Week 17 post op and feeling lost
Hello I am currently experiencing pain on the medial and lateral sides a little above my heel. I am guessing I over did it a bit doing my own rehab during week 15.
I was told by a PT to use an elliptical machine at a steady pace for about 10 mins. Instead I did 22mins bcuz I felt good and thought I could do more. After I got off the machine I felt fine so I did some balance exercises on the Bosu ball. I felt good so I tried it. Then the next day I unfortunately did a lot of walking. The city I live in requires walking to get around and I needed to get stuff done. I had swelling for the next few days and then the swelling went away.
The next week I used my crutches again and completely rested my foot. Now it’s week 17 and my foot felt better. I can do calf raises exercises with no pain, but I think when I do rotational work like or Bosu ball stuff a slight pain comes back.
I am really sorry if this information is too long and maybe difficult to understand. I just want to get healthy again and I am actually going through the rehab process alone. I hope someone can give me solid advice. 
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I’m not at your stage yet in this but have had other surgeries. It’s always “two steps forward, one step back” at the beginning and they say to expect a year to get back to pre-surgery status. What does your PT say?
Hi, I am 13 weeks post-op and not quite up to the elliptical machine but about 10 days ago, in the autumn sunshine, I decided to go for a walk round one of the local villages - one steep descent walking downhill then coming back equally steep uphill. Had boot & 1 crutch for support, felt OK, continued walking on level ground for 30 min or so. The next day I had excruciating pain in the calves on both sides of the leg - it kind of reassured me that the good leg hurt as well, and that this was a symptom of having done too much after not really doing anything up or downhill. For a whole week I had to be back to crutches even in the house, as the slightest pressure on the tendon was bad. Then back to one crutch, then none. It’s only yesterday - nearly 10 days after that stupid walk - that i felt back to where I was! It is quite dispiriting but as my consultant said “be patient, this is one injury you cannot hurry along”. So lesson learned, no long uphill walks for a while, just baby steps if I need to go uphill at all (as this places less stress on the tendon), and I am working on building strength with ankle resistance movements, going from sitting down to standing up barefoot & in shoes, and using a stationary bike to get the muscles going. I think even as you gain strength you have to continue to listen to your body - if you have lots of errands to run in your town can you get someone to help you or take at least a crutch for support. Good luck.
I am now at week 21 recovery post op. and also hit pain low in my heel (medial achilles insertion) around the 17 week mark. I had a very good physio who stated scar tissue could be the cause, I had another dose of shockwave therapy on the area and all been good. Keep your chin up, balance discs place a lot of pressure on the insertion of the achilles. Since the therapy I am back up to speed on 4 mile runs nromal gait 3 times a week at 10min/mile pace and coming down quickly. Hope you are sorted ASAP.
My blog, on an early page, tells the story of my one-MONTH setback in the recovery from my first (pre-blog) ATR. My keyword for everybody is INCREMENTALISM! Don’t stop progressing, and listening to your body. But that’s not enough to avoid serious setbacks. In addition, get very nervous whenever you do anything unlike what you’ve done (& survived) at least a couple of days ago.
Many overuse problems take hours or more to show up, and you feel fine while doing the damage. I was proud that I could multiple 1-leg heel raises on the first day I could walk barefoot “perfectly”, without the dip-limp at the end of my stride. But I was as dumb as a post to do it, and I paid the price of a month of pain (at the back of my heel, insertion point) back in my boot. I wasn’t nervous enough.