Joining the group…
Hello. I am a 36 year old female who is in good shape. I tore my achilles tendon playing tennis on 3/9/2011. I went to step into the ball, and I felt the back of my leg just give out with a snap. The other players carried me off the court, iced, elevated, and gave me 4 ibuprofeuns immediately, so I had no swelling. It really didn’t hurt that bad, so I didn’t think I ruptured it.
3/10/11- went to the doctor’s the next morning and was put in a boot. I was told that I overstretched it and to wear the boot for a week and not play tennis for two weeks.
3/17/11 - emailed my doctor and said that it wasn’t getting better and that I needed to come back in.
3/21/11-Since I didn’t receive any response to my email, I called Kaiser again and stated that I needed to come in again.
3/25/11 - saw the Ortho-Pedi doctor. He could feel the spacing in my achilles tendon where it was detached. He said that I tore it higher up than the usual person and to get an MRI to see how bad the tear was. He put me in a cast that daywith my toes pointing down. My friends say that it is a lawsuit since my primary mis-diagnosed me, and I might have been able to avoid surgery, but who knows.
3/28/11 - received a phone call from the ortho-pedi doctor stating that I completely ruptured, and I needed to get surgery immediately since it had already been 2 1/2 weeks and I had been walking on it (well, limping). I hadn’t loss complete control of the tendon since I tore it a little higher where muscle took over.
3/29/11 - sat in Pre-Op for 5 hours with an IV in my arm waiting to be taken in. I kept getting bumped my emergencies. By 9pm, they sent me home. This was nerve wrecking since it was my first surgery.
3/31/11- went back to the hospital and finally had the surgery done. It wasn’t bad, but I stayed overnight, so I didn’t have to get on my feet. Also, it is tough when you live by yourself.
4/7/11 - started feeling normal and could keep my foot on the groud for long periods of time without having that blood rush.
4/11/11 - Today! I am miserable and it has only been a 1 1/2 weeks since the surgery. I don’t know if I can keep a cast on for another 6 1/2 weeks. Yikes. This is really taking a damper on my social life, and since it my right foot, it is tough to drive. I have had to hire a house cleaner, order groceries online, and work from home (I am lucky).
I am going back to get the stitches out in a couple weeks. How long should the stitches stay in? 25 days seems like a long time to me. Also, I wanted to ask when is the earliest that I could be asked to be put in a walking boot? It seems that it varies with every person. I am an active young person still and feel that I could recover from this fairly fast.
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First off…welcome. you have had quite a timeof it. I can’t imagine being hooked up to the IV and waiting all day & night just to be bumped off to another day. Was this in the UK..(set up the widget that will give us a little more info on place and time)
After being on this site for a while you will see that everyone has a different journey but we are a group united! To me that does seem like a long time to keep stitches in. Mine came out in two weeks. It took the site about another 10 days to heal enough to swim.
The miserable part is something most of us share. Frustration from not doing your normal activities and learning how just to get by. 6 1/2 weeks in a cast seems a bit long too but again it is all according to your doc’s protocol. There are some great studies on this site that you can print to take to your doc, that’s what I did. I also directed him to the vacocast boot which is featured on this site and am happy I did.
Use this site for info and for a place to vent your frustrations. You WILL get through it but there will be some dark days. Go back and read some posts from other people. That really helped me to see I wasn’t crazy and what else do you have to do..right?
hi there.
i nkow that me and you are not in the same situation due to difference in build up to surgery (i did not rupture my AT) but i had surgery to lengthen mine which was a few inch short.
But i had surgery, NWB for 3weeks, Cast removed and PAPER STITCHES removed and then a FWB cast fitted.
My wounds healed very well and didnt require any cleaning when stitches were removed (may have been different if proper stitches were used) but thankfully it was Steri-strips (Paper ones) that were used so they just sit on the skin so pulled off no problems.
Still trying to upload pictures to my profile which you may have a look at.
Thanks, Gail. Actually, I am in Sacramento, California, USA. It has been a week, the staples are out, and I am hoping for a boot in 1 1/2 weeks! The doc said I am healing really well! I see the end of the road.