My repair in Ireland

Next physio session was Sept 25th nothing too impressive to note in between, tried drive a car but felt too much pressure on the tendon, I go around the house with no crutches and always use the two out and about.  I still have that little area on my scar that looks a bit like a scab, have been rubbing bio oil in twice a day since the cast came off but by the end of the day the scar always looks very dry

Sept 25th after more of the usual from my very nice sadistic physio he gave out to me for not using crutches then told me I can use one crutch at home and two out, so we are getting there, also I am now allowed to do up to 15 min a day on a stationery bike with no resistence or a bit of light swimming, of course to stop if any pain.  He gave me little heel lifts to place in my runners as I shouldn’t be using my foot totally flat yet.

I went to gym on 26th and all was good, was getting a lot of strange looks when I went in on two crutches and placed them down beside the bike I really felt the work out in my right leg the next day, I’d obviously been overcompensating.  Got the gym in twice more and made sure to get the bad leg to do its fair share before I met with my surgeon again.  This week I am able to go upstairs almost normally, the bad leg goes very slightly to one side to avoid too much of a stretch on the tendon but I can get up normal speed.

October 1st - No offence to Mr O’Riordan (my surgeon) but I was delighted to hear him say he didn’t need to see me again.  He was a bit curious as to why I still had two crutches but was content to hear it was ’cause physio insisted, surgeon says it’s all up to physio now, I must work at pace physio says and all should be well.  He did say it is an individual healing process as he would regularly see people at this stage already crutch free and driving, I was a bit down after hearing that.

Oct 2nd - week 11 - a big day with physio he greeted me from top of his stairs (YES stairs to a physio office where people go when they have back/leg injuries etc) while I walked up, two crutches in one hand, I could tell he was impressed, well I was chuffed anyhow.  Got the usual painful assault on my poor left calf and was delighted to leave the premises on one crutch, he says aim is to get rid of other one next week….hurray.  Got a loan of an automatic car for the next week.

Maybe Mon or Tue I got into bed wrong and had to ‘hoosh’ myself up a bit onto the pillows, not thinking I put the two feet on the bed and pushed, OMG I felt a snap inside and had a sharp pain at ankle, I closed my eyes and prayed for what felt like an hour, one second later I tenderly tried move the foot and……… hey presto it felt so much better, not as tight as it has been for last 5 weeks at all :).

Oct 9th - THE BIG DAY - Have had a lovely Merc E320 Auto for the last week and it was like a little piece of heaven, the car, the freedom, the ease of driving an auto…why does man drive manual?????? Was very good for last week going to gym/swim can now come down stairs without looking like a child doing it one step at a time but still look a bit silly, have to put leg way off to left to lessen the pull on the tendon as the right foot goes a step further down but it is working.  Have been a bit bold not using crutches on short journeys ie going to pay for fuel, not too bad I think.

Told physio about the snap incident and how good it feels since, he reckons it was scar tissue adhered to tendon sheath that the movement released and that has been what he has been working on for last few weeks.

My physio today told me what I have been waiting to hear for the past 12 weeks - DITCH THE CRUTCH - be careful, I can try drive, listen to the tendon it will let me know what not to do, no sharp sudden movements to be made on the leg, he gave me a new exercise, stand with toes on edge of a step most of foot off the step and stand up on tippy toes the slowly lower down to heel until you can’t stretch tendon any more, try not to over compensate by putting all weight on good leg and he would see me next week.

I had asked him about my scar, if he thought it looked okay? he seemed happy with it, said it looked like an area that the edges of the cut hadn’t quite met and it would heal up soon. Unfortunately I can’t try wear a half decent feminine pair of shoes to a wedding next fri but hey the dress can hide bad shoes and scar it couldn’t have hid a pair of crutches.

13th Oct I have been driving my own (manual - baby wagon) car now for last few days, could feel a bit of a pull for first day or two but no problem now.  Tried a cross trainer machine at the gym but felt I had to keep some weight off the leg so my arms were killing me from holding myself up a bit won’t be doing that again for a while.

Sat or Sun my scar was looking very dry along the length of it (not where it has been scar like since week 6) so I picked a bit, thinking I’d get the bio oil in under and sort it out, now its all red and raw looking and one or two places have a bit of blood on them :( :(  since then it has started to feel like the skin is a bit tight (as well as the tendon) and it has gone a bit red and radiates slight heat………..I went into a pharmacy today to ask their advice so I am having a trip to my GP in the morn. Wish Me Luck!