beginnersmind19’s AchillesBlog

beginnersmind19 : Thanks for all of the information regarding your process. Glad to hear that you are on your way to recovery and the pain is becoming more manageable.

I talked with my surgeon and anesthesiologist over the past few days. They both think there is some form of nerve damage (obviously, ha) and while the anesthesiologist recommends I go see a neurologist for testing, the surgeon wants me to wait a few more weeks to see if things subside on their own. He also gave me some ____ to help with pain, but it hasn’t helped much yet.

The pain is mostly on the top/bottom of my toes and bottom of my foot. Mostly a steady burn but then sharp pains shoot off pretty frequently. I do have great motion in my toes and ankle which I see is a good sign. Just trying to manage pain.

Tomorrow is 7 weeks post op, so hoping by the end of March I am noticing more improvement. Thanks again for sharing your story, glad to know I am not the only one dealing with something like this (although I am sorry that you are too, it is definitely a struggle at times). I look forward to tracking your progress, both with the nueropathy and the achil

Hi indigobc - first off I am so sorry you are dealing with the nerve pain. I wish you nothing but strength. Good news - I am at 9.5 weeks and my nerve pain has been reduced to a 4/5 on average with peaks of 6/7 (out of 10). I am not sure if it is the natural healing process or a combination of things, but I have done 3 low dose Ketamine infusions along with aggressive physical therapy starting at week 7. If you would like to know more about the Ketamine infusions let me know, it is hard for me to tell if it is truly helping me but its part of a combination of therapies that has worked for me. I truly hope you feel better ASAP!

Couple points of advice: Stay as positive as possible! Talk to yourself, repeat positive mantra’s. Get into a mindset that what you are experiencing is not necessarily pain. It is painful but think of it more as just an experience. Your foot feels funny, it’s acting up, it’s trying to test you, but it’s not pain. I know it may sound silly, and when the pain is so damn real (I get it, I was there) it sounds even more silly, but again it was another one of a group of therapies that is doing the trick for my hea

beginnersmind19- I am curious how your recovery is going. I am at week 6 post op and have had almost an identical struggle. First few weeks was tingling like my foot was asleep, and then came some burning in my toes for a week, and now the past week has been nothing but constant shooting pains in my toes and bottom of my foot. It is unbearable at times, especially at night. My surgeon didn’t seem too concerned when I saw him last week, but it has also gotten much much worse since then. I emailed him over the weekend so hope to hear back soon. Please update me with your process as I too hope I am almost through the worst of it, hopefully!
Thanks!

So it turns out that the anasthesiologist hit my nerve during the popliteal nerve block (behind the knee). The pain I had behind my knee after surgery is now explained. My sore calf is also a result of this. Good news is I should recover, bad news is it could take weeks to up to 6 months and I will have to deal with this most delibilatating constant pain. Hit a new low (new high for pain) last night. So hard to get through.

cserpent - thanks for sharing. Glad she get’s some relief from it.

kamueller - I cannot believe you went through that pain and your doctor wouldn’t prescribe you anything! I don’t know how severe your burning pains were, but this is the most painful and debilitating thing I have ever experienced in my life. As a 31 yo grown man, the last time I cried was when I signed my first overseas contract at 24 because I worked so hard for it. Well I have cried on 3 seperate occasions from this pain, from feeling helpless and overwhelmed.

Happy to hear it passed for you at 8 weeks! Since my nerve injury was not from the surgery I am having the burning in my toes and sole of foot from the tibial nerve which is not

My nerve block also took a long time to wear off and I barely slept from weeks 4-7 post op. Had the shooting and burning pains. My doctor just kept telling me to take Advil and Tylenol and wouldn’t prescribe anything else. He just reassured me that it should pass, but if it hadn’t at three months, he would schedule some testing. He was right. It passed and by 8 weeks post op, the nerve had calmed down and I was sleeping again.

I still have numbness right around the ankle bone, but the pain has been long gone. Nerves take a very long time to grow back. But I know what you’re going through. I did a lot of researching during that time on nerve damage. The only thing that did seem to help was attaching the pad of my circulating ice cooler to a foot pillow and ran the cooler while I slept. Keeping it cold helped alleviate the pain to some degree.

She gets both pains. Since the nerve damage happened before she got her vertebra fused she has it all the time and neurontin keeps it manageable. I hope it starts calming down both the nerve pains for you!

sharkmork - thank you much. I am so happy to hear you are sleeping better! It’s really immeasurable how much impact the sleeping problems have on my system in general. Makes me realize I was a pretty decent sleeper before all this, look forward to getting it back and my circadian rhythm etc..

cserpent - they did end up giving me Neurontin today. Took first dose at 7:15pm, got drowsy around 10pm. Slept until 2:30am waking up every hour or so. Not too bad. Been awake since, it is 5:10am my time as I write this. Did not help with the nerve pain however, but will give it a week or so to see if it helps. Got nothing to lose at this point, as all doctors and research indicate that it’s a waiting game with the nerves…

Do you know what kind of nerve pain your mom was getting? I feel like I am noticing a difference between the shooting pain and burning pain. The shooting pain seems to be helped by the meds a bit, but the burning pain does not..

I hope you get something for the pain. Neurontin may be the best bet since it is for nerve issues. My mom takes it daily due to nerve damage from disintegrating disks in her back. It doesn’t make her feel like crap and she’s 80. But, as I know, everyone reacts differently to meds. If it allows you to sleep that alone should make you feel a lot better. I know I was miserable when I couldn’t sleep because of the cast and then my night boot.

I can feel for you not getting any sleep. I also wasn’t getting any sleep the last week with the cast due to itch and pain. Cast was just removed last Fri (5 1/2 weeks post-op) and found out that my leg is full of blisters and it was the cause of itch and pain. Dermatologist prescribe some Triamcinolone cream and it helps a lot. But leg will be disgusting look for a few weeks and itch like hell but pain is gone. I need to bandaged lay leg to go to sleep, if not I’ll be scratching. But I was finally able to sleep, what a releif.
I wish you luck in getting releif on you symptoms and get a good night of sleep.

Ak1986 - I am sleeping without the boot for the past 1.5 weeks per the doctor. But it hasn’t given me any relief. It’s funny, my toes are so senstitive the boot feels like hot shattered glass. Even with a sock on, still happens. Same feeling if I reach down and massage my toes, but I bite a pillow and do it anyway because the stimulation is supposed to help heal/reeducate the nerves.

Athletes foot huh? I’ll tell you what, the sole of my foot and toes are dry and slightly peeling in an area or two. I also feel uncomforable tension in the ligament running from my big toe through the arch of my foot. Don’t know if those symptoms relate..

So when did you start sleeping without the boot and that is the point your burning and throbbing went away?

I am going into ortho at 1:00pm today my time, about an hour from now. Don’t have an appointment but surgeon told me over the phone last week if it doesn’t get better to just come in monday at 1:30. Let’s see what happens.

I have a few goals for this visit:
1. Get imaging done for two things: Check for DVT and to make sure tendon is healing well, and the rest of the muscles in my l

Are you sleeping in the boot? I am about 8.5 weeks post op from surgery. During weeks 2-4 post op I had terrible burning and throbbing in my toes and top of foot. At that point, the doctor was requiring me to sleep in the boot. I was only getting maybe an hour or two of sleep at a time. My husband and I were brainstorming ideas of what to do for relief. He thought my symptoms sounded a lot like when he gets athletes foot. I ended up getting some gold bond powder. That helped take the edge off, but ultimately soon as I could sleep without the boot the burning and throbbing pain went away for me.

I don’t know if our symptoms are 100% similar since you had those issues with the nerve block. I still have decreased sensation at the base of my big toe and heel. It used to be my whole big toe and lateral side of my foot but that seemed to have gotten better for the past few weeks.

Honestly, if it’s driving you that nuts and you are not getting sleep, it doesn’t hurt to call your doctor’s office or go to urgent care.

Good luck on the recovery Paul! I’m also with Kaiser and I have the same PT person for every visit. I’m in San Diego. I even used the same PT person for both feet - 1.5 years apart. If you want to go to the same PT person ask them if you can. You have to advocate for yourself at Kaiser (well actually you have to do that with any medical group) but if you’re pushy enough you can generally get what you want. I started using the rowing machine (1 footed) at the 4 week mark which was when I could stop elevating 90% of the time. I don’t recall any calf soreness but I had bone spur surgery.

serpent - don’t worry, I think this process will make us all a bit silly and that’s okay. I am sure there is some urge inside to get rid of all those things once we are feeling well again, even if just for the sentimental value of moving on!

I got the even-ups as well, going to use a shoe that along with the even-up, will “even” me up as closely as possible.

kamueller - Looks like these nerve issues are part of the game with this injury. The surgeon just messaged me saying he cannot predict accurately when it will wear off but could take 6-8 weeks or longer sometimes. Since you experienced similar I am going to expect that to happen but we will see.

Appreciate the sound advice, I understand this is going to be a slow and long process and I am just fine with that. I don’t care to get back in a certain time frame or rush anything, I just want to get it right and ask all the questions I can to avoid missing something critical.

Weekly goals it is, great idea

At 6 weeks, the numbness was the entire outside of my foot and across the front. I had the pins and needles and random shooting pains. As the weeks passed, the pain subsided and the area of numbness decreased. Now at 12 weeks, I’m still numb around my ankle bone.

It hasn’t affected my rehab at all. It feels odd (like there’s extra scar tissue in there), but I’m still gaining strength and flexibility every day. Both my plantar flexion and dorsiflexion are close to normal.I can balance on my bad leg for at least 20 seconds and I can weakly do double leg toe raises.

Just keep the ROM exercises light in the first few weeks. Just move it around as much as it allows. The numbness will most likely will have subsided by then, but even if it hasn’t, just keep it light. Unfortunately, this injury requires patience and time. As much as I wanted to push it (and I dd as much as I could), I was forced to realize that it just takes time. I made new goals each week, like be able to move a certain way or go up the stairs, or whatever. So keep your weekly goals small so you can focus on the incremental progress. Plus, the early weightbearing w

If I still had the black boot I would have started using it - LOL! However I donated it to a group that recycles used or new discarded medical items in both the US and in other parts of the world. It only took me a year to find someone to donate all my things too (except the knee scooter). Silly me I figured it would be at least a year, if not more, before I had the surgery on my left foot. Wrong! I even donated my even ups - oh yeah - if you don’t have even ups order those for when you start walking in the boot. You want the good leg to be at the same height as the boot leg so you don’t give yourself hip issues as well. I doubt you have small feet or I would send my even ups to you. I have size 7 womens feet When I ordered them again for the left foot surgery amazon sent 2 pair … and I only need one out of the pair.

I do hope the numbness goes away sooner rather than later! I do recall shooting pains just under my ankle with my right foot. My doc said that was the nerve healing. Haven’t had that withh my left foot but it is providing many other challenges so I’m happy not having nerve pain to deal with as wel

kamueler: interesting and sorry you had to deal with that. It seems like I am in the same boat and it’s freaking me out too. I can move everything, but my entire leg, foot, and toes are numb in general. Some pins and needles feeling in the toes and sole of foot. I began getting the shooting sensations the last few nights and it sucks. It wakes me up in pain every single time.

Since your doctor said it will wear off and mine said the same, I will take solace in your experience, hoping it will wear off just the same for me.

So if I understood you correctly, you still had numbness at your 6 week post op and it took a few more weeks after that to wear off??

Did the numbness affect your rehabilitation at all? I am supposed to begin toe curls and light ROM at week 3 but I am afraid with the numbness I won’t know how much I am pushing it and if the tendon/leg is getting overworked..

I don’t feel pain or touch, haven’t since the surgery, I am simply numb. It’s crazy.

beginnersmind19: The block itself wore off after three days, so I started feeling the pain from the surgery. But the numbness lasted a long time. The block went in at the knee like yours. The numbness ran all the way down my leg to my pinkie toe. I don’t know how long the numbness lasted in my leg, as it was just along the area where the nerve ran. I noticed it the most in my foot as I was only able to wiggle four out of five toes. So there were times in the first couple of weeks that I ran my hand down my leg and felt numbness, but the lack of sensation in my toe really freaked me out. I was still freaked out at my 6 week post op. Major numbness and the shooting sensations that had me googling nerve damage and nerve pain meds. But, over the next few weeks, the affected area has subsided and I no longer have any pain from it. So wait a few weeks. My doctor told me it would improve, and it did. The nerve regrowth is just really slow, as it everything it seems with this injury.

cserpent - you are so kind, if I didn’t have the vacoped coming I would totally accept the offer. I’ll take a rain check for a future favor though, LOL!

That’s funny, you tell them. So did you go back to using the black boot from your first surgery afterall?

I will definitely use those suggestions once I transition to shoes (hopefully they give me great heel lifts and I won’t have to improvise too much).

junebug - Hi and thank you! Glad I found you guys as well. I read through most of your blog, you and cserpent had the same Haglund’s procedure done huh? It’s great you have each other to talk to about it.

I am all ears, I have already done some gentle massage since I read cserpents comment earlier and it feels good. It has already helped get the blood flowing, let’s see if it helps the numbness.

As for the sloped heels, luckily with the vacoped I won’t need any heel lifts at all. My surgeon already instructed me to lock it at 25 degrees at the 2 week mark which is the day after it arrives and drop 5 degrees per week until I am neutral at week 6. So I am looking forward to that very much.

Thanks for the offer to

Hey Paul! Welcome! Although no one is super excited to be a member of this club we’re glad you found us. Listen to cserpent….keep positive, do the exercises you can, ice and elevate. I also second the gentle massage. This has helped me a lot. Not only to break up the scar tissue of the incision but I think it’s bringing back the feeling in the parts of my foot that are still numb. There are times when I think that certain parts of the heel might just stay numb, and I’m okay with that. But I think over time most of it will recede.

I also think you should get better (sloped) heel lifts if you can. That seems like it would make a big difference. Mine were three stacked, kind of cloth/wool material and sloped. It made it easier to remove one every three weeks. I wish I could send you mine, but they’re kind of icky at this point.

I’m not a doctor, but I don’t think you have anything to worry about with the nerve block. I think eventually it will wear off…just be patient. You’re just that one special person!! Hang in there and stay strong.

Well that stinks that they didn’t give you sloping heel lifts! I did get sloping heel lifts with this newer boot (and the doc and techs were so excited that they had this “new” boot - LOL! they were a bit bummed when I told them I liked the other one better - hahahaha!) but they were still very uncomfortable. I was also given some heel lifts for my transition to shoes (these were made out of wool I think) and I got a bunch of different sizes so I used those in my boot and then in my shoes. From what I hear about the vacoped you will be more comfortable in that. I don’t know if your heel lifts can be cut but if so then see if you can modify them yourself - LOL! I even used some pretty solid packing material (like a styrofoam but more solid) to fashion heel lifts for my croc so I could use it when I showered. If you didn’t have a vacoped on the way I would mail you the lifts that came with my boot

I doubt the norco slowed down the wearing off of the nerve block. I do recommend doing some gentle massage. Once the incision is all healed you can do more vigorous massage. Since you can’t move the foot much yet the massage w

Hey kamueller - good to know! Not that you still have numbness of course but that the majority of it wore off.

Can you share where they gave you the nerve block?
For me they performed the local anesthetic above the knee so that I was numb from the knee down. Like you, my surgeon explained that the Sural Nerve that runs along the achilles tendon can get irritated from injury and/or surgery and cause these symptoms on the lateral half of the foot. Good thing is, he assured me that it did not have any damage and he physically examined the nerve during surgery to see that it was in tact and healthy. In fact I have more sensation on that area than the rest of the leg.

My numbness at this time is strictly from the nerve block, so from my knee down to my toes is numb.
Did you have something similar done? Did it take a week to get the knee and leg sensation back or was it just your foot?

Good news is I got an email response from the anesthesiologist this morning and he assured me again that it is nothing serious. He spoke to my surgeon this morning and they both feel I am recovering very well and that it is likely my metabolism

Hi Paul,

My nerve block lasted a long time as well. It seemed like it was at least week before I felt anything. I’m currently at week 12 and I’m still numb right around the outside of my ankle. For the first few weeks, it was most of my foot, then just the outside down to my pinky toe. The numbed area gradually receded over time, but not before I had a range of strange sensations that kept me up at night for several weeks. I was very concerned (more like panicked), and I couldn’t get any relief from the nerve pain outside of hydorcodone, which I refused to take. I was told that the nerve that runs along the tendon was probably damaged during surgery and it grows back at 2mm a month.

My suggestion is to wait a few weeks to see if the numbed area gets smaller over time. It probably will.

Hi cserpent! Thank you for replying. I read through much of your blog, you are so strong and positive to go through this (or rather the bone spur removal) twice.

Noticed you comment that you got that small bump figured out, crazy to think it was a bone fragment that didn’t get washed away. I suppose, just like my nerve block not wearing off, that anything can happen when having surgery.

It is interesting you mentioned the hydrocodone, last Monday I felt the very first indication that the block began to wear off in that I was able to very slightly move my toes. With that came some pain so that day I took a few of the Norco’s they prescribed me. After that day the block stopped wearing off, it was still just my toes that could move. Do you think the Norco’s I took that day could have an effect on the block and make it last longer?

My biggest concern is that I am on day 9 and still numb. I can’t seem to find anyone on here, or anywhere online really, of somebody having a nerve block last this long. It is really starting to worry me. I emailed the anesthesiologist again this morning so I hope to receive some answers.

I beli

I did feel the nerve block when I had my right foot surgery (bone spur removal) in 2017 and it wore off in about 3 days. This time around (left foot bone spur removal 8/2018) if I had a nerve block I didn’t ever feel it. The only difference for me was that I am now on a vegan diet. My diet change did have a BIG affect on how long hydrocodone stayed in my system. I was having nausea for it for 2 weeks after I stopped taking it. I had no problems like that for my right foot. So different people can definitely react differently to the various drugs that go into your system during and after surgery.

I’m with Kaiser as well (southern California) and am quite pleased with my doctor and actually didn’t like the boot I got from them this time (a grey one, a lot of plastic). My doc thought it was a better boot but I preferred the old black one I got in 2017 since it didn’t have any hard plastic on the outside that would stab and scratch my other leg - LOL! And the black boot was all fabric so it breathed much better. It was more comfortable But I also insisted that they give me something different to wear at night since I c