Question for Fitness Buffs/Experts

[CamaroSkooter]

I know there are several folks on the forum who are pretty heavy into fitness and strength training or even possibly have medical knowledge/training or physical therapy or personal training experience.

My question is, does anyone else have knowledge/experience with recovering from rhabdomyolysis?

Some background:

In late June of 2016 I came down with a flu-like virus that caused extreme rhabdo throughout my entire body. My CPK (creatine phosphokinase) levels peaked at 768,600...so by all accounts I should not be alive right now.

I was in the ICU for 1.5 months, in an LTAC for another 1.5 months, then in an Acute Rehab Unit for 3 months before being discharged from a hospital setting to go home on December 16, 2016. I was in Home Health for a month, then started doing Outpatient Rehab in late January 2017 and I was just discharged from outpatient therapy last week (February 28th, 2018).

Before I got sick, I weighed around 185 pounds. At my lowest in the hospital I weighed around 130 pounds. That's how much muscle weight/fibers I lost.

Right now I weigh just shy of 160 pounds.

My struggle now is with foot-drop (my shin muscles, the anterior tibialis, are extremely weak), and with just general weakness literally everywhere. I am physically unable to lift my arms above my head right now. The foot-drop, though, is what prevents me from driving a car...and that's probably been the single biggest frustration of this entire ordeal.

So, yeah, it's been a wild ride...

[Mydivorcegift]

I can help you with a lot of "things" in the "fitness" world. And my other half is a PT. But I have to say this is not one of "those things" either of us have dealt with. I know it occurs a lot in Crossfit. If you'd like I can ask around in my "circle'.

What exactly is your question concerning rhabdomyolysis?

[CamaroSkooter]

I had a significant amount of muscle fiber loss, which makes lifting just the weight of a limb against gravity in some instances impossible.

My two biggest "issues" at the moment are:

- Lifting my arms above my head (which I think is entirely due to weak deltoids, in all directions)
- In a seated position, lifting my toes off the ground (very weak anterior tibialis muscles, which presents as foot-drop)

I want to work the crap out of these muscles to build them back up and get them strong enough to at least do body-weight exercises...but I'm mildly afraid that if I work them too hard, I could do even more harm. So I'm trying to figure out the best way to go about exercising these muscles safely, but as hard as possible to speed up the recovery.

I have all sorts of Thera-band (Yellow, Red, Green, and Blue) and I have dumbbells from 1 pound to 10 pounds as well as 1- and 2-pound ankle weights, so I have plenty of options to choose from...now I just need ideas on how best to use what I've got.