Jul
3
0-3 Weeks Post Op
July 3, 2012 | Tagged 2 Weeks, 3 Weeks, Acilles Rupture, Agressive Rehab, Basketball |
I’ve been spending so much time reading other peoples blogs and posts since I ruptured my Achilles tendon (playing basketball) on 6/9/12.. I decided to start writing one of my own. I am 27 years old, from Chicago, ruptured my Achilles on 6/9/12 surgery on 6/11/12 and currently 3.2 weeks post Op
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So I hit the ground, thought I had been kicked in the leg, realized I wasn’t, felt my ankle and no Achilles was there.. Damn.. I knew exactly what happened..
Somehow I hobbled over to my girlfriend who was at the same park and said.. “Well, I tore my Achilles, let’s go to the ER” sure enough, complete rupture. I was able to get into surgery on 6/11/12.
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2 Weeks in a hard cast went by (luckily my girlfriend, a teacher, is home on summer break and was able to GREATLY help me out.. I don’t know how I would be doing this if I was living by myself, for those of you who are.. wow, your amazing)
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When I went back to get my hard cast taken off the Ortho said I really did a number on it but (I believe his words were, “Let’s just say, you didn’t half ass this one”) BUT luckily, it was hanging on by a thread and he didn’t have to go searching for the other end in my calf.
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He says he is putting me in another hard cast for 2 more weeks, which I was fine with, but as they are taking out the stiches (7) he comes back and says, he has a boot he is going to put me in instead (I think he thinks they were going to have to order one for me, as I have a size 14 foot, but, luckily he had one) I’m wondering how cautious I should be and he assures me, that it will feel weird, but I am safe in the boot (I currently have 3 heel raises in and he will be taking one out in the next few days)
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So good, he says I can start PT immediately… and use Weight Bearing as Tolerated.. This confused me at first. So if I could, I could walk with-out crutches today? He said take your time, and over the next few weeks go from 2 crutches, to one crutch, to no crutches.
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The next Tuesday I’m back to work (after taking a week off and working from home the next week, which at first sucked, but when I put this into perspective it was kind of awesome.. For the last 2 weeks I woke up, drank coffee, and watched the Euro Cup 2012 with essentially no distractions, when am I ever going to do that in my life again??) So Tuesday I’m back to work, its really hard to keep my foot up and its swelling pretty bad. I go to PT for the first time and I’m terrified of how they are telling me to move my foot. I’m second guessing everything they are saying, “see how far you can bring your toes up without passing 90″ “do the alphabet” etc etc. I’m not even close to 90 degrees and the PT has been great doing what I feel comfortable with. After being immersed in other people’s blogs, it appears that my Ortho is taking this aggressively, which I like but is also scary. I trust him as he is a big sports medicine guy who worked on a lot of pro sports teams.
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Over the weekend I try doing one crutch walking, which I can, but my upper calf is extremely sore, the PT says it’s from the deep massaging she does and I call the Doc to make sure it’s not anything more serious, they say it’s from PT. I’m freaking myself out by reading other things that say “Don’t use your toes when you are walking in the boot!” Did I use my toes?? I don’t know?? Did I do something wrong??
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Anyways, I am riding out the rest of this week, and seeing the Ortho again on Friday morning, this will be 4 weeks post Op. Hopefully I’ll get some more reassurance.