I did aquatherapy fairly early on in the condition...about 5-6 months in. We started with 2 one-hour sessions in the water a week and one non-water session a week as well. Gradually we decreased that from 1 water session and 2 non-water sessions until I was out of the pool completely.

I didn't like the pool but I think it WAS beneficial...especially in terms of getting the function back at that time. We did a lot of the same exercises in the water that we did out of the water (toe/heel raises, walking, drawing the alphabet with my foot, squats, jumping jacks, etc). The focus was on getting the movements right while subjecting my ankle to less weight.

The main reason I didn't like the pool was that I experienced a lot of pain getting OUT of the pool. That cool air hitting my ankle was INTENSE pain. But they would walk me over to the regular PT area and we would do stim with heat for 15 minutes and then I would leave. TENS helps me...but their big stim machine with the heat there actually brought my pain levels down to a 3 after PT and the relief usually lasted for about an hour. So that horrible pain getting out of the water never lasted very long...just the amount of time it took me to get dressed and walk over to the other area. The relief from the stim and heat allowed me to drive home and rest up in relative comfort (compared to my regular pain levels which were otherwise never lower than a 5/6 at the time).

The only pool exercise that ever did me in was when she had me use a kick board and try to swim. I was actually shocked at how painful that was...the water movements against my ankle when I tried to kick with it. I actually cried because it was so bad. Totally caught me off guard because this was a month or so into the water therapy and nothing else had ever increased my pain like that in the water. Needless to say, we dropped that exercise and did something else.