Post surgery week 5

Every day is feeling like a little milestone right now. On Saturday, before my lecture at TCA, I tried a little bouldering. It was inspiring and demoralising in equal measure. It was great to complete some easy problems and feel like I was really climbing again. However, I couldn’t do any remotely difficult moves and was using mainly upper body strength to try to control my way through moves and take pressure off my feet. Even the things I could carefully climb, I had to jump off from head height, or climb up as if I was soloing and reverse back down.

After a post lecture drink, I walked back from the pub, a total of 5 miles, which was fantastic. So today (Monday) I decided to make a small venture into the hills, walking up to the Iron Age fort of Dun Deardail above Glen Nevis which is a few miles and 350m of ascent. Although my foot was quite achey, it was more that both feet and legs felt equally stiff and out of shape. Plus, there was no pain from the joint itself, only the plantar fascia was complaining.

A good day or progress and I’m looking forward to the next little step forward. In the meantime, back to roof climbing on my board and then the wobble board.

Bongo Bar film from Norway is up

The full film of our first free ascent of Bongo Bar on Blamman in arctic Norway is now online. A lovely reminder of a great route and trip and somewhere I'm definitely going back to! In the last week I’ve just been talking with Gore-Tex about the next Gore-Tex experience tour I’m planning. 

By the way, not all the tours are rock climbing based - there are opportunities to win places on trips in all sorts of mountain sports. Right now there are two comps with closing dates in the next month.

1 month post surgery

My house this evening.

It’s now a month since my surgery. My ankle is getting ever closer to a normal size. However, it’s still stiff as hell and I feel a good way off getting into the mountains. There should hopefully now be some fibrocartilage cells growing over the defect that was drilled in my surgery. I experimented with a 5 mile cycle the other day, and it felt a little raw after that. The following day I walked the best part of a Km on the flat and it was fine with that. Early days? Hopefully. In another couple of weeks the fibrocartilage should be a little more mature and I should get a better idea how I’ll be fixed for proceeding to longer walks and climbs into mountains.

In the meantime, I’ve progressed from easier moves on near vertical terrain to a proper session of bouldering on my own board. The first session was shaky but OK and I managed one medium and one quite hard problem, although the hard one had a foot-off crux so it doesn’t really count. On the second session I could make some quite difficult moves, but some moves that I normally find easy were not possible just yet. Strength, stability and confidence will need many sessions over the coming weeks to build up. Great to be doing the whole routine of climbing though.

It’s quite a nice reminder of how much power you apply through your lower body on hard moves, even when the footholds are very poor. Being able to test this on board problems I’ve done before is an eye opener. Where my foot normally maintains body tension and pulls really hard to stay on, right now it just lifts off without me being able to do anything about it. The priority is to get mileage on problems and routes I can onsight or do in two tries for the time being to reeducate the motor patterns as well as gain the strength right through the chain to my toes.

On Thursday I’m travelling to Glasgow for a coaching session with the youth squad at TCA and then my lecture there on Saturday at 6.30pm. Do come along to that. For a slightly cheaper advance ticket, give TCA a ring on 0141 429 6331.

Davemacleod.com shop new stuff

Over the past few weeks we have added quite a few new titles to the shop. Of course as usual we are dispatching right up to and over the Christmas period. Early winter is of course the season for thinking about (and hopefully doing) training. As well as the full complement of the best climbing training titles on the market, our Beastmaker fingerboards are ever popular and we’ve just got another large pile of them in.

First up we have Ines Papert’s rather lovely new book. It’s really an inspiration book full of great photography of her globetrotting adventures on steep ice, rock, mixed and big mountains, together with stories of her experiences.

Nick Bullock is a somewhat controversial chap who has a habit of provoking and polarising opinion on all things climbing and mountaineering. He caused a bit of a storm recently for making some pretty strong assumptions about the folk he passes in the street; “their lives are grey”. So you can imagine his new book is not short of colourful thoughts and stories of mountaineering experiences all over the planet. He’ll be the first to tell you that he’s not elitist in his climbing philosophy, certainly not trying to be anyway… Essential reading really.

Next up we have Karen Darke’s second book ‘Boundless’. It’s one thing to decide to take on a life of adventure following a life changing accident that leaves you paralysed. But what is the reality of living that life like? She shows us that fear and uncertainty do not go away, even if you decide to take life by the horns…

Finally we have Autana, Leo Houlding’s latest climbing adventure film to climb the great sandstone big wall on Cerro Autana in the Amazon jungle. It really is a fine adventure, full of some quite unexpected challenges that are both funny and renew your respect for Leo’s attitude to erm, trying new things (you’ll see what I mean). The cave systems high on the wall they visit are quite extraordinary and the whole thing is very well filmed as you would expect from an Alastair Lee DVD.

We still have a bit to go before last posting days before Christmas, so get them in. Te shop is here.

3 weeks post surgery: climbing begins!

Just over three weeks post surgery, I had a much more convincing start to climbing activity. Thanks goodness for that. The pain in my midfoot got quite worrying over the course of a few days, but then the process reversed and I was able to walk progressively better. I’m not as worried about this now. I had been trying on my right rockshoe every few days and it just felt ‘wrong’. But then it crossed a line and felt ok, so I went climbing.

I just went to the bouldering wall and did some very controlled circuits and carefully executed boulder problems. As you can imagine that felt pretty damn good! So now I do feel like I’m on a route back into climbing. Of course I’ll have to build up slowly. There’s no way I could walk up a mountain just yet. Even on the wall, my movement is quite limited and I can't go high, jump off my foot or rock over aggressively onto it. But at least I can do something.

In the coming week or two I’ll just work back up through the progression of problems on my own board, go for a few short walks if I can, and do some bike sessions to remind my body it needs to start getting fit again soon. Work has increased to a fever pitch as I’m trying to complete lots of work tasks ahead of being able to get climbing outdoors again. When that happens I’ll inevitably go mental and want to do quite a lot.

I’ve been back for a second session after a day’s rest and will have another tonight. Here’s to that.

Lecture at TCA Glasgow soon

In a couple of weeks time (Sat 15th) I’m heading to TCA in Glasgow to speak. I’ve just been putting together some stories and ideas for my talk. I guess because the talk is in Glasgow, my home city and in a climbing wall it got me going over thoughts of the path my climbing has taken since I discovered climbing. I viewed my participation in climbing really quite differently in every stage of my life as a climber. In the talk I want to share some of the important moments both of climbing and in thought that opened the next chapter of climbing adventures and challenges, which are of course still unfolding to this day.

Come along, it starts at 6.30pm. It’s a bit cheaper if you get a ticket in advance - details in the poster above.

Post surgery day 21

A few days ago I tried a little gentle climbing at Glasgow Climbing Centre. As I kind of expected, I wasn’t really ready just yet. Well, I’m not really too sure to be honest. The climbing felt really quite gentle. It might have been trying to walk from the car that was the bigger problem.

I kept a walking boot on my right foot and just did about 15 routes between 6a and 7a. I did try one 7a+ but it had some drop-knees so I just backed off. The feeling of climbing reminded me of one time the morning after a friend’s stag do, trying to climb when totally hungover! Balance, control and fitness all felt predictably novice-like. It was an odd sensation - simultaneously feeling great just to be moving up some holds, while also feeling like throwing a strop at the state of my form. The enjoyable part won out. 

The swelling around my ankle has decreased maybe 50% now and my drilled up medial talus feels a little less raw. However, now I’ve started to attempt progressive weightbearing, yet another new pain has emerged. I’m getting a severe shot of pain in my midfoot while trying to heel raise out of a dorsiflexed position. It’s painless with even slight support from my crutches, so I’ll need to keep using them yet. Who knows what’s going on there. Perhaps it’s just all part of the recovering process, or perhaps there’s some other damage in there that has not yet been seen. I’m a bit terrified there’s something going on with my navicular or even a lisfranc injury. Next week it's back to looking at MRIs and visits to hospitals all over again.

Such are the ups and downs I’m going to have to keep working through. In the meantime, It’s back to writing and exercises.

Post surgery day 12

Two days ago my foot started to show some signs of fairly rapid improvement. In those two days I’ve gone from prohibitive pain just trying to put weight through it without moving, to todays crutch free hobbling about the house. It’s still a hobble and will have to be for a while yet since the drilled area underneath my medial malleolus is still feeling raw and preventing a full stride. However, the feeling of bipedal movement even if it’s only slow and from room to room feels good. Little Freida keeps bringing me my crutches and it was especially nice to leave them sitting by the couch for once and follow her on foot. The boost was momentary however, since she proceeded to burn me off on my own board, swinging around on the holds.

Today, hanging about on my board and putting my feet on, I’m actually thinking that moderate climbing may well be easier than walking. So I think it’s almost time to get moving on some very easy routes. Scarpa are sending me a bigger pair of rock shoes for my swollen foot. Even then I reckon the first week or two of climbing will need to be in one approach shoe. Caution is probably well advised though - I’ll wait a few days yet, and start off on 6s.

Meanwhile I have plenty of training tasks, rehab tasks and working tasks to complete each day and have recommenced these in earnest. I even needed a rest day from fingerboard work today! Some of my pre-surgery gain in pure finger strength have been lost from the week off, which is expected and temporary of course. 

One thing I have on my side is experience of having gone through this sort of thing before. It certainly hasn’t helped me deal with the fear of permanent loss of function. But it has helped me manage the maintenance training much better. The last time I broke my ankle I was 3 months in plaster and when it came out I had one leg like a stick insect. I was pretty lazy then (it was 15 years ago) and didn’t do anything like the levels of physiotherapy and training I ought to have done. So it took a lot longer than it could have to return to fitness. I totally missed the opportunity to get a good ‘foundation’ phase done. So when the time came around, I had to learn to climb well again at the same time as start from being ridiculously weak.

This time round, I’ve tried to give myself some slack where it makes sense, and worked hard where it makes sense. For instance, I’ve eaten a ton and then had cake afterwards. Funnily enough my weight is the same although body composition might need some miles on the bike to correct. But I’ve done more fingerboard, rotator cuff, flexibility and push ups in the last 7 weeks than the previous year. It might be into next spring before I can sort everything else out enough to reap rewards from that, but they will hopefully be there.

Carrying lunch slowly through to another room under my own steam felt like a wee milestone today, but the stiffness tonight reminded me there will be plenty more ups and downs to come. I might get a fright when I try and climb!

Post surgery day 6

I’m finally home after surgery. Until today, I felt pretty rubbish. Particularly yesterday morning which was a real low point of feeling pretty fed up indeed. I got a bit of a fright after three days when I took my dressing off to find my foot was a fair bit bigger and more purple than I expected it to be. I guess in my mind I’d already gone through the ‘ankle like a purple football’ phase once already. It’s a slightly more normal shape after much time under an ice pack and I can move it a little more than, well, not at all.

So I’m happier today and feeling like it’s a bit more ‘on track’. I’ll just let the next few days roll with some gentle movement and more ice until next week it’s more established in the proliferation phase and hopefully ready for some slightly less gentle stretching.

Up til today I must admit I just couldn’t face training at all. I’m not sure if this was a physical thing or whether I was just feeling a bit low. But tonight I’ll try a few hangs and see how I get on. Even if it’s just a warm-up and then stop, doing something might be really good for morale.

Recovery day 1, again

Wakey Wakey Mr MacLeod. Feeling rather spaced shortly after coming round.

Yesterday I had my ankle surgery, which went quite well. Quote of the day from the surgeon was ‘articular surface intact’. Thank goodness for that. However, I did have a small flap of torn cartilage in the medial gutter of my ankle. It was very small and right on the edge of the cartilage, so it may not give me any trouble in the long term, or it might. We’ll have to see. I’m also still sore at the back of my ankle which couldn’t be properly seen but the surgeon’s opinion is that this is not a big deal and will settle. Again, we’ll just have to see. The large tibial bone spur which was creaking around in my ankle was chewed up and pulled out and I’m pretty sure that will help matters a lot!

I’ve got instructions to proceed to full weight bearing as pain allows. Obviously, 24 hours post operation I certainly don’t feel like putting my foot anywhere near a floor. On Monday I have to be in Wales for a big Gore-Tex event, but then I’ll just go home and work on my book for a week or two and then if everything feels ok, I will try to begin some gentle climbing. I do have a lingering worry about the back of my ankle. But there’s not much I can do except see how things pan out. I’m trying not to base my feelings on how it feels one day after being under the knife.

I do have a rehab plan in mind, but it’ll have to stay in my mind for a few more days until everything settles and I know exactly what the starting place is.

I feel lucky to the point of feeling guilty about having got away without more serious damage and disability. Much as I’m aware that we have a lot of power to get ourselves out of all manner of holes, there are some things that cannot be changed, and others have far more serious misfortune to deal with. What can you do except take the luck you’ve been given and run as far as you can with it?