bionic’s AchillesBlog

I am not suggesting I was in the same place healthwise as Kobe pre ATR. Nonetheless, has anyone collected any info about Kobe Bryant’s protocol/post surgery steps.

Cast? Boot? PWB? FWB? when? When at what degrees of flexion with his boot? Anyone have pieces of the information? I would like to know what a doc might suggest to a top athlete when there’s $30mill at stake. I know he was in vacocast at some point.

Today is day 16 post surgery (day 18 post rupture). I am concerned about the degrees my boot is set at as of day 15 (10 degrees).

Background

1. Post surgery NWB (even though I was told PWB) and fixed at almost 0 (90) degrees in aircast (one wedge).

2. Day 9- sutures removed - added 3 wedges, so 4 total (rise to 4cm or 1.6 inch at heel). Don’t know how many degrees. Told FWB ok. I am still PWB (@ day 16) and can’t take a step without crutches. Thanks to this website and many of you I ordered vacocast.

3. Day 15 (yesterday) at day 15 changed to vacocast (my insistence and hospital told me to come in to get it fitted). Nurse set at 10 degrees. This feels barely less degrees than the 4 wedges (is it?) but I am not sure what degrees 4 wedges were. It feels ‘ok’, however, it does not seem like a typical course of action to be at 10 degrees on day 15.

Wonderful people and doctors at the ortho dept., however it seemed everyone saw the adjustable vacocast for the first time yesterday.

It was sort of visually adjusted by a nurse to equal the angle of the 4 wedges in the aircast by the nurse. It is fixed at 1.0 or 10 degrees. The doctor did not even make mention of the current degrees nor did he seem to be aware, just said get to 0 in a few weeks.  It feels the same as the aircast angle or just slightly less but far more comfortable (due to vacocast).

What concerns me is the casual nature of the medical guidance. At the 3 points above, I saw 3 different doctors on the ortho team each for max 30 seconds! Nurses did the suture removal , boot fitting and did not offer any insight. I really feel like I’m on my own in this after the surgery with some guidance to simply ensure I will walk again. However, I want to play sports all out again and minimize future problems by paying particular attention to healing.

Is there any protocol that suggest 10 degrees at day 15? Should I put it back to 15 degrees? Will that help or harm? The 10 degrees feels OK, but I don’t think pain is the only guide with a sensitive injury like this. I appreciate any advice, especially any examples or studies indicating moving along in the seemingly accelerated manner I am and returning to high impact sports.  Thank you for any assistance.

The article below is from wiki,  http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weight-bearing. If we use slightly different criteria here please let me know.  I am removing FWB from my status. Docs said I can FWB 6 days ago at my sutures removal appt.  However I’m still using crutches and hard to tell but maybe 30% weight on foot 70% on crutches.

Grade

Non-weight-bearing (NWB): The leg must not touch the floor and is not permitted to support any weight at all.[1] The patient may hop on the other leg or use crutches or other devices for mobility. In this grade, 0% of the body weight may be rested on the leg.

Touch-down weight-bearing or Toe-touch weight-bearing: The foot or toes may touch the floor (such as to maintain balance), but not support any weight.[1] Do not place actual weight on the affected leg. Imagine having an egg underfoot that one is not to crush.

Partial weight-bearing: A small amount of weight may be supported by the affected leg.[1] The weight may be gradually increased up to 50% of the body weight, which would permit the affected person to stand with his body weight evenly supported by both feet (but not to walk).

Weight-bearing as tolerated: Usually assigned to people that can support from 50 to 100% of the body weight on the affected leg, the affected person independently chooses the weight supported by the extremity.[1] The amount tolerated may vary according to the circumstances.

Full weight-bearing: The leg can now carry 100% of the body weight, which permits normal walking.[1]

Me almost 44. Very active, often against younger people. Playing multiple sports weekly for years 1x to 2x a week. Sometimes an injury leads to some rehab and a sport change. Playing touch football June 15th, last game of season complete rupture running to a catch. I felt what I thought was hard hockey stick wack 5 weeks previous playing hockey.. sore achilles but it settled down… in hindsight must have been partial rupture).

Surgery June 17th. In aircast boot (will be ordering vacocast tomorrow) and told to PWB right away! Even had physio at hospital see instructions and try to have me do it morning after surgery. Was hardly able to put foot down for a week, let alone weight bear. Stitches removed day 9 and given heel lifts and casually told FWB is fine!

Still hardly able to PWB and concerned whether I am getting the best advise on how soon I should be weight bearing. I don’t mind pain, but want best recovery. This blog has been great. I’m in major Canadian city with very kind and from what I understand excellent surgeons. However, appreciate if anyone else knows if this kind of early weight bearing is the latest thing or if someone else is also getting similar advise. Ideally wish to return to sport at 100% and want to do the best thing for recovery.

The ‘create blog’ instructions are to come up with a unique title. This one means no disrespect to Kobe Bryant who’s spreading positive energy for healing. What the title does mean is that our achilles is just as important to each one of us as it is to the 30 mill$ man.

Sports is really a dance or art for those of us who love playing and playing all out. This injury seems to cast doubt as to what going 100% might mean. Hence the blog title meant to say each one of us is a superstar in our recovery and the rehab. We do what we can to never let doubt get in the way of optimism. That is all part of the same sport spirit as competing all out. It may mean that in the time we are not running down a field or gym, we are giving our sport spirit to some humane cause.

Ironically, it’s the same positive spirit that Kobe has, but for now it’s ‘Kobe Who’….cause each one of us has to be our own tough $30 mill athlete and superstar in our rehab and however we handle life afterward.

–ok was trying to get rid of the "Hello World" and thought I was giving the blog a title. I guess not, I’m just giving the post a title….well read the above and imagine as if I was giving the blog a title.