Slowly but surely, Ashley Judd is recovering from her gruesome leg injury.
In February, the actor revealed she nearly lost her leg during an accident in Congo. She shared some encouraging news about her progress over the weekend.
In a lengthy Instagram post, the 53-year-old revealed that she is sleeping through the night but acknowledged that she still has a long way to go in her recovery. She shared a video of herself doing some physical therapy exercises and said it's taken a bit of time to regain strength.
"With the kind of injury I (& many others) have, we speak of degrees. In the video, 109 degrees was an outrageous dream, & trying to reach it was agony. I did 60 of those heel slides a day. I sobbed through them," she wrote.
Judd credited the "loving exhortation and validation" of her friends for encouraging her during her recovery and said she has made many improvements in recent weeks.
"Yesterday, I effortlessly reached the benchmark of 130 degrees. I can nearly reach my knee as you see in one picture. My feet can rest almost parallel. The knee is coming along, the four fractures healing," she wrote.
The "Double Jeopardy" star, who frequently travels to Congo to study the endangered bonobo population, fell while walking in the forest and almost lost her leg. She explained in her Instagram post that her peroneal nerve injury will take at least a year to fully heal and wrote that she plans to walk with a brace and cane by June. She also has some big plans for when she's back up and running.
"But look out, Patagonia, because when that nerve heals, you’ll be seeing me. My Partner gave me that book for my recent birthday. I believe. Just as that little endangered bonobo knows that she’ll be seeing me back in the Congolese rain forest soon," she wrote, sharing a photo of herself holding a book titled "Trekking in the Patagonian Andes."
In March, Judd gave an update on her recovery and expressed gratitude for everyone who has been taking care of her.
“Now, I am in the bosom of a stream of friends and family, too numerous to mention, who have caught me in their prodigious arms from this precipitous fall,” she wrote. “They do for me what I cannot do for myself — prepare meals, shampoo my hair, and they also offer the deep spiritual direction and consolation of trying to begin to craft an arc of meaning and purpose.”
Later in the month, Judd's mother, Naomi Judd, appeared on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” and said she's been helping her daughter during her recovery.
“She could’ve died. And she’s surviving. She’s very courageous,” she said.