15 weeks out and a rehab setback
Since I got back into two shoes 8 weeks post rupture, rehab has been going great. Slow strengthening and improvements all around. I started with walking short distances and increased to a half mile or so and then joined my health club. At the club,I did mostly Precor elliptical and stationary bike with some low weight leg presses and calf work. After about a month of steady improvement, I took a couple of longer walks. A couple of 1 milers and one 2.8 miler. Well that’s when things started going down hill. Not with my achilles but with my opposite knee. Looked like a flare up of previously diagnosed Baker’s Cyst ( a pocket of synovial fluid behind the knee). Knee gets really sore, swollen and stiff. Tried to ”RICE” it for a couple of days but ended up getting an appointment with my ortho doc’s PA. She confirmed the disgnosis, took some X-rays to show that the underlying cause was most likely Arthur Itis. I knew I had it in my right knee but looks like It’s starting over there too. My right knee crunches but never developed the Baker’s cyst. My thought is that the left knee gets a lot of stress from the shortened tendons in that leg as a result of the left achilles operation and rehab not being quite as successful as the one on the right. Funny thing is that my left and right tendons probably were rupture prone because they were too tight (short). The right one healed naturally (no operation) whereas the left one was stitched up and probably made shorter still in the process. I have had a lot of problems with the left leg with tight hamstrings and tight calf muscles at the top insertion.
Well the PA popped a shot of Cortisone into the left knee and 24 hours later I am without pain and have mobility again. I am seeing my PT specialist tomorrow with an open order to get both sides of my kinetic chain straightened out. IT bands need work for sure and a little modality work ( ultra sound, electo stimulation etc) may help loosen things up. Then I can resume my rehab schedule. It is a process.
Filed under: Uncategorized and
I think that’s pretty common. After all, when we’re injured and recovering, that opposite side is really taking beating.
Chuck, your story sounds a lot like the story I tell on my page “Maybe healing a bit short is scary after all?”
But I’m also distracted by my pinched Sciatic Nerve on the other side, and the toes that got beat up by my ski boots during my recent Whistler ski week! (Very close to turning 69, and nothing is easy!!)
I’ve been having trouble with the knee on the leg that got the ATR op and got repaired short. Both of my quads are unusually tight, and my OTHER one is the tighter of the two, but my other knee is fine, sitting between my tighter quad and my looser calf/AT (non-op ATR). My PT, my Podiatrist, and I all think it’s the too-tight AT that’s kicking my knee out of alignment.
The main relief so far has come from loosening up everything: I stretch that calf and quad a couple of times a day, and I roll the quad with a roller I made, similar to a rolling pin. It’s been helping the knee.
Went to PT yesterday. They do a new evaluation each time you get a new order. She was pretty thorough on this one. She confirmed the Baker’s cyst and noted some shifting of bones, atrophy in muscles Etc. In short, not just one thing but a bunch of things all working against me. They started with ultra sound and laser along with some gentle manipulation. I will take it as it comes but walking is tenuous and descending stairs hurts for now.
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ‘0 which is not a hashcash value.
Hey Norm, or anybody else — on the subject of “roller I made” — I don’t suppose you tried the RumbleRoller? You can see it here on the VacoCast site — shop.vacocast.com/collections/rumbleroller/products/rumbleroller-full, and it looks like the exact same thing is available on Amazon.
It looks really cool, but a tad expensive at $69.95. Was wondering if anybody thought it worth it.
-Jon
It’s been a while since I posted. April 8 I saw the PA at my orthodoc office and got a shot of cortisone in the left troublesome knee. I have been going to PT 1X per week to help heal the knee and get me back on the road to rehab for the Achilles. That injury is doing fine thank you very much. The knee is really holding up my general strengthening as so much depends on being able to bend it. I see the doc on June 11 to follow-up on the Achilles but I am going to redirect him to the knee to get some answers.
The swelling is and has been just as bad as before the shot. Maybe I tore something during my initial rehab. That first month after going 2 shoes was great. Slow steady progress. No pain. Took a long walk one day and POW. The knee started killing me. I need to strengthen my quads to protect the knee joint but quad exercises kill my knee joint. Catch 22? I got some new exercises this week that look like they might have been created by Jane Fonda and they seem to help so I will keep at it.
Jon, the roller I made is handheld, like a kitchen rolling pin (which works fine). I used two close sizes of plastic pipe/tubing I had in the basement. The larger (outer) tubing is ridged, which makes it a bit closer to the fancy $$$ roller my PT uses on my quads. (Ever seen the kid’s noisemaker toy that hums different notes when you swing it around in a circle? That tubing!) Around here, the $ stores sell rolling pins for a few bucks, and health food stores and variety stores in Chinatown sell (mostly wooden?) versions of that $70 floor roller way cheaper than $70. There are also nice foam rollers on eBay etc. that can work well on various body parts with body weight.