24th August 2010 arrived in Italy from the uk for a 10 day holiday in the sun. After a few glasses of wine decided to do some skipping, don’t ask me why it just seemed the right thing to do at the time. After a few minutes I felt something hit the back of my left calf. I of course looked round and could see nothing, I then placed my left foot on the floor and fell over my AT had ruptured, nice. As I was the only driver we had to call an Ambulance to take to the Hospital. Via ultrasound they diagnosed a partial ATR and that it would need surgery which they would be able to do on the 26th Aug. I was given a nerve block injection for the surgery which went very well. I was put into a slab and told to keep my foot raised and not to put any weight on the leg for two months. They also said I would need to keep the large slab on for 1 month and then go to a smaller pot for the 2nd month. I also had to inject myself with a drug called nexafarin to prevent a deep vein thrombosis I had to do this for thirty days. They told me there is a less than one percent chance of a DVT occurring. On my return to the UK I had an appointment with an Orthopeadic surgeon. This was two weeks post op. He removed the slab and put me in an Aircast boot with five heel wedges the stitches were also removed from the incision which is about eight inches (20cm)long. In contradiction to the Italian protocol. He told me to go full weight bearing and to remove one wedge per week which I did with no problems. On my next appointment 6 weeks post op I was down to a single wedge. Today is 7 weeks post op and I have removed the last wedge. Next week if all goes to plan I can remove the boot and start to walk in normal shoes I am also due to start PT. Sorry this has been so long but I am starting from week 7 my future blogs will be much shorter. If you’ve just ruptured your AT the road to recovery is patience with a capital P. Don’t rush things let nature take it’s course, your body will heal given time.
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