Hi all,
It's been over a year since my initial surgery. Things are going very well. I will attach a video at end of post
I wanted to update my diary sooner, the two reasons I didn't are
1) I wanted to wait until I had a video, but I'm very concerned about anonymity and it is hard to record a video without comprising that
2) I felt like if I wrote an honest update people might say I'm fake because really I'm not currently having any problems
But I owe it to this forum which I lurked on for years before getting my surgery to write an honest and full dairy. If it weren't for this forum I would have never had the surgery and I'm very glad I did.
My last update was January 25th and I was walking 100% normal and starting to jog. Things continued to improve quickly from that point and I was able to jog 100% normally from March. Playing sports since April.
Summary of where my legs are at today:
1)
Running - I can run pretty much as fast as before surgery (when playing sports I'm faster than many of my friends) although not for as long because my endurance is terrible
2)
Flexibility - Still not 100% but my physio said it was within lower end of normal range and has improved since then (I haven't seen a physio since January). I don't have any issues with flexibility on a daily basis or even during sports apart from when squatting without shoes, but even then I find if I hold the weight in-front of me it helps me balance
3)
Strength - Still not 100%. I only recently starting trying to build strength back up in legs. I notice lack of strength in legs when I jump because my jump is much lower than before.
4)
General daily life - 100% back to normal since February. I'm active, I don't notice the fact I had LL at all during my daily life. First thing I do every morning is walk down stairs to bathroom and I no longer even feel any slight tightness in calves when doing that.
I'm confident I will get back to 100% on everything - I haven't been pushing myself at all these last 6 months when it comes to strength/flexibility/endurance and with training I believe I can get back to better than I was before even.
Here is brief video of me running -
https://imgur.com/a/2HiSxr9I found this was the only way to record without showing myself, so it is a little awkward running whilst holding my phone far to my side and down! Also this is why I went barefoot (I know people IRL who are considering LL and if they saw my shoes on here they might recognise them!) at the start if I'm walking a bit weird it's to avoid spiky things on ground btw (also I've always had a slightly open hip where my feet don't point straight they point out slightly, nothing to do with LL).
This is not my fastest running/acceleration by any means (was having to dodge spiky grass barefoot!), just a quick video. Anyway, I know I would have found it useful as someone looking into LL.
If you have any questions ask away - I will check here in September and reply if there are any. I may try and record a better video at some point also.
Good luck to everyone thinking about/going through LL right now.