Coming up on 10 weeks, my how time flies
I still distinctly remember sitting on the tennis court 10 weeks ago, thinking how ruined my summer was going to be since I had sustained one of the worst sports injuries. I still feel like it is a terrible injury, but now 10 weeks from injury, and almost 10 weeks from surgery, I am happy to be able to enjoy the hot days, and do most everything I want to do.
No tennis yet, but I am working up to that. I am playing a lot of golf again, and just played in a 3 day tournament last weekend. I never even had a twinge of pain in my achilles, all 3 days. I still get swelling almost daily, and there is still tenderness on the back of my heal, but I can live with it.
My progress from NWB, to PWB, to FWB in the first 8 weeks was very fast. Progress in the last 2 weeks is not nearly as noticeable. I am pretty sure that it will be a while before I can play sports where pushing off on the right leg will be easy, and comfortable. The only time I have a limp is when I wear dress shoes that rub on the heal. To those out there ahead of me, thanks for your blogs, they were important to me, when I was wondering how long this would take. To those out there behind me, keep your spirits high. You will make it back.
July 21st, 2011 at 10:57 am
I am 3 days behind you as far as my surgery date goes. It sounds like you are a little better off than me at this point. I am walking in 2 shoes with heel lifts 95% of the time, but I still have a limp. I am still trying to get back my full range of movement in my foot. But I do appreciate being able to walk around more. Question for you: when you use your calf muscle (pushing off with light weight), does your tendon get extremely tight? This is how it feels for me. When I do any push off exercises, it feels like the tendon is the only thing being pulled. I can’t even feel it in my calf.
July 21st, 2011 at 11:56 am
3 weeks for me today post op! Safe to say I could dial the boot down to 15 degrees or neutral? How much were u all elevating at this point? I find that I can b up for a few hours with no pain and minimal swelling if any. Thanks!
July 21st, 2011 at 1:23 pm
Unclebuck: At 3 weeks, I was in a boot, but still on crutches. I still had quite a bit of lift in my heel. I am not sure of the exact amount, but it was 4 wedges. If you have it dialed down to less than that, you are doing very well. I was elevating as much as I could at 3 weeks. The leg feels much better when it is elevated at this point in the process. Seems like you are healing quickly, but be careful. Avoid risks of re-rupture at all costs. I progressed pretty well, but I was still very cautious where I stepped.
July 21st, 2011 at 1:27 pm
Pete: don’t worry too much about the limp. My leg feels pretty good most of the time, but then there are times when I get up from the chair and it feels tender, and I limp a little too. Yes, my tendon is still tight. I have been trying to do some push off, type of stretching at the gym, but I have a similar feeling that I am not sure how much the calf is getting from it. I think any stretching is good, as long as we don’t over do it.
July 22nd, 2011 at 1:14 pm
Pete, I am about same time frame as you I think. I too feel that tendon get tight right when I push off with the repaired leg. I don’t think you will ever really feel tightness or pain up in your calf bc it was never damaged. The tightness you are feeling is because that repaired tendon still cant stretch quite as far as your good tendon and you still obviously have scar tissue down there. I feel like I am 95% to a normal walk, just have a tiny sign of a limp still. Stick with it man, my stride seems to get better and smoother every day! I worked in the yard and around the house all day yesterday, bout 12 hrs on my feet in tennis shoes and it swelled up and was pretty tender when I went to bed last night. This morning ankle was back to normal size and no soreness or pain!
July 22nd, 2011 at 1:18 pm
Chuck - we commented back forth about playin golf last week. I went to the range for the first time last week after our conversation. I was a bit disappointed and frustrated tho. I hit my lower loftier irons pretty well. However once I got to about 5 iron and higher and driver I couldn’t swing properly at all. Part of it is probably bc I am 6′3 and have a pretty big and hard swing, and it was really putting a lot of pressure on my bad leg in the down swing and follow thru. I am going again this sunday and hope I improve from last week. I know you, Pete, and Me are all pretty close in time frames, and I don’t know about you guys but I sure am glad to be back in 2 shoes!
July 22nd, 2011 at 1:56 pm
Hey Nick: I understand what you mean about hitting the longer clubs. I am 5′10, so it is probably not as difficult for me, but it took me a while to get any torque with a driver. For a little while, I was hitting it less than 200 yds, which was really frustrating, and tougher to make par with short drives. I only started finding that swing again, last Sunday (the third day of a 3 day tournament). For me, I had my sights set on playing by Aug 1st, so I am just extremely happy to be out playing so much earlier. Maybe my goal should have been to be playing to my handicap by Aug 1st. Cheers!