More Info and Comments
August 4, 2012 by carissa321
I guess I missed saying … I was put in a cast immediately, then received a new cast a week later (because the first one was really loose and was causing me lots of pain). I LOVED my new cast … but three days later, I had my “real” first appointment and the cast was taken off and I was put in an AirCast with 3 heel lifts. I’m to take 1 out every 2 weeks and go back for my second appointment in 6 more weeks. I’m also PWB 20-30 pounds for the next 6 weeks.
Thank you to everyone for the encouraging words! I don’t know what I would do wsithout this site … reading all the info and all the blogs.
Oh and yes, it was a rupture … not sure how much of a rupture or where exactly it is though .. they said that they can feel, see and do the squeeze test to confirm that it is a rupture and no need to do any other tests.
The only thing that I went to sleep worrying about last night was … what happens if I go back in 6 weeks and there is no progress? is that something that happens a lot? or am I just being a worrier? (one of my New Year’s resolutions was to stop worrying so much … guess I should now too, eh?)
As for sitting around .. I love to knit, crochet, quilt, sew, stitch, read, watch tv and movies … so I have TONS to keep me occupied. It is hard being a housewife/stay-at-home-mom and not being able to do all of my regular stuff .. but the husband and 18yo son are doing just fine. And we’re hiring a housekeeper … because, let’s face it, they don’t love cleaning the house and I like it nice and clean 
A little more of my history … about 8 years ago I went through a depression and was put on a medication that caused me to gain 40 pounds. I’ve never been an overweight person, so this was a little hard to handle. I went on Weight Watchers, changed meds, and lost all 40 pounds. Then about 6 years ago, we had a family tradegy and I ended up gaining it all back plus 10 more. I basically gave up and resigned myself to the fact that I was going to be overweight for the rest of my life. Fast forward to a year ago and I started thinking about loosing weight again, making little changes in my diet and getting a little bit more activity in my life. Then, February of this year, I had the worse case of the flu that I have ever had in my life … lost 10 pounds in a week! When I was better, I decided not to let this opportunity go by and keep loosing weight. I became WAY more active than I’ve ever been in my life. At the time of my injury, I was biking 12-20 miles a day (1 - 1.5 hours on a local pathway system with lots of hills and some off path mountain biking), walking/running daily, swimming three times a week, long-boarding (just learning), yoga twice a week, and weight lifting three times a week. By the time of my injury, I had lost 35 pounds total. And now … FULL STOP. ugh! I am watching what I eat, counting calories and being really really careful. I DO NOT want this injury to cause me to gain all that weight back again. I won’t let it. So .. this is the reason for the PT question.
But, if I can’t do PT right now … what are some exercises that I can do with my other leg, core and arms that won’t affect my injury? or should I just relax and give it a few more weeks before I start trying to do things? I have lost another 5 pounds in the last 11 days .. but I’m guessing most of that is the muscle that I was building prior to the injury 
My goal weight is another 30 pounds and then on to maintaining that for the rest of my life.
Thanks everyone!! you all made my day with your comments. It’s really nice to hear from other people that are going through or have gone through the same thing
Got it now, Carissa! Nice story, pity about the ATR!
In addition to what you’re already doing, you can (a) do gentle ankle and AT exercises — I’d start gradually catching up to the schedule in bit.ly/UWOProtocol — and (b) do any other exercises, for the rest of your body and your cardio, that don’t put any stress or “load” on your calf and AT. Once you can handle the PWB load on your booted heal, you can even start cranking on an exercise bike. For sure, you can do things like lie on your back and pedal an imaginary bike, and many other fast movements that don’t load your healing AT. (I think RyanB and Doug53 both describe a number of AT-friendly exercises on their blogs.) As your WB level increases (in the boot), lots more “normal” exercises will become available.
Your prescribed protocol is interesting, and a bit quirky AFAICS. If I were you, I would read the UWO protocol carefully and try not to stray too far from it, unless your Docs produce some evidence that indicates that their way produces results as good as, or better than, UWO’s. (I think one of the co-authors of the UWO study — I think it’s Dr. Mohtadi — is working in Calgary, so it’s conceivable that they DO have some evidence!)
Being PWB before 2 weeks is more aggressive than the UWO protocol, but being “PWB 20-30 pounds for the next 6 weeks” is way slower, and a much bigger personal nuisance, too. UWO starts “FWB as tolerated” at 4 weeks, and I’ve never seen any evidence that going slower with FWB helps, especially non-op. (One of the main differences between the new low-rerupture-rate non-op protocols and the old high-rerupture-rate “conservative casting” approach is the early introduction of WB.) Again, if this long delay for FWB is based on some new unpublished randomized trial, then maybe it’s worth following it, but if — like most ATR rehab quirks — it’s just what one quirky Doc considers “about right”, then I say to Heck with it!
It helps a lot with ATR rehab (IMO) to be your own “patient advocate” and challenge your Docs to defend their approach, whenever it doesn’t follow the best Evidence-Based Medicine (which is +/- UWO, AFAIK).
Good luck with all of it.
BTW, your fear that the miracle of healing will pass you by is almost universal in this club. If somebody comes up with an MRI or ultrasound app for a smart-phone, I think most of us will use it a few times a day “just to check that everything’s OK”. (Ever hear the joke about the farmer who kept uprooting the carrots to make sure they were growing well?) With or without surgery, almost all of the recovery from an ATR happens because of healing, and that miracle is pretty well spread across the population. If you’re going to be grateful about something, that’s one of my first choices.
Thank you so much for the input! wow! you are a treasure trove of information.
My Dr. mentioned the study done by Dr. Mohtadi, didn’t know it was the same one as the UWO. I’ll take a closer look at it and see if I can catch up .. I do agree that we need to be our own advocates in this process. Seeing as I won’t be seeing the Dr. for another six weeks, I may be making some of my own decisions and going a bit quicker than they told me.
I do have a recumbent stationary bike and the BowFlex Revolutions .. problem is, they’re both in the basement and there are no handrails .. guess that’ll go on the husband’s to-do list
In the meantime, I’ll check out the other members you mentioned.
Haha, never heard the one about the carrot and the farmer .. that’s me to a “T”.
I have SO many things to be grateful for
and I keep reminding myself of them all! One of them is definitely this site! and the wonderful, supportive people here 
Thanks bunches!
Carissa,
I went non-op and just like you, I was worried about the ends not meeting and mending. I asked my doctor point blank what are the odds that this could happen. Without hesitation he said virtually zero.
As incentive to get your husband to install those handrails, tell him he can go out and buy himself a nice expensive cordless drill to to the job. All us men like new shiny things that make noise. Bet you’ll have them up in a day.
@starshep - thanks for the encouragement about the ends meeting up
I’ve been sending my achilles positive energies and encouragement to do just that 
Funny you mention the new drill .. we didn’t have handrails to the second floor (where the bedrooms and our only bathroom is - made for quite the funny site of me crawling and scooting up and down for the first few days) and he had to install those after my injury and bought himself a shiny new drill in the process *lol* Guess that’s what happens when the husband gets to go to the hardware store alone