cserpent’s AchillesBlog

Thanks kamueller! I’m still babying it and not going barefoot right now since that really annoys it. I know everything will take time so I’ll just baby it, do some of the exercises from 2 PT sessions ago which are less strenuous and wait until I can walk without it being unhappy.

That stinks, cserpent! Hope it’s just temporary and will be fine in a few days.

Thank you June! Yes I was cruising along and stopped listening closely to my foot thinking I was doing just fine. LOL! And that’s when things bite you in the butt - hahahaha!

There is no saying you won’t be lightly jogging at 4 months June. We all heal at different rates. However when I become able to jog the doc said I can only do it for 10 minutes max initially. And remembering back to my right foot when I finally could run I would run for 30 sec to 1 min then had to walk and just kept alternating walking and jogging. Eventually I could jog for longer time frames - but you have to work up to it - as one would expect.

Ah well, that sucks. You seemed to be cruising right along with your recovery. I thought that running statement from the doc was a little premature as well, but what do I know. I actually got a little excited thinking “Ooh, maybe I can run again at 4 months!”. Silly me. I guess some setbacks are unavoidable in this marathon of recovery. Hang in there.

Thank you Dan! Yep I know I was not listening to what my foot was telling me soon enough. This AM I got in shoes the minute my foot started complaining a bit when I was barefoot and I did 7 heel raises - but went up on both toes rather than 1 legged - and stopped right when I felt a twinge. Wearing my clog “lifts” all last night helped so the foot is feeling better today. I’ll wear my clogs again this evening when I go to a birthday party and won’t spend too much time standing.

well, I’m sorry to hear that you have to slow things down for a bit, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I’ve been dancing right on the edge of what feels like plantar fasciitis trying to get a “foothold” (ha ha see what I did there?). It’s a tight rope we walk as we try to properly rehab, but not “overdo”. We’ll get there, though. Stay positive.

Thank you Tima! This week it feels like 2 steps back. Probably because hubby was out of town for a week so I was doing too much and not resting the foot and shoulder enough. Both are unhappy. I can’t do as many PT exercises for either, right now, without making both very unhappy. In fact my last lunges tonight were 1 lunge too many. The achilles is throbbing now. Ah well - that’s how things go sometimes. At least I can compare to my right foot to see if I’m progressing at the same pace as before or not. If I’m not doing a 1 footed heel raise standalone by mid-December then I’m behind where my right foot was. I may fall behind But my right foot is my dominant so it was probably stronger to begin with. I know I was exercising a LOT harder and for a lot longer before I had surgery on my right foot and I’m sure that has an impact on recovery. But I’ll just go with the flow. The foot will decide when I go on to the next step.

Sounds like you’re really making some progress, and congrats on no more heel lifts! Keep up the great work

Thank you June! And definitely every centimeter is progress!

Yay! No more heel lifts. And I agree…give me additional exercises, not fewer. Amazing how much those few centimeters mean to our progress. Keep up the great work.

Documenting my flexibility for my records:
at PT appt #2
right knee-to-wall: toes at 11.5cm
left knee-to-wall: toes at 8.5cm

now
right knee-to-wall: toes at 12cm
left knee-to-wall: toes at 9cm

Hi Bruiser - you’ll need to request that a blog get setup. On the main page, 3rd paragraph are the instructions about emailing.

And I’m happy that after 2 days of mostly resting my achilles I was able to go through my entire PT repertoire. I even looked at the exercises I did at this point for my right foot and added in some of those. My achilles is a little achy but not paining me like it did over the weekend.

Does anyone know how to make a blog post?

Documenting my flexibility for my records:
right knee-to-wall: toes at 11.5cm
left knee-to-wall: toes at 8.5cm

Thank you Jeff! I’m leaning on both arms on a counter right now - LOL! No way can I do this without putting some weight into my arms. I went through the same process with my right foot. Start out leaning on arms a lot, slowly move more upright with less weight on arms and eventually you can do it upright. It just takes time to build up the strength again. And now it’s time to do my PT exercises!

Nicely done! I have found starting out with the calf raises to put my hand on a chair on the injured side. Really helps get the rep count up and then an easy transition to hands free.

Great to see that the minor setback didn’t slow you down for long.

Just did about 5 of each of the squats and only 4 of the eccentric calf raises/lowers. Those suckers are hard right now!

Oh I hope it is your last week with it June! Moving to PWB is the first big milestone!

I cannot wait until I can retire the iWalk. Invaluable but I hate that thing. Hopefully this is my last week of it. Fingers crossed!

And the morning after my achilles is still sore. So I’ll be gentle with it today. Just do some light exercises and maybe one or 2 eccentric exercises.

I just updated this to add in the things I got to retire at the 3 month mark.

Hi Junebug! For my right foot (in 2/2017) I started PWB at 6 weeks. The damage wasn’t as bad for my left foot so I got to start PWB at 5 weeks. And definitely have hope! Once you start walking on it - whether booted or in shoes - you really feel like you’re making progress! Do be careful about doing things ahead of schedule. Docs typically have time lines to make sure everything is healed enough for the next step. In the case of bone spur surgery you need to give time for everything to heal up around the anchor so it won’t pull out. And, as you already know - listen to your foot. It will let you know when you need to elevate and ice once you get further along in healing. In fact I iced tonight since my foot was starting to throb. I actually was
unlifted from morning until 6PM today. After that I went back into shoes with heel lifts since my achilles was giving me the signal. Since Monday I’ve gone from 1 hour of flat to about 9 hours of flat. And I’m loving going barefoot - at least for part of the day.

I cannot believe the progress you’ve made in 3 months! I’m so happy for you and it really does give me hope. I’m not suppose to do PWB until next week at the 5 week mark but I’ve been testing the waters and it feels alright. So I’ve been cheating a little and doing some PWB with crutches. Do you remember when you started PWB?

Congratulations on all the progress! I hope all goes well with your PT tomorrow.

Thank you Tima and Junebug! Yep being free of the boot is the 2nd big step … walking is the first. Next week I get to ditch the night splint - whoopie!

Good luck in your healing journey Tima!

No more boot! That’s awesome. Every little step is so exciting. I’m really learning a lot about all the different protocols for recovery. No two are the same, that’s for sure. Keep up the great work.

Congrats on no more boot!
I’ll just be three weeks post-op tomorrow.
It’s been encouraging reading about people’s recoveries on this site.
Good luck in PT!

And I reviewed how things went for my right foot. At the 10 week mark my PT had me doing quite a few things (band work, calf stretches against the wall, seated calf raises and a few other things). Since I kept all the instruction sheets I’ve decided to start doing those now as well. I emailed my PT to tell him what I’ll be doing since the doc’s instructions weren’t clear. I asked him to check with my doc to make sure they are OK again on this foot at the 10 week mark. Since I started walking a week earlier I see no reason to not follow the same PT protocol as I had for my right foot.

And this week just 4 hours/day in the boot.

Well I’ll have to slowly transition into the 5/16″ heel lifts. I had 7/16″ in the boot and I’m feeling periodic pain pangs with the 5/16″ so I’ll need to keep the 7/16″ handy to switch into them when things start hurting. That’s how I did the transition out of heel lifts so I’ll just have to be patient, again.

Once I got into the boot they also gave me a night boot. Here is a link to one https://smile.amazon.com/Plantar-Fasciitis-Night-Splint-Vive/dp/B00YZ7CV92/ref=sr_1_6_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1539304643&sr=8-6&keywords=plantar+fasciitis+night+splint

I’m now transitioning to shoes and my doc still wants me to use the night boot. Of course, I had to ask why I still have to wear the darn think. And he said to keep the achilles from contracting while it is still healing. So it isn’t movement that is the issue - it is keeping the foot at 90 degrees while things are still healing that is important.

If I have a question about things I always ask my doc - LOL! If I understand why then I’ll follow directions and he will always tell me why something is needed from a medical perspective.

Check with your doc to see if a night boot/splint would work for you as well. He might have one available. There is NO way I could sleep in the walking boot. The aircast is much too uncomfortable to the other leg. Actually it is sometimes uncomfortable for the surgery leg too. Too much hard plastic that pushes on things. I liked the b

Hey Barry. I slept in mine. I think the idea in the early stages is to keep the foot locked in place to allow the tendon to heal with no ankle movement.

Best of luck to you on your recovery!

Andrea,

It seems I am right behind you. My surgery was 2 weeks ago. They removed my cast and stitchesand put me into a boot. Swelling seemed minimal and I have had little to no pain. Do people sleep in this boot?

Well I compared the wedges the tech put in against the heel risers my doc gave me and they had 2 7/16″ wedges in which does NOT equal 9/16″ which is what my doc said to start at. So I took out the aircast wedges and added in the 9/16″ wedge my doc gave me. In a week or so I’ll change to one 7/16″ wedge. Then in another 2 weeks I’ll move into 5/16″ and I’ll be starting to transition into shoes at around the same time.

Love this pic! The heel tingling is definitely something you can do without!!

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Great! Good Luck!

And I just needed the crutch for about a day and a half. No tingling in the heel this time either. Not sure if it is because I’m walking sooner, the damage was less severe or if it is the wedge. I definitely had the pins/needle tingling in my right foot when I started walking. I’m almost able to be in the boot all day. Of course I don’t have to be upright for a lot of hours and when I feel things get swollen and tight I elevate and ice.

Hmmm - we won’t talk about what week you’re on I’m just hoping you keep making forward progress!!!! <3

You’re almost at week 3….week 6 will be here in no time! What week am I on?

LOL! Thank you Shell! Can’t wait until I can retire the scooter, but that is weeks away yet. Drats!

Look at you retiring things already! Way to go!!

I was pretty amazed that I could do ROM already masterplus40! And happy, of course!

You’re just 1 week behind me Andrea! Be ready for the long road to recovery! I just did another “hurt foot” workout at home. And, yes, you can work up quite a sweat without using your feet. And let me emphasize, if your doctor didn’t - ELEVATE AND ICE!!!! I believe that is one of the key reasons I had very little pain when I had my right foot surgery 1.5 years ago and I have very little pain now. And my doc told me it is definitely the reason that I was on the most optimum time frame for recovery for my right foot. I’m feeling much better at the 2 week mark with my left foot compared to my right. Part of that is because I was only on pain pills for 3 days this time around. Even with just 3 days it took me a full week to purge them from my body. Totally weird since I had no such problem with my right foot. I’m guessing it is because I had a major diet change last December. I went vegan (for other health reasons) and it clearly changes the way my body reacts to opioids - and not in a good way. But if this is your first time around

Hi There! I am about 1-week post-op for an achilles rupture repair. A little bit different from you, but it will be nice to have someone “walking” thru the journey at the same time.

-Andrea

Starting with ROM at week 2 sounds really good! You will get to PWB in great condition!!

Thank you Jeff! After 4.5 days I think the percoset is finally flushed out of my system. No nausea since 3:30AM and stomach feels normal now. Now is the hurry up and wait time. 2 more weeks of elevating 90% of the time. Stitches should come out next week. At 3 weeks I’ll get to do ROM exercises too - yay!