Hoop Dreams

Wow, that’s some story!
The good news is that a good non-operative protocol — like bit.ly/UWOProtocol — has been proven to produce good outcomes with ANY location of tear (and with any size of gap, more surprisingly!).

Two bits of potential bad news: (1) PRP injections, which I paid big bucks for 3 of, have NOT been shown to help, in the most relevant studies done so far; and (2) getting a slow, old-fashioned, “conservative” non-operative protocol is not a great way to go. Most patients still do OK, but the re-rupture rate is much higher than with surgery or with a fast modern protocol like the one linked above (from the “UWO” study, which is linked from the Main Page here). The case that surgery helps a lot was largely based on a comparison with “your grandfather’s conservative casting”, IMHO.

The fact that your Doc put you in a cast instead of the CAM boot you already have suggests that he may not be up to speed on the latest studies, which have generally produced their great results (with and without surgery) using boots. They also use the boot to allow early (2 weeks in) PT and exercise — both super-gentle at 2 weeks, of course.

If you can get on the fast track, you’ll also be in a position to help out at home weeks earlier than otherwise — e.g., becoming FWB (and carrying stuff around, no crutches) at 4 weeks in.

BTW, did your insurance pay for the PRP?

Norm,

I will have to check out that non-operative protocol; thank you for the link.

My blog isn’t up to date, as I have recently been taken out of the cast and put back into the CAM Boot (10 days after my PRP injection).

As to your question about insurance for the PRP; I believe that it was covered because it was done in an operative setting. Otherwise, I doubt that it would be.

I don’t know where you are (pls install the “ATR Timeline Widget”), but I wonder if PRP is cheaper there, or if insurers have some reason to think that it’s worth it.

That protocol is from the study that’s ref #7 on the Wikipedia article on ATR (and the full text is on this site). Another very successful recent (2007) study is ref #4 in that same article. Dennis is trying to get a copy of that study for this site, too. If he succeeds, then we (cheapskates) will be able to compare the details of their (op and non-op) protocols, and of their results.

I had a PRP injection in my Achilles on October 11, 2011. My choices were PRP or schedule surgery. Mine is a different situation. I suffer from chronic tendinopathy. I wore the air cast and did therapy with ice and ultrasound. No improvement after 6 weeks. I tried the injection because I felt like I should try everything before committing to surgery. It been a little over a week and I still need to use the boot from time to time because of the pain.

It has been 6 months for you, how are you feeling?

Rootyk, I had tendinopathy and I found ice ineffective, but warmth did help me. I didn’t have PRP but had various other injections. I did end up going down the surgical route. (Ice did help with the post op swelling). Hope all goes well with the PRP, I’m interested to hear the outcome.