My video update from year 1:
It has been 1 year since my rupture! I made it and am recovered - YAY! For some strange reason I was looking forward to this date, just to mentally close this chapter of my life. This is a crazy and taxing injury, but it is not the end of the world as it may seem at the beginning. It requires a team of specialists, a lot of commitment to rehab and lot of support from friends/family as well as from community of fellow ATR-ers.
IT TAKES A VILLAGE
I was very fortunate to have a wonderful support system from everyone involved in my injury.
DR. BRUCE TWADDLE
Even though I never met him, it all started with Dr. Bruce Twaddle, the creator of my ATR protocol. Dr. Twaddle is from New Zealand, however he practiced for a while at University of Washington Sports Medicine Center, where he, I was told, introduced the non-operative protocol he designed for the achilles rupture patients. My doctor and I followed Dr. Twaddle’s protocol and it proved to be quite successful in my case, so thank you Dr. Twaddle for coming to UW and thank you for your research and work with ATR injuries!
DR. JOHN O’KANE
Dr. John O’Kane from University of Washington Sports Medicine Center lead me through this injury from the beginning until I was healed and fully released at month 9. As I wrote in my WEEK 1 post, it took me a few tries to find the right doctor for me. When we ended up in Dr. O’Kane’s office we were greeted by his warm personality. He was a 3rd doctor we saw for this injury and it was already 1 week after my rupture. By that time we became quite familiar with the latest research on the subject, read any medical paper we could put our hands on and were ready for a conversation. We were immediately comforted by the fact that we were able to discuss with Dr. O’Kane different approaches and treatments, variations in different countries and possible reasons for them. None of our questions were dismissed and with every passing minute with Dr. O’Kane I knew I found a doctor that was perfect to treat my ATR. I was not pressed to go surgical or non-surgical, but the explanations and logic provided by Dr. O’Kane, combined with what I knew of this injury by then, made me feel at ease with the non-operative route. I knew I would be in good hands.
Dr. O’Kane has been very diligent in his care and thorough during the appointments throughout my recovery. He was very patient with loads of questions my husband and I always had for him. We never felt rushed and left all the appointments with the mental satisfaction that we were treated really well and were educated further on the topic of ATR. He always had good tips and was willing to talk about variations from the protocol based on my recovery. Dr. O’Kane’s explanations on why things are done were always clear and logical. Because of that I never had doubts about any part of the treatment.
I am really grateful to Dr. O’Kane, because he made me feel at ease after every appointment, especially in the first stressful weeks of recovery. Since my ATR I am experiencing sciatica pain and had a shoulder break. I chose to be treated by Dr. O’Kane for these as well and am once again a happy patient.
So, thank you Dr. O’Kane for your knowledge, your way of being with patients and for successfully leading me to recovery!
If anyone is from Washington state, I really recommend Dr. John O’Kane from UW Sports Medicine Clinic! If you are not from here, I recommend you look for your Dr. O’Kane if you are able to see multiple doctors. The right physician is a must for this injury, since the ATR recovery is such a long process!
DPT ELLIOT O’CONNOR
My physical therapist, DPT, Elliot O’Connor, from University of Washington Sports Medicine Center was patiently leading me through many, many months of rehab. I spent the most time with Elliot during the recovery and was extremely lucky to have him on my team. I do not even know where to start, since there is so much I am grateful for. For those going through the rehab, or are about to, read up, I will try to list the key points I found amazing about my PT.
In the initial weeks of the rehab, when I was still skittish about my leg and paranoid about doing anything on it, Elliot was patiently explaining everything and applying logic to everything we were doing. His explanations backed up by science and experience were enough for me to feel comfortable to follow any instructions I was given by him. Elliot’s patient and calm way of being also brings one at ease when the injury is scary and I learned to trust him quite early on.
Throughout the recovery I was impressed with Elliot and his knowledge and approach to the treatment. He was pushing me when it was needed and, more importantly, was making me slow down when I overdid it. He repeated many times: “you recover and heal when you rest” and “be gentle on your body”. He might not realize it, but it does stick in patients’ heads and I definitely learned a thing or two from him on this front.
I was also really happy with Elliot’s approach to delayed stretching. Lots of people talk about stretching from the beginning of the rehab, including some non-op patients. Elliot’s approach was different. He made me work on strength from the beginning and we went for it pretty aggressively, but I did not start dedicated stretching until week 19 of recovery. I was in no rush after hearing his explanation on healing long. I now always quote Elliot when I am asked about stretching and why so late: “I can always help you stretch later, but if you heal long, I will not be able to help you with that”. That stuck in my head and I was in no rush to stretch that achilles and calf and it worked out very nicely for me. I definitely did not heal long, Elliot did have some tricks up his sleeve for getting my flexibility back and my strength is great!
Another thing is how Elliot was dealing with the “speed bumps” along the way. Everyone going through this injury will know the unpredictable pains and stiffness in random places. Well, I was no different. Things hurt along the way for different reasons and Elliot always found an answer or solution on how to deal with them. He researched exercises that worked for a given problem, or came up with combination of things that solved a specific ailment. His willingness to go beyond standard treatment and to find something that worked for me at a given point was really appreciated at the time and is now as well, looking back on it. I liked that he was willing to try something new after researching it or quote a research he read on an issue and see if it works for me. Most of the time it was a good solution for a problem.
Lastly, Elliot is a runner, soccer player, snowboarder, and biker. If you are an active person, make sure to find a PT that is active, does sports and understands the mind and body of someone that is trying to get back to sports.
So, thank you Elliot for being there for me through my recovery and helping me heal successfully. I know it was many hours over many months and it is a long time to see a patient every week.
For those in WA state that need to go through rehab, I definitely recommend Elliot O’Connor at UW Sports Medicine Center. He was treating my achilles, hamstring strain and I chose to keep going with him for my broken shoulder bone. Elliot has been reliable and effective in all.
LMP, JOHN STUART BROWN
The ATR recovery causes big calf atrophy, and there is need to rebuild the muscles, which requires lots of work and causes lots of soreness and pain. Add to that scar tissue, calf and ankle stiffness and foot problems. All of these are addressed in physical therapy, however, there is just not enough time to work on everything in PT. I was lucky enough that my insurance covers limited sessions of medical massage. My first experience with massage therapy for ATR was really unpleasant and it took me few more weeks to trust someone else to touch my achilles.
I booked my new appointment with John Brown at Lake Washington Wellness. I was so surprised by a difference from my initial experience. It was such a relief to my calf muscles, foot and ankle. The tendon actually felt better. I tried to book with John once a week and the sessions always helped tremendously relieving the soreness and making it easier to continue with my daily PT. I finally got into a schedule of booking Friday evening appointments with John and taking the next day off from PT. That was a good way to recover from the daily rehab and the injured leg definitely appreciated it.
John has been great throughout my injury. He is really detail oriented and somehow always managed to find sore places in the leg or foot even if I forgot to mention them. His knowledge on the mix of techniques shows how skilled he is at what he does. He put me at ease after only one appointment and I was able to trust him completely with my injured achilles and calf. I highly recommend John Brown in Lake Washington Wellness in Redmond, WA!
If your insurance covers massage therapy, make sure to use this benefit and find a skilled massage therapist that knows what he/she is doing with this injury. This is something the leg will appreciate and, I believe, it helped me a lot in my recovery. It helped me recover faster and allowed me go at the rehab exercises harder afterwards.
WITH HUBBY
Family and friends are really important during this injury and that is true especially at the beginning when one struggles physically and emotionally. Thankfully my husband was there for me. He was a very patient driver for many weeks and adjusted quietly to being a helper around the house! He juggled work schedule to take me to my doctor and PT appointments and drove me everywhere in the evenings, so that we could take care of the chores. I had my iWalk 2.0 on day 3 of my injury, so could do things around the house from the beginning, however I was really tired by the evenings, so any help was needed and appreciated then. So, thank you hubby for being there, helping me make the choice to go non-op, listening about this injury throughout the recovery and supporting me in all its phases. My husband is also the more cautious one between the two of us, so I have now a stream of constant reminders to be careful and be smarter with my body…
Thank you also to all my friends that were there for me, calling, texting, checking up on me, driving me, or offering to, cheering me up and on, suggesting expertise, giving professional advise, and just caring. That meant and still means a lot. I am a pretty independent person and do not ask for help easily. I certainly do not like pity, but your support certainly helped during this crazy time.
Below is a pic of a cute care package I got at the beginning of my injury from my friends’ sweet daughter. I am keeping the card she wrote forever and the bunny with the crutches still cracks me up. I needed that laugh at the time I got the package, so thank you Anya!
GET WELL GIFTS FROM FRIENDS
Now, onto the ATR community. I have to thank Evan Brown, a fellow ATR-er. It was because of him I started researching the non-op route. He ruptured almost to the day one year before me. I read Evan’s blog and watched his videos and that made me wonder about non-operative treatment. I could say that Evan’s story was something that inspired me do my own research. Once I made my decision about non surgical route, I was so grateful to Evan for recording his story, that I decided to record mine. My thinking was, if I can help even one person, I will consider it a good payback.

From Evan I learnt about Norm, who used to be very active on achillesblog.com. That got me started with my research. From there it all spiraled out of control with all the papers, studies and research. Achillesblog community and all the blogs here were of big help throughout the recovery. A frequent visitor at that time and also a fellow ATR-er, Stuart, in particular, was really helpful with his tips and insights. When I started sharing my story here, there were not that many rupture-es that were active on achillesblog.com, so Stuart’s help and support were of great help! Glad to see that there are more ATR-ers now sharing their stories and compering notes!
A Dr. researcher, Smita Rao I met at out mutual friend’s place a while ago was also great at pointing me to some valuable resources during the first week of my research, so thank you for that!
While researching I stumbled upon someone’s comment about a facebook group for achilles injuries. I joined immediately and was able to ask questions from many people that ruptured and have gone through this whole drama already.
So, it does take a village…. There were many, many people involved in this recovery and I thank you all!!!
MY 1 YEAR TENDON STATUS
I am almost 100% recovered. I say almost, because I know biologically the collagen is not done yet. The injured tendon is still much thicker than the uninjured one. I was told by my doc that this might always be the case. It will thin out a bit more, but it will probably always be thicker. I am cool with that though.
MY 1 YEAR CALF STATUS
The calf is also smaller. I feel it is almost as strong as my uninjured calf. The doc said that the calf might never be the same. I am just wondering if the muscles that atrophied and were forced to re-grow, grow differently, meaning the shape is somewhat different? I really do not know enough about it, but am just wondering. I do not care about the size, frankly speaking. As long as my strength is good, I am happy!
MY 1 YEAR FLEXIBILITY STATUS
My flexibility in the injured leg is not the same as in the uninjured leg - on purpose. I was told by my PT not to stretch it to the same level, as this might be part of my problems - over flexibility. I was about 16-17cm toes to wall in the “knee to wall test” on my uninjured leg and am now about 12-13 cm in the injured leg (probably more when I am stretched out). I used deep squat as my measure for how much to stretch it. I am now once again very comfortable in deep squat and do not feel any difference in my flexibility between the two legs.
MY 1 YEAR SPORTS STATUS
As far as the achilles goes I am back to any sports. On my exact 1 year anniversary my hubby pulled out our pickleball rackets and we went for it at home. I am glad nothing is broken, cause we went for it! lol. It was fun and I really do not have any fear about my achilles. Hiking, biking, running, jumping, skiing, snowshoeing, swimming, kick boxing are all fine thus far (achilles-wise).
MY 1 YEAR SHOES STATUS
And here is one for the ladies. It took me 6 months to be able to walk barefoot (read about delayed stretching above in PT section). I was able to wear high heels at month 4 or so, however. Now I do not have to think about any shoes I am wearing.
SCIATICA AND SHOULDER INJURIES
Other than that, as I wrote in previous post, I am still working on sciatica (hamstring and hip pain). My sciatica PT is getting somewhere, but it took a while to pin point the problems. The exercises for it are still wacky, but they do make sense now. I am more likely to be excited about exercises when I know their purpose. This week we might have had a small break through and my sciatica PT was excited to make me try running. I told him that this is not going to happen until my pain is completely gone, lol. I did not enjoy my flare up the last time I tried to restart my running. I still have constant pain, but there are days where it is not noticeable that much! Yes! It seems I still have some time to deal with this sucker though…
My shoulder is getting better too. It is letting me do more and more things, so I am very excited. The strength is still a fraction of what it used to be, I have a limited range of motion and I feel sore most of the time from PT and exercises, but I am thrilled it is getting stronger and feels better every week. Again, thanks Elliot for getting me treatments and exercises that improve it!
FINAL THOUGHTS
So, yay to recoveries! Life is crazy this way, we like to do things and the more things we do the chances of our bodies getting broken are higher. I still think it is all worth it! I would go nuts if I could not get out and be active, so I am not planning for these injuries to stop me.
Anyone that is at the beginning or middle of this injury, HANG IN THERE!!! Reading someone else recover can either inspire you or frustrate you because of where you are at now. Well, if you are the latter, just think about the fact that the recovered person already went through what you are going through now, so once again, hang in there, it will be you one day. It might take longer, or shorter time, but you will get there!
With that I am done with the regular updates. I might post something one year from now. I will also add a tab with my timeline and another one with my 1 year notes. I will update this post with links when I am done with it. I have few more photos to upload to my ATR Equipment as well and add a 1 year video. So, just final clean up to close this completely out.
Here is my YOUTUBE CHANEL, where I uploaded videos during my recovery.
Thank you for reading and also sharing your stories in blogs and in comments! For the last time HAPPY HEALING!!!!
Posted in 2 Shoes | Tagged 1 year, achilles tendon rupture, ATR, Bruce Twaddle, deep squat, dpt, Elliot O'Connor, John Brown, John O'Kane, LMP, massage therapy, non operative, non surgical, physical therapy, recovered, twaddle protocol, University of Washington Sports Medicine Center, UW | 35 Comments »