bobfv’s AchillesBlog

Hi everyone - I have had quite a bit of progress and passed several milestones since my last post and I wanted to share that information with you!

First off, physical therapy is invaluable - get yourself a therapist you are comfortable with and go and work hard! My therapist Chris is fantastic. He showed me how to ensure I was getting muscle activation when doing my exercises. As my strength has increased he has had me up on my toes, and on the leg press machine doing eccentric strengthening. I have been doing daily cardio at the gym and repeating the leg exercises every other day.

The first milestone of the week came Monday, August 31. I went to the gym and got on to the elliptical trainer and I had a great, 30 minute workout with no pain or swelling in my ankle. Up until Monday I had only been doing the exercise bike for cardio, but adding the elliptical is already making me feel better. I was sore in the evening just because my hips and quads have not been worked out like that in some time, but I will take it slow and get back in to it, alternating bike and elliptical days.

The second milestone came on Tuesday, September 1 - my temporary disabled parking permit expired! I am sad and happy at the same time - much more happy than sad because I don’t need it any more. Obviously - the convenience factor was nice, but thank God I can walk again and I hope I never need one of those passes again.

The third milestone was on Wednesday, September 2 - 15 weeks to the day since my Achilles Tendon Repair surgery! Feeling better every day - no pain and little soreness!

The fourth milestone, like the second, is also bittersweet. Today September 3 I had my last PT session and was officially discharged from PT. It was a great session, about an hour and 15 minutes and I did all my exercises. At the end, my therapist Chris gave me lots of advice for what to do going forward. He had me do some little plyometric hops on both feet which I should continue to do as I can tolerate it, and he showed me how to do planks and lunges on my toes without stressing or hyperextending the Achilles tendon.

I am so pleased with the progress, with the progressive, early weight bearing approach by my surgeon, with the support of my family (especially my sweet wife who drove me around for 2 months!), and the fantastic care I received at physical therapy and Town Center Orthopeadics in Reston, Virginia. I realize I still need to continue to work on healing and to watch myself, but I have a big goal to run the Army Ten Miler road race here in DC a year from now, just as I did a year ago, and several years previously.

Another thing I want to call out are Skechers Shape-up Comfort Walker shoes. These shoes are magic - when I wear them I do not limp and I took my dogs for 3 and 4 mile walks in them this past weekend. Buy them on Amazon or from the Skechers web site - about a hundred dollars very well spent!

Best of luck to you all on your recovery journeys. If you want to discuss any aspect of my recovery journey I am happy to help if I can - Email me at BobFV@aol.com .