andreea’s AchillesBlog

Dear fellow achilles-rupture-sufferers,
This is a question rather than a post - anyone know of good useful poses while still recovering from the tendon rupture? I am a great fan of yoga and used to doing it every morning. Needless to say, I can’t do the salute to the sun anymore now and I miss it. I come out of the boot on Monday which might make it easier to do yoga, but also a bit more scary without the support.
I heard from the physio (over the phone while making the first appointment for next week) that balancing on one leg is out (dough!) so no tree-poses for me.
Any advice from yogis out there?
Thanks

Here I am walking in our little Reading flat.

I have not written before because I could not bring myself to - so this blog starts (officially) a little late in the piece. Following my rupture, I had surgery and went through a 2-week period in a hard old-fashionable cast. Following this, I was in an aircast boot, non-weight-bearing (NWB) for another 3 weeks after which I was allowed to slowly start putting weight on it. It took a week for me to be able to hobble around the house without crutches. And what a moment that was! My first cup of coffee, made and carried by me!!!

So here I am in a my walking aircast boot, able to walk around the flat and the office and cook, clean and even bathe on my own, 3 weeks on. I have been blessed with a lot of help from my partner and my work colleagues. Being a cripple, you learn where the cripple-friendly restaurants are, if your local movie theater has a good working lift and friendly stuff (NOT the Reading Vue Cinema I am afraid, do avoid it if you are in the area), if the local cafes are helpful and understanding to your condition (yey for the Nero Cafe by the River in Reading).

You also learn who your friends are, the people who email and see you regularly and who make an effort to be supportive. It is an eye-opener and, as the cliche goes, it is not always the ones you expect. Most people are quite shocked when they realise just how little you can do while in a cast and how limited your life becomes.
Unfortunately, it is not as easy as trying to focus on something else, particularly during the non-weight bearing phase when you have to be completely focused on the leg so as not to put it on the ground and re-rupture it.

Things get easier practically & mentally from then on. I have had a great help during this troublesome time as I read on a blog about leg caddies as an alternative to crutches. If you live in the UK, you can rent them from Chris’s website (see a picture of me on it below). here .

If you are in the US, there are more options, just search for them on the internet.

It gets better once you become fully weight-bearing, even though it’s shocking at first just how hard everything is.