As I turned 40 this year, my body decided to show me a new experience.
On June 8th, 2016 I joined “ATR* CLUB“. Full rupture with a minimal gap. After a lot of research and seeing multiple doctors I decided to treat it non-operatively.
I will update my progress of recovery and share my experiences and tips. Reading different ATR blogs helped me tremendously thus far, so I feel like I should share my journey as well. You just never know who might benefit from it in the future.
I am a very active person, so this will be a trying period. I am ready for this path to recovery and I’m certainly learning to be patient!!! 
I would like to thank Dennis for maintain the site and everyone that contributes to AchillesBlog.com. This has been a big help and huge source of information.
*ATR: Achilles Tendon Rupture
Hi,
I was wondering how your doing. I’m in about the same time line as you, 3 day before you. Have you started FWB or PWB?. Have you started any PT? My first PT is on the 20th of this month. I still haven’t been checked on by a doctor as insurance is still screwing around. I wish I could tell if its healing proper. Still have no sings of movement in my calf. I have started stationary biking since I’m going crazy. Doesn’t hurt me but I hope I’m not hurting my Achilles tendon.
Love to hear from you
Thanks
Lara
I have been reading mibballs blog as well. He’s been super helpful
Hi Lara,
Sorry that you still have the insurance issues. That truly sucks. Hope that gets resolved soon!
I am still NWB, but am putting some pressure on the hill of my injured leg when standing or sitting. I am also doing ROM exercises about 8-9 times a day. They are completely in plantar flexion. My doc is basically concentrating now on me not healing long and is pretty specific not to put my toes in less than 20-15 degrees plantar flexion. I uploaded few videos on my youtube channel and one of them are my ROM exercises: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4qGoFqSKLfze6GtOEZv73L4mdCAxCNmu
I will be seeing my doc this Friday and will update then on the progress. In last check up he could not determine the re-growth status of tendon, but based on his examination all looked good. Will see this week. I should start doing PWB this week, but am waiting for the check up. I was told plantar flexion ROM is the most important now to help the healing.
From what I have seen stationary bike is a great one for this injury (well, great for the rest of the body while having this injury). Just make sure to press with your hill of the injured leg. How are you liking it? I will probably start doing that soon as well. Need to get an indoor rack for my bike first. There is also lots of NWB workouts you can do at home to keep the rest of your body in shape.
As far as the injured leg only - ROM and applying some pressure to my hill were the 2 things I have been doing in the last 2 weeks. I have been pretty active as well. Not getting that tired anymore as in the first couple of weeks.
Hope your 1st PT goes well next week! And yep, reading progress of ppl ahead of us helps a lot, no? There is hope!
Hi Agnes soooo helpful .. I am 68 with a partial rupture.. 1/2 the tendon has snapped having surgery in 2 weeks. Ordered the i walker.
Did you use it while you had the cast on??
Best wishes and thanks again for inspiring and informative Blog
Robert
Hi Robert, sorry about your rupture! Hope your surgery goes well! I did not have a cast on, I went straight into the boot and was using iWalk from day 3 after my rupture. There are others, however that went surgical and had casts on that were using iWalk, including a friend of mine. He had surgery and also was put in cast. From what I have seen he loved iWalk as well. Good luck to you Robert!
Hi Agnes
great blog, and hope you are back on track with your active lifestyle.
I partially ruptured by achilles tendon on my right foot while running about 5 weeks ago. Since I’m up in Canada, the health care system is free, but the consults with my orthopedic surgeon are roughly 5 minutes in length, so its hard to get any type of thorough analysis, other than “You will probably need surgery and see you in two weeks lol”
Couple of questions:
1) What signs of progression does your doctor look at to see how well tendon is healing?
2) At what point in your rehab (3 months, 6 months ,etc) were you able to start putting weight on your injured leg. IE. being able to push off with your calf muscle.
3) What did you mean by this statement? (week 1 of your blog) “At the end of the visit we spoke about the treatment protocol and I was told that in the next 4 weeks the angle of my toes pointing down is the most important”
Much thanks
winston
Thank you Winston and sorry about your rupture. May I ask you - did your tendon just pop while you were running, or did you have accident while you were running. I am just asking, because, I always worry a bit about my other tendon and I am back to my regular running routine.
To answer your questions:
1) Since I was non-operative, my doc was just examining the tendon manually by touching it and feeling if the gap was disappearing. He was also performing Thompson test at each visit, but was mentioning that Thompson test is not reliable in the initial 3-4 months. Then he was doing ultrasound to check the collagen creation. The manual exam was the main part though.
2) I started walking in the boot at week 6 (PWB) and was FWB in week 7. Then started walking in the shoes in week 9. Walking again in shoes is a process, but I was told to use my calf from the beginning of using shoes, but take smaller steps initially to avoid limp.
3) Being non-op, my doc wanted to make sure that my tendon ends are as close to each other as possible to reduce the amount of scar tissue creation. So I was put in a boot with an angle that my foot was naturally hanging in with toes pointing down. My natural toes pointing down angle was larger than my protocol was calling for. It was important for me not to move my foot out of that position for the first 2-3 weeks. Then I was allowed range of motion exercises for 5 minutes every hour, but all with toes pointing down and under neutral. Hope that makes sense.
Good luck with your recovery and hopefully you will find a doc that gives you enough time to answer questions about your case specifically! Btw, I used to write down all the questions for the doc and read them out for him during the apt. That way I always got everything I needed answered.
hey Agnes….when I was running home from work, I believe I hit a little lip in the sidewalk, and automatically I grabbed my calf muscle as a sharp pain immediately became noticeable.
To be honest, i don’t really recall what happened in vivid detail, as I was simply jogging along and bam it felt like a whip hitting me on the back of the leg.
I would imagine that more of the lateral agility sports like basketball, and tennis would probably be more of a worry for the achilles, and not running…
Its probably just the body aging
Ouch, that’s a bit scary Winston. I also thought it is mostly explosive sports that cause the rupture. Mine was overuse, I believe (or aging - whatever you wanna call it, haha), as even though it was on a push off when returning a serve, it was a really gentle push off in comparison to the rest of the games before it.
Seeing that you ruptured just running and my rupture also was not from something overly explosive, make me a little cautious about running trails, where tripping and uneven footing is a norm. Trail running is the only thing that makes runs fun for me though. I think I need to make sure not to get too lazy about calf raises on the good leg. Something I really have been irregular lately with all the summer activities in full swing… Thanks for sharing and once more, wishing you an uneventful recovery!
Hi Agnes,
Just wanted to thank you again for all the hard work and detail you put into all your videos, I am in my 7th week of my non-op ATR and I am finally walking on the boot with no crutches. Your videos have been very helpful and encouraging. Also thanks for referring the FB group, it has been very good too. Anyhow, hope you are doing well!!
Best Wishes
Hi Agnes !!!!
because I am on the very beginning again.I don’t want have a surgery thats why I am trying do more research this time, thank you very much.You are doing great with your journey big success !!!!!
I am so happy that I found your blog, can you referring one more time fb group about ATR ? Do you think PRP (palettes rich plasma) injections can help with achilles healing ? I re-ruptures Achilles after 16 weeks of healing and this time I am really devastated
Jorge, glad the info was helpful to you. I am hoping your boot walking is going well and your recovery is smooth so far. All the best! And yes, my achilles is still doing great.
Marta,
I am sorry about your re-rupture! I hope your second time around is going to go better! How did you re-rupture, if you do not mind me asking?
Here is the facebook page link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/10320629484/
It is “Achilles Tendon Rupture Group”. It has really been helpful to be in it and to have others to chat with about things during recovery.
As far as PRP, I researched it a lot in my initial weeks of recovery, but because of so many conflicting opinions and research outcomes, I decided not to pursue it, so have no insight on it. Maybe anyone else here had it done?
Good luck with your second time around. Just make sure you get some kind of scan to make sure non-op is still a good option for you (not too large of a gap and that the tendons ends meet when your foot is plantar flexing). On the positive note, at least you now know what to expect. Keep your head up!
Hey Agnes,
I ruptured my Achilles tendon on the Monday before Thanksgiving of 2017. I’ve been in the black boot with wedges, since two days after injury. I’m at 75% weight bearing with crutches, I’ve removed two wedges on the boot so far, but I’m still feeling that bump where the full rupture happened. Is this normal? I chose to treat this non surgically as well.
Hi Justen,
I believe that’s pretty normal. You seem to be doing pretty good for just a short amount of time! I went the surgery route and I have a bump– I think its just the scar tissue. You sound like you are headed towards the right direction! Good luck!
Justen,
You are still very early in your recovery (6.5 weeks?). You will have the bump for quite some time. I definitely had one for a long time and hear many non-op ppl having it too. I just checked my achilles and 1.5 years after rupture, there is still a small bump at the rupture site. I was told by my PT and doc that this is completely normal and, as schwarac said, I was told also that it is scar tissue and also the way tendon rebuilt itself (the collagen that is created at the rupture site). I was told that the tendon will always be little thicker and might have the bump. I would not worry about it, but do ask your doc and PT about it as well. For reference, I have pics of my bump at:
- 5th month: http://achillesblog.com/agnesatr/2016/11/11/month-5/
- 1 year: http://achillesblog.com/agnesatr/2017/06/13/1-year/
You seem to be right on track with your recovery. Wishing you smooth healing.
Thank you both! Just to be clear, by bump, I meant gap. It’s where the rutpure happened. That’s normal, right? Maybe when I said bump, you guys understood me lol
Hi Agnes,
What you have done is so great !!! Congratulations for your contribution to the community with so nice texts and videos.
I unfortunately became an ATR member 8th April 2018.
I live in France and a specialized surgeon decided a percutaneous approach called Tenolig on the 13th April. I see him into 2 days to remove it.
I am looking for a very good center to rehab and hope the heal will come as well as possible
Sorry about your rupture Christophe!! Do spend some time to find a good therapist that understands this injury well and knows about Tenolig recovery protocol. It seems that rehab is a little bit different depending on the type of reconstruction one went through (non-op/spur removal/percutaneous/regular op repair), so it is good to find PT that knows recovery of your specific case! Good luck with your recovery!
Agnes, I don’t know if you will see this, but I would like to thank you so much for this blog. When I ruptured by Achilles one year ago, I had no idea of the year ahead. I went non-op and am doing really well—just a small limp and my foot feels kind of tight, but I am on my way. Your blog helped me so much in the initial days with the casts, boot, shower chair, knee scooter, etc. Hope you are well and again, thank you so much!
Glad to see you are recovering well Maryann and that the blog was helpful. Keep at it with exercises, as it definitely gets better. I am now over 2 years after my rupture and do not really think about achilles, other than I am now more aware of proper calf conditioning, so hang in there!
Olá Agnes, rompi o tendão no dia 8/8/2018, estou em recuperação, no início fiquei bastante angustiado, mas agora estou bem, suas informações são ótimas, estou aproveitando-as, e lhe desejo saúde e felicidades
Hi,
You have done an excellent blog and you tube channel and I can’t thank you enough it has helped me tremendously.
Thank you!
Hey Agnes, I just wanted to know if your tear was partial
Or a complete tear and how far was the gap? Im trying to see if non surgical is even possible for my circumstances.
Hi Agnes,
First, I would like to thank you very much for your blog and your videos, very helpful and inspirational!
On March 29th I partially torn my right Achilles while I was jogging. I chose the non-op route, I had a very fast recovery ‘till now, both PT and orthopaedic were happy.
I’m honestly focusing on my calf muscle right now, I still got no strength enough to do a single calf raise and that’s ok, there’s another thing that is making me crazy: it’s the aesthetic shape.
It’s like… comparing it with my left and non injured side and contracting both calves, if I pass my both index fingers on the start the two gastrocnemiuses, I feel that the starting point of the muscles is the same but the shape of the injured one is different, it’s like it’s shorter that the left. It’s like the skin has changed shape to my eyes, it’s like an optical illusion because the muscle is smaller but I feel it’s maintaining the same pre-injury position. I heard that if you rupture your Achilles, the calf muscle literally jumps up, creating like a “ball” under your lower leg.
But about me, what happened? Is this my case or my calf shape is like that due to the atrophy and will come back to the pre-injury shape with time and training?
Thank you very much,
Giuseppe
Agnes,
Thank you so much for creating these vidoes and this blog. I am 53 and starting week two and doing as much as I can to understand the journey ahead. You’re videos, explanations are simply fantastic and have given me some comfort for the road ahead.
You spoke in your first video about helping just “one” person…I suspect it has been many, many more…
Merci!
Daniel Lussier