cserpent’s AchillesBlog

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!

Sharp! Wearing one just like it and gotta say I look cool.
Sorry about the challenges in the early going. I’m sure you’ll be getting along better very soon.

And after another nasty session of nausea after not taking the anti-nausea pill exactly on schedule I’ve ditched the percoset. The negative affects are just more than I want to deal with on top of the foot surgery. Almost 24 hours without percocet and I just have some throbbing in the foot so tylenol and ice are keeping the pain in check. And almost 24 hours without it and my stomach still isn’t quite happy so I’m not sure how long it takes to clear that stuff out.

Thank you Shell! Actually my pain has eased. Since the pain meds make me very nauseous and my foot wasn’t really too painful when I slept through the 4 hours mark for the pain pill I switched to 1/2 doses now. I’ve had 3 1/2 doses and so far so good. Less discomfort than for the first 3 days with full strength pain pills. The sooner I get off pain meds the sooner I’ll feel more normal.

Hey Susan! Hope your pain has eased a bit today. Have a relaxing weekend and try to enjoy the down time. Life returns to normal very quickly!

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Thank you sweet70! Yep yesterday was the day. I finally got my laptop so I can start posting here. I hate doing things like this from my phone - LOL! My achilles healing journey has begun again!

So, todays the day - hope all goes well. I miss your cheerful posts on the site - say hi when you are able.

Thank you Tim! Yep - I know the drill I should be back on the pitch in January if all goes as expected.

Good luck with your other leg. The good news is that you know the drill. You will be back on the pitch in no time!

In the last photo I’m the gal in the first row on the far left.

Glad my journey through the surgery and healing could help you Tim! You can definitely get back to normal activities however active they may be in time. The key things I found were to do all the exercises given by my doc or PT and don’t push things without checking with them first. Overdoing it is not the goal during recovery.

I appreciate the amount of info here, in particular the blogs of serpent and agnes. They give me inspiration for complete healing and a return to normal activities as well as sports. I compare my rehab protocol to theirs (and others) and adjust accordingly, and then bounce ideas off my PT/surgical team. I am planning a long distance trek in Nepal, fall 2019, and need a good right leg.

Thank you Agnes! My right foot is great and my left foot is getting bad enough that it is time to get it fixed. I’m in Norway right now with a bunch of gals to play some soccer games. If I wasn’t in Norway I would have schedule my surgery for July - LOL! I get back, have about 12 days to get things ready and then the foot gets fixed! I’m looking forward to it this time. And I do hope the 2nd time around goes as smoothly as it did the first time around. This bone spur isn’t centered, it is skewed to the outside of my heel and is bugging the nerve so I expect some differences in the surgery. Won’t really know until the doc gets in there to see what all is in the way to get to the bone.

I just popped in to reply to a comment and noticed you are getting your other foot done! Bless your heart! I know it is different when surgery is planned and in your case it will be relief from pain, but it has been such a long process for ya! Hope your second time around is easier and as successful as your first repair!

Thank you Sam!

If I forget to stop by again before 8/15, good luck!!!!

Oh my gosh - you are having surgery now on the other foot now??! Good luck! I ended up not getting the night boot in the end and just went for it and took the boot off at night. I slept on top of the sheet instead of under it so as not to get tangled, I perched my ankle on a pillow and had my foot sticking outside the duvet (thank goodness it’s Summer). It really helped me get a better night’s sleep. I have just passed 8 weeks from surgery and I am now walking around without a boot or anything: Progress!

Glad this helped Sam! I kept the knee scooter and shower stool and gave everything else to a charity. I thought that by the time I had the surgery on the left foot all the rubber/plastic on the crutches, even-up, case cover/… would be falling apart. I was wrong! LOL! I’m doing my left foot on 8/15. Ah well - I’ll have to order another cast cover and even-up. The charity will get a repeat donation in Feb/Mar 2019. I did lend my knee scooter to a gal who broke her ankle. So it is getting additional use.

Ps - I am not looking forward to retiring the knee scooter - I am fond of it. Especially when I want to travel a longer distance on foot, it would be way too slow to boot walk that distance. At least for now, I think I’m about week 5.

Thank you so much for pointing me to this post, cserpent, it’s so useful to know when to expect things to progress. I feel lucky I was able to sleep downstairs until I got my boot. The sleep boot is exactly what I wanted to see, but did not think about the danger of waking up in the night needing the bathroom. I have worked out I can loosen my regular boot just enough to slip my leg in and and out without undoing the straps but I guess that doesn’t work with the night version.

Sorry you’re still having pain and struggling Shelley. I hope the 2nd surgery goes as well too. One never knows though, until you have it. Keep working on it! Of course I know you will. Big hugs!!! … Susan

Hey cserpent! (I’ve been off Facebook since mid April, so I’ll say hi here!). Sorry to hear you’ve had to bump up your second surgery. But the sooner you get it done the sooner you’ll be kicking that soccer ball around again! Just think - come February you’ll already be 6 months post-op instead of just starting out! Hoping it goes as smoothly as #1.
I’m still struggling. VERY frustrating. 35 minutes of pain free running sounds like an impossible dream to me. Heck, pain free walking for 35 minutes sounds like an impossible dream. Ah well….

LOL Sean! I am definitely getting the other foot done. I was like you - I thought I could wait a couple of years. Then as I got back in shape and started playing more aggressively the left foot started hurting a LOT more than it used to. I don’t know if I just didn’t notice it since the right foot was so bad or if it really started getting much worse much faster. Initially I thought - well maybe in a couple of years, then I thought maybe next Feb, then I wanted to play in a September tournament and THEN get it done. But a couple of weeks ago I tried to sprint after a fast, young gal and my left achilles put a quick stop to that. It hurt much worse than my right ever did when I sprinted. That told me the bone spur was bugging much different things and I would be pretty useless in a tournament by September so … I’ll play in a tournament this weekend and will play a couple of games during a soccer trip to Norway in July/August and I’m having the surgery 2 weeks after we get back from Norway. If the Norway trip wasn’t so much fun and if we didn’t already have reservations locked in I might have skipped that as well…. it g

Girl I can’t believe you Arw having the other foot done! I’m in the same spot though! Oct 2017 was my left. Today is like 7.5 month mark. I need the other one done but I’m hoping to catch another half marathon in November 18 and 1-2 in the spring and then fall of 19 have the other one ton.

I have found if I’m icing both heels mid day and then later in the night is an absolute God-send for me. I’m up to 35 minutes running and ZERO pain while running in repaired one. Post run is when I’m noticing stiffness and some throbbing around my insision/scar.

Since ur over a year post surgery and back to playing soccer have u experienced ANY reforming of the spur on the surgery one?

Hi bdelputte!

I asked the same question of my doc since I LOVE going barefoot - LOL! Walking barefoot stresses a lot of muscles, tendons and bones so he wants to make sure all the muscles and tendons are strong enough and that the bone is also strong enough to hold everything in place. If you walk barefoot too early you run the risk of breaking bones. For my surgery I was 6 weeks NWB and in that time your muscles and tendons shrink massively and you lose some bone mass in your foot/leg bones. If you were NWB for less time then you won’t have lost as much muscle/tendon/bone strength/mass. However he was OK with me wearing crocs so that’s what I used in the shower. I normally wear crocs around the house anyway (though not usually upstairs where it is carpeted) so wearing crocs was an acceptable compromise.

Oh dear - good luck with that. Hope all goes well and there won’t be any complications!

I’ve read somewhere that your doctor did not recommend barefoot walking until the 6 months mark - is that correct? Could you share again why and what the risks are? I just wonder as I read some other people saying that their doctors recommended it …
My doctor check up was very fast and they just told me to walk now - ideally without the boot. For the rest - they told me to ask the physiotherapist (whom I’m not seeing for another two weeks).

Thanks a lot!

Thank you PJ and Dennis! Well one tournament was cancelled due to rain so April is next. And, since I want to go see the women’s world cup in France next year my doc suggested I have the surgery earlier so I’m going to have it sometime after my September tournament. I’m actually looking forward to it since my left foot is getting really painful now and my right foot feels soooo good!

Congratulations! March 10 is my surgery anniversary…seems like more than a year ago. Good luck with the tournaments.

congrats!