewer loud concussive fireworks and was much less jarring than previous years. I appreciate that change and wish all of our neighbors would read and obey the regulations. I also wish the city would ban all fireworks because most people seem to have missed (or outright disobey) the nuances in the current law.

I really like Bozeman but I do think the city council has missed the boat in their regulation of fireworks and the police in terms of trying to enforce the laws. I don't really blame the police, because I think they have many difficult laws to enforce at this time of year.

I will stop ranting about fireworks as I am headed out to the doctor to get fitted into my boot. It will be interesting to see how hard it is to walk now. My calf muscles now can contract and I am only lacking a few degrees of flexibility in the injured foot. I will be really happy to be free of crutches and scooters in the near future...