Oct
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The Surgery & Beginning Phases of Recovery
October 3, 2014 | |
The next day I went to an urgent care office first thing in the morning to get a doctor’s opinion. The news wasn’t good, as she almost immediately referred me to an orthopedic surgeon and said that I should get in as soon as possible. I visited him that afternoon, and he said that the Achilles was definitely ruptured - no MRI or other looks needed. He recommended that I have surgery right away. Two days later, I had surgery to pull the Achilles back up from the heel and down from the calf, and tie it together in the middle. It was a rather quick procedure and I went back home that evening. I was given some basic instructions on how to start my recovery (keep the leg elevated, don’t get water on the splint, take pain meds, and relax) and I was to come back in a week to have a hard cast put on. It was a difficult week. To begin, our son still wasn’t sleeping well, and my wife was under a lot of pressure to tend to him and me both. Also, the pain was overwhelming at times. Whenever I got up from the couch (to use the bathroom, brush my teeth, just to simply crutch around so I wasn’t in the same motionless position all day) the pain was excruciating. Something about the blood rushing to that area of my leg made it unbearable. I could only be up for 30 or 45 seconds before I had to get back down. The week passed and I was able to get a hard cast put on. The weirdest part about this was seeing the incision for the first time. It felt very strange to have the leg out on its own for a few minutes, and I was thankful to get the hard cast on so that it felt protected. The splint made it seem very vulnerable and this cast was durable. I was told to keep doing the same things as before and to come back in a month to put a walking boot on. I didn’t want to think about that just yet. Sure, I wanted to walk. But, the way my leg felt, I didn’t want to think about walking just yet.
Comments
2 Comments so far
Hi Aaron. I’ve enjoyed reading your blog. You are quite a writer. You leave me wanting to find out what happens next! When did they remove your stitches if they were having you keep the cast on for month? I’m 4 wks post-op and just had my stitches removed last week. I’m currently on cast #2 for another 2 wks.
Hi! I actually did not ever have stitches that needed removed. I’m not sure the exact method that they used, but it was some sort of liquid bandaid/stitches that would remove themselves over time. I was relieved to find out I wouldn’t need stitches pulled out - that sounded very uncomfortable!