dan914’s AchillesBlog

Thanks for the comment, Fred. Yes I warm up a lot, and am constantly stretching during play, and in between games I avoid sitting and keep moving and stretching and squatting etc etc. I stay well below 100% effort, but it reminds me of a story. I was in my early 40s, last year of playing softball. I hit a blooper over the second baseman, and trotted to first, but when the right fielder mishandled it, I “turned on the jets” to leg out a double. I eventually scored and when I got to the bench, my wise-a$$ buddy said he’d noticed that I turned on the speed. He said “the only thing that changed was your facial expression”….and I replied “well, not only my facial expression changed. My risk of injury went way up, so I’m never doing that again.”

Congrats on returning to the courts. I am 57 and running around crazy now returning the ball on the pickleball court, after 9.5 months, BUT I do try to stay below 100% effort. I DO a bit of warmup, and my leg still is a bit weak and lacks complete flexibility. They say warm ups are so crucial, and I try to listen to my body and go much slower if there is any weakness.

Yes, I agree about the warm up. In fact, in addition to my achilles rehab I exercises I still do every day, I have had problems with lower back and shoulders, so I have a slate of exercises for those issues as well. So it’s a good hour every morning, doing all of my rehab exercises, and then off to the courts and then more stretching and warming up.

also during play I am constantly stretching and moving around. I don’t run hard at all, nor do I jump. I probably couldn’t if I tried, but I don’t try. I am not too agile these days.

Yes, I remember being a bit scared first time playing - practicing. I have had no problems after returning to play 4 months ago, HOWEVER, I do a lot of WARM UPS beforehand, backwards, forwards, sideways. I get MORE exhausted from the warmup than actually playing. And STRETCHING is very important too before play, and a doctor told me after play too.
At first I was pushing myself to get through the warmups too quickly. Not good, my knee was starting to get wobbly. Warm up gradually, easily, if any concerns, slow down and go slower.

Enjoy the warm-up, perhaps that is more important to your recovery than actually playing!

That’s awesome to hear Dan. I’m hoping to get back out on the pickleball court one day too. I’m 3 months post surgery so I know it will be awhile.

Victoria: I was between 4 and 6 months before really walking normally, but only two months to walk with out pain, but VERY slowly. And I think I had a very good recovery time. (And I dont walk much anyway.)

You could try walking and heel raises in water, that helped me a lot.

Also I was finally told to work out only every other day, and to stretch every day. I think that has been a good regime for me, and I really notice it if I dont stretch out every day!

sweet70, what makes you feel you have “healed long”? Does your surgeon concur with that? I had some thoughts in that direction, but it sure didn’t feel “long” while I was trying to stretch it. Still doesn’t.
Are you still working towards the heel raise? How does it feel when you stretch it?

Best of luck on the bike ride, and thank you for the response.

I have had much the same experience as Dan. At 14 mos I am confident in the surgery, and experience no real pain or swelling. Mobility is good, but there is significant atrophy on the injured leg and delayed response time on the stride push off that I believe is due to ‘healing long’. Heal raises are pretty much impossible, but I am doing a 50 mile bike ride this weekend which will be a test for sure. Good to hear from everyone on the blog site-lots to learn and share…

Yes, definitely have visible atrophy. My calves were pretty good size to begin with so I don’t know that I’ll ever get them to even out again. The healthy calf is about 3/4 of an inch wider than the injured. The injured calf is also noticeably shorter and weaker on the distal medial head. My one year is in 3 days so I’ll try to post some pictures for the obligatory anniversary post.

Thanks for the encouragement, Bruiser. Do you still have visible atrophy?

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ‘0 which is not a hashcash value.

Congratulations Dan! The calf raises will get there. I can do 12-15 on my ruptured leg at about 1 year out, but I don’t get as high as on my good leg. Is it possible you healed a bit long?

paul 1, thank you for the comment. I COULD play pickleball, but I’m afraid to. I just don’t want to go through another year like the last one. Good luck on your recovery. My doctor told me in November that it’s a “one year” injury. That after a year I’d know where I’d be. I am hoping he was wrong, because I want to be stronger in that leg than I am now. I think I will continue, albeit slowly, to progress towards a more full recovery. Carry on!

cserpent, thank you for the comment. I sometimes wonder if all of the weird symptoms I have in my right leg are from the achilles injury. Over the last 25 years I’ve had, in my right leg, a quad pull (running to first base), a severe groin injury (water skiing) that required surgery, sciatic nerve issues that required epidural injections, with numbness and weakness, knee issues, and the achilles. Looking back on it I wonder if all of those other issues set me up for the achilles injury. Who knows? Anyway, we keep plugging along, and I am delighted that I can walk and play golf.

Dan, congrats on your 1 year anniversary! I, too, blew out my right Achilles’ tendon playing pickleball and am just 5 weeks post surgery. I’ve been walking in a boot for the past ~week now. I’m really sorry to hear that you haven’t been able to get back to pickleball. That for sure is a goal of mine. My doc is very encouraging to say that I should fully recover in time (his estimate is 8 months, but of course it’s hugely variable). I wish you all the best as you continue on your journey.

We’re close in our recovery time frames I’m about 2 weeks passed my 1 year mark. Keep on working on the calf raises! I have no problem with those but am having problems with an inflamed bone. Not sure why it’s inflamed but until it calms down I can’t get back to all my normal activities (soccer, HIIT classes, weight lifting class, …) I’ve been dealing with it for about 2 months now and it is really annoying.

I’m four months post op and still have pronounced limp and aches when I make an effort to ambulate ‘normally’.

I had a delayed repair with heal anchors as ed diagnosed muscle tear so it was almost 2 months after injury before I had the surgery.

I can do combined heal raises and walk for maybe 800 meters before calf muscles and heal are quite sore. My biggest issue is it has been 6 months since I have been able to drive and I’m getting more than a little down about being so confined. I’ve tapped out friends and family re help and support.

I find this the most difficult part of the process as its been a month since the boot came off and progress feels SOoooooo slow.

How long post boot removal before I can walk like a normal person again?

When I’m walking around the house I don’t limp. I’d say that sort of simple walking took maybe 4 months. However, I’m closing in on 8 months now, and I still can’t stride as long or as powerfully as I could before the injury, and when I get tired, I limp still. Yesterday, for example, I did my usual 3 mile walk, but the day before I had pushed my golf cart walking nine holes of golf on a hilly wet, soggy course. I felt like I was plowing a field. Consequently after about a mile and 1/4 yesterday, my tendon started to ache. It’s rare that it does that, but it bothered me to the point that I figured I should slow down, and turn around. It feels fine today, but I haven’t walked yet.
So the short answer is under certain circumstances, I still limp. The doc told me, at month 4, I shouldn’t worry about having reached the endpoint of my recovery until at least a year. Being I’m 65, I think it may take longer even than that to feel like it never happened, and frankly, based on how I’ve healed from other injuries received late in life, it may never feel like it never happened.

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ‘0 which is not a hash

So how long did it take for you to walk without a limp?

I know what you mean! When I started walking I found I had to be very mindful of the crown in the roadway. No sidewalks where I live, and by the time I was walking in November, very little traffic, so I could pretty much walk right down the middle. The slant of the pavement had a big effect on how my ankle felt.

Keep at it Dan! I haven’t walked the dogs for about a month and walked them today (usually my hubby does the dog walking so when he’s out of town I do it ). Last time I walked the dogs I had to keep switching sides of the street since the up/down angle of the driveways was bugging my achilles. This time I had no problems at all! Another step forward in the road to a fully functional foot.

Glad you made it down there OK Dan! Walk, exercise, do PT and eat well

Have fun in Florida and keep us updated on your progress!

Enjoy Florida! Just keep doing those exercises and you’ll keep on making good progress.

jeff16, ha! glad I could be so inspirational. Even more glad that everything went well for you.

Dan-glad to see your moving along. You inspired me to also try a 3 mile walk today. It went alright, no complaints. Thanks man!

Glad everything is going so well!

Congrats! Seems like you made the right choice as far as your treatment plan is concerned. I had my first PT mention that you can see swelling well up to the 6th month mark. That darn foot is just so far away from your heart and fluids just collect down there. Keep us updated into the future…I’m curious as to how it holds up next to the surgical approach. Also, super jealous of the 3 mile walk! Well done!

Congratulations on 14 weeks! Keep up the great progress.

I saw the same thing recently - in the skin where my foot arches and back towards the ankle. But then I looked at my right foot and I see it there too. Of course those may be from my right foot surgery … who knows! I didn’t even notice them with my right foot.

I don’t know if you’d call them varicose veins but it seems like I do have some little spider veins developing in my cankle area. Of course, they may have always been there but I’m noticing them now because of my foot obsession. Kind of makes sense though with all the swelling and reduced blood flow.

Hi Robert, thank you for the post! My plan at this point is to forego any future pickleball. I can’t bear the thought of going through this again.

I will stick to my other sports; golf, walking, bicycling, boating, and fishing.

But I congratulate you on getting back in the saddle and playing.

Hi Dan914,

I check back periodically just to see what is happening with fellow Achilles victims. Like you, I ruptured my Achilles playing pickleball at the age of 65. For me it was my third time on the court, a freshly retired IT director ready to dive head first from the desk to the courts. I went the surgery route and it kept me off the court for about 6 months but I just wanted to ensure you that whatever route you take, you will get back to being able to play without fear of another rupture. I play competitively three or four times a week for several hours and I will be in the 3.5+ Sarasota Cup tournament this weekend. It has been 4+ years since my rupture… so far so good! Good luck and I hope you go back to the game. It is a great sport! Retired65

I’m doing the balancing work too Dan. I’m now balancing on a pillow and I suspect I’ll migrate to a bosu ball in 2-3 days. Now that your at 30 seconds try doing it with your eyes closed - LOL! That is HARD! But it gives you another challenge.

Nice to see you are improving quickly with the PT. I was griping about waking for distance last week and just did 1.5 Miles on the treadmill with minimum pain and swelling. Keep it up man!

yeah, right. things seem to get noticeably stronger every week. My PT hasn’t mentioned at all about walking around barefoot. I don’t enjoy it much. Partly because it’s winter and my floors are cold. I keep forgetting to ask about it.

My first day in PT they put me on a bike with no boot. I thought my AT was going to explode. Two weeks later it’s no problem. Last week they put me between the parallel bars and told me to try to balance for 10 seconds on the bad leg. Again, it felt terrible. Couldn’t do it. 5 days later I can do 30 seconds, back to back. But man, it exhausted the entire leg.

Way to go Dan! I was happy that yesterday I was “flat” footed all day and could do my full list of PT exercises and the achilles is fine today! It took 2 days of rest to recover from my 2nd PT appt on top of the day before that being in flats too long. I do love this part of the healing process where you can see improvements week to week and sometimes day to day. Later on the progress gets slower and you only see it if you compare month to month.

thanks, Jeff.

Not sure on the toe raises either. Starting at 12 weeks I was doing…

Alphabet
Ankle clockwise/counter clockwise rotation 20 reps
Lateral ankle with the resistance bands x 20
Dors/plantar flex with the resistance bands x 20
Calf stretch and soleus stretch 3 sets of 20 seconds each
Balance on each leg starting at 30 secs on a pillow

2 sessions/day. It took me about 20 mins per session.

thanks for the response cserpent. Yes, I am totally befuddled by the “toe raises” thing. I have PT tomorrow and Friday. Friday marks exactly the 10 week date from my injury. I am doing seated calf raises, although not particularly well, and doing a similar move with a light band. I am gently stretching to about 90 degrees (or I guess what they’d call “neutral”). I’m going to go easy on the achilles stretch until week 12.

I started doing standing dorsiflexion stretch at 10 weeks, band exercises (which do some easy stretching) at 5 weeks I think. I’ve never heard of the toe raise defining any point in the PT routine. In fact a toe raise is something I never had to do for any PT or exercise for the achilles. I don’t think the achilles is involved with the toes at all so I don’t know why that would have any bearing. I see my PT at Friday and I’m at 12 weeks now. My doc said I can do eccentric exercises but my achilles is not ready for those yet. I could only do 2 of the one exercise he showed me before things started hurting so I stopped. My PT told me if it hurts stop doing it.
At 10 weeks I also started doing seated calf raises. Once I could do those with no weight I leaned on my legs to add weight. Once I could do it easily while leaning on it I started adding weights. I’m up to 15 lbs now. I tried leaning on it with the 15 lbs and that was too much weight. I may try 17 lbs since I have 15 and 2 pound weights I can use.

Bruiser, of course that makes sense. I misunderstood.

He’s all about the early weight bearing, just wants it protected in the boot. Most of the protocols I’ve seen start weaning out of the boot at 8-12 weeks. If I feel good at 10 I may push to get out sooner, but right now at 7.5 my muscles aren’t anywhere close to being ready.

Bruiser, is there something specific about your case that the Dr. feels contra-indicates early weight bearing, or is he just not a believer in it?

Glad you’re in shoes! Yes don’t overdue it - LOL! I overdid it 2 days ago - did some yard clipping, a short dog walk and did some vacuuming. By the end of the vacuuming I was getting spasms in the Achilles. So I did one footed vacuuming - LOL! I’ve been babying it since and today it’s feeling like it’s happier. I’ve concluded I will have to get compression socks this time around though. My foot swells up with only about an hour of up time and when it swells I get pain.

So encouraging, thank you for sharing!

I went the surgery route. Hoping the cast comes off and I’m put into a boot on Monday. Fingers crossed PT will start shortly after that.