OK - So I’ve been doing well in my recovery (I think). But I had a question for everyone. The day after I had surgery, I was scooting myself up a flight of stairs on my bum. I had my injured, soft-casted leg and newly repaired Achilles out in front of me as I went up the stairs, and my injured knee swung in the air from side-to-side as I struggled up the steps. My foot swung rather loosely (not violently at all) as a result, and I felt an intense burning pain and I swear I felt a little bit of a tear in my leg. I gathered myself on the landing and felt intense burning in my leg ONLY for a few seconds. The burn went away and I felt only the dull pain that I experienced all day that came from the surgery the day before. I was told the day after surgery would be the worst, and any type of movement around the area would cause intense pain…which I think I experienced.
I had a follow-up appointment with the doctor last week. They squeezed my calf and did a few more basic tests and told me everything was together and healing nicely. But was that “tear” I felt anything? I honestly forgot about what I did on the stairs when I was at the doc last week, but a day later I thought about it and had a dream about it last night. I can’t tell if I’m psyching myself out after reading a few things about re-ruptures on here. Am I looking too much into this? I have not been PWB let alone FWB on my repaired leg yet, have not experienced any pain since that day after surgery, and there was no swelling and no bruising at the time of my last appointment.
For those who’re experienced with re-ruptures or with strength of Achilles repair, is this anything to be concerned about?
3 responses so far ↓
Janus // Apr 4th 2012 at 8:01 pm
Not qualified to answer, but it seems doubtful you put enough stress on it to re-rupture it.
At the stage you’re talking about, any sort of bumping the foot or suddenly moving it can send those pain waves.
Finally, if your Doc gave you the Thompson test (by squeezing the calf) and it was positive, you’re likely still good. The problem would have shown up later — at your appointment. Not necessarily at the moment of your injury while your leg was still in the split: with the ankle in fact unable to move very far, and so likely unable to put any significant load on the tendon.
I’d bet strongly against a re-rupture. But I will say that pain you describe I’ve also felt — and it is not trivial.
Courtney // Apr 5th 2012 at 12:40 am
I had a spasm in my sleep a few nights after surgery that literally woke me out of a deep sleep. I was so worried that I had re-injured the Achilles. Even though the pain was intense, my doc assured me that it really hard to re-injure when you are protected in the splint. I think injuries occur out of the splint or out of the the boot when you step wrong on a curb or overdue PT when not in a boot. Just my .02 but I was relieved to hear that from my doc. Hope that helps. I think you are okay.
gkraemer14 // Apr 17th 2012 at 9:27 am
Matt. I just stumbled across your blog because I was looking for someone about my age to commiserate with. By this time you’ve hopefully determined that your repair didn’t fail and I certainly hope you’re doing well in your recovery. I just thought I’d chime in because I think I know what you’re referring to as I had a similar scare. I was lowering myself to sit in my recliner and got an intense “burn” that shot down the posterior-medial side of my leg all the way through my foot. I’ve come to the conclusion that I had (and still have a little) some pretty significant irritation and/or entrapment of my tibial nerve somewhere around the repair site. My heel is still numb on the posterior side and I get occasional pain on the medial aspect of my heel as well, consistent with the tibial nerve distribution. This has gotten much better since surgery. Originally I couldn’t extend my knee as it put too much tension on the nerve and caused me quite a bit of pain. Don’t forget that the gastroc crosses the knee joint as well and they stretched the heck out of that baby during the repair. Courtney makes a valid point. I’ll check in on you again soon. Hope you’re doing well. -Greg
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