cserpent’s AchillesBlog

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!

Congrats on the anniversary! lol. Totally agree on the doctors orders and exercises. I catch myself being so busy with work and life and family I forget to do my exercises.

I have found the best thing for me has been the POOL. Just walking in the pool and doing my exercises in the pool was amazing. I am up to 20 minutes on the bike and swimming about 10 minutes straight.

Well since mine wasn’t an injury - it was an on-purpose I definitely don’t worry about it - LOL! And yours was definitely a freak accident.

That’s great you have confidence do play soccer without worrying about re-injury (and even being stronger than before). I rationalize that since my injury was a freak collision (being knocked down and then a runner tripping over my Achilles) I can go back to pretending I’m 20 once I’ve healed.

Thank you giov! It is a long road - but I’ve been fortunate that mine has been pretty much on track to what my doc told me way back in February.

Congratz cserpent on your HIIT, and recovery thus far.

Well scoring an own goal isn’t exactly great - LOL! But I did have good form - just kicked it into the wrong net. I assume you mean you’re still having swelling issues. I think I did have some swelling still at 9 weeks and when I did I would elevate and ice. There isn’t much else you can do. Swelling happens for a while.

Hey I’m happy to hear you score!!!!! What a great feeling I’m sure.

Question I’m at 9 weeks and I can’t keep the sweeping down. Did you have this problem?

Thank you Shell! So funny - I say if I want to run I’ll play soccer - LOL! I hate running just to run. Glad you’re using it for something good - like getting the foot better! Hope things are healing up and hurting less for you now!

I’m happy to hear you’re doing so well cserpent! And sounds like positive progress is still happening. I thought you’d be amused to know that for the first time in my life, I bought a soccer ball today! Not to play soccer (I’ve always hated soccer - I always say if I want to run, I’ll just go run…why are we all chasing after this ball!!), but to do some simple exercises rolling my foot around on top of it, while seated, and dribbling it back and forth from foot to foot, and kicking it into a wall to get the eversion movement. Clearly I’m still well behind you.

Did the elliptical yesterday and was able to do some jumps - yay! Yesterday evening I started massaging my scar and tendon and it was a bit sore. Guess I need to keep massaging things even 6+ months later. After quite a bit of massaging things felt better. Haven’t massaged anything in my foot in weeks. Need to get out and do some jogging today to see if my other incision is good with that or not. Hopefully it is so I can play soccer tomorrow.

Thank you Agnes and Ty! I haven’t yet made it to the elliptical - LOL! I have done the elliptical and since I can add in incline it is much more of a workout. I did a spin class tonight which didn’t bug my incision (totally not foot related - LOL) and I’m going to try elliptical tomorrow.

The heel lifts is a good idea Agnes. I’m going to try hiking in/out of my local canyon for some hills - though not as steep as the hills I hiked on Tuesday. That Tuesday hike will be my monthly test for improvement - LOL! Once I can get all the way up Mt. Soledad I know I’ve gotten stronger and more flexible - LOL!

I’m healing up nicely from the other procedure though not ready for jumping/running just yet. But I can get some good strengthening from the eccentric heal lifts. I’m up to 33 calf raises on one foot - not quite up to your 60 Agnes - LOL! I can only do about 33 on the good calf too so it is getting some strengthening as well. Of course it is still easier to do on the good leg. But the first 10-15 calf raises now feel pretty normal on my surgery foot - so that makes me happy!

Congrats Cserpent! I have not checked the site in a while, and here you go - hiking! That’s awesome. Btw, heel lifts, or inserts, if you have some already, help in these initial weeks of hiking. I used to just put them in my hiking boots and was able to go on slightly steeper terrain that way (I live in really hilly area and hike a lot). Hope you heal well from your other procedure and are able to continue your regualr achilles rehab soon!

Wow this is awesome so happy for you!!! A hike!!!! Let me know how the elliptical goes.

Hmm - I should try the stairs - haven’t done that either

Part of my pool therapy is backwards walking. After my last surgery part of my rehab was stepping up the stairs backwards. Haven’t gotten that far yet this time around. Definitely uses different muscles!

Thanks Morcs! And, FYI, had some one on one training with a soccer coach I used to get clinics from. A great discovery today - running backwards uses very different foot muscles from running forwards - LOL! I was quite amazed and it was quite hard to do! So - if you want to work on other things - do some backwards running - and, once you are allowed to hop on one foot, do skipping!

Good work Sounds like me - Achilles is fine but the other one and my knee hurt now

Oh now wouldn’t that be sweet! LOL! I think Neymar can dribble circles around me 5 times over and probably can pop the ball over me head and catch it coming down on the other side before I even turn around - hahahahaha!

That’s great news, cserpent! You’ll have a Neymar-level contract offer in no time.

Thank you Shell! The achilles is still feeling OK - but the knot in my IT band or hip flexor or whatever it is is really a pain - LOL! Obviously some parts of my leg object to me starting to run again. Of course I haven’t done any sustained running for 10+ years - just the running in soccer - which is bursts and then walk or watch - so that probably has something to do with it

Congrats on getting back to soccer again! Good to hear that your Achilles held up for the most part. I hope it still feels good tomorrow.

Saw my PT guy today. We talked about my slowing pace of healing which he said is normal for this part of the healing process. He also said that if my achilles is still sore hours after I exercise then I’m doing too much - oops! He said back off on things - don’t run as far, do two legged jumps instead of 1 legged jumps, … So I have to back off a bit and let things get stronger more slowly - bummer! He did say it was OK to play soccer this weekend with the more mellow crowd. And, of course, don’t overdue it, don’t be too aggressive, ….

He also checked out my glute strength and there is still an issue with that. Apparently my body is very good at using other muscles when I should be using my glutes. So I have to concentrate more on making sure the glutes are used as I do various exercises and even getting up/down from chairs. It’s going to take some work to reprogram my muscle memory - apparently - LOL!

Today is my rest day for the foot so I’ll just do glute exercises.

Thank you Ty! I’m heading out to go running in my new shoes. We’ll see if they make a difference

This is great news, I am so happy for you. Keep us in the loop about your Soccer game.

Ha - forgot to say that the doc asked me “so when are we doing your left foot”!!! I just laughed and said - when it gets bad. Since I can still wear closed heel shoes with no pain it isn’t even close to being bad and it is MUCH smaller than the one on my right foot was. He agreed that the spur/growth on my right foot was REALLY big - LOL! So perhaps I won’t wait so long on my left foot if it continues to grow. I’m sure some of the strength I’m getting back in the right foot now was lost before the surgery when I couldn’t jump 1-footed for many months due to the pain.

Thank you Shell! I’m not so sure of the tournament still since that involves pretty competitive playing. I’ll see how things go with the old ladies league and then the assessment of the soccer trainer. He worked with me last year so he’ll have a good feel for where I’m at now versus where I need to be.

Sounds like you’re doing great cserpent! Keep at it. Congrats on being cleared for “Anything”!! I bet you’ll be playing in that Labour Day soccer tourney!

Thank you Shell! Yes my hubby reminds me that I have probably been favoring that foot for the 10+ years that it has been paining me so I’m probably making up for a LOT of years of giving it somewhat lighter duty than the left leg.

So - yes - it’s a deal. We’ll keep our chins up together! I’ll email my PT guy today to see what he suggests as well. My guess is it will be the same as yours - take some time off - give the foot a rest. Hmm - perhaps I should do some swimming for a few days instead of running. Haven’t done that in weeks!

And today a friend of mine who makes beautiful glass beads that I use in my jewelry sent me a beautiful little boot in memory of my booted days! A perfect little pick me up! I ordered some gorgeous rose buds from her and she tucked the boot into the packaging

I’m sorry to hear this cserpent. It is a long haul, isn’t it. I wouldn’t give up hope just yet of playing in your soccer tournament.
I’ve seen some regression in my progress lately as well. Theraband exercises which I’ve been doing for weeks and easily could do 3 sets of 10. Then suddenly the 3 sets were a struggle. And even 2 sets would aggravate my anterior tibial tendon for the rest of the day. Then even 1 set was hard. And now my PT has said take a week or so off all together. I find myself reminding her that my surgeon said it would be a long and slow recover, and progress very gradual. I’ve told her more than once not to look so discouraged! That’s not how it’s supposed to work! But I know she is frustrated too, because she wants to see me improve too. My appointment next week, will be my 50th one with her, both surgeries combined. Ugh.
I’m interested to hear what your surgeon will say next week as well.
I’m always kind of wondering to myself how a perfectly good ankle can go so far downhill with a little surgery and then being non weight bearing for a few weeks. Then I remind myself, it wasn’t a perfect

Glad the blog is helping you Grits! Yep - it’s a nerve and it does calm down eventually.