I can’t believe it’s already been 7 weeks since my surgery. The injury, the day of the surgery, and the day after the surgery are fresh on my mind as if it happened yesterday, but everything else is blended into a giant lump of clouded memory. The cloud of memory mostly consist of leg elevation, crutches, and laboring over simple things like going to the bathroom. A significant portion of the blur that I can remember is the time spent here on AchillesBlog, learning about other people’s experiences and gathering resource on ATR recovery. I have been very focused on this, as it was a way for me to cope with the injury. Sometimes, I realize it’s strange how my mind works..
A major milestone was the day that I started walking in the boot without crutches.
It’s too soon to tell, but I think the second milestone has been the past few days when I started to limp around without the boot. more on this later..
Seeing a physical therapist will be delayed by a little over a week because I am switching my health insurance plan. My new policy starts April 1st, and I need to wait until then to be able to schedule an appointment with a PT that has been recommended by a good friend.
I have been doing my own PT at home, and I have a towel underneath the desk that I constantly move with my foot. I’ve been doing the Home Exercises. Exercise: 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8
I am gradually spending more and more time out of my boot. I am extra careful around the stairs.
I’ve been able to limp around the house without too much trouble, and I’ve started to slowly use my toes to push off a little when walking. The limp is slowly turning into a normal walk, and I think it’ll take another couple of weeks to walk “mostly normally” at this rate.
I’ve been closely monitoring the condition of my heel so that I don’t push myself too hard. Outside of feeling irritation around the scars where I still have some scabs, my achilles tendon feels pretty good. When I do some light stretches without bearing any weight, I feel a bit of discomfort.. so I don’t push it with the stretching too much.
Here’s a nice shot of my scar.
Here’s another:
By the way, does anyone know if the sutures that’s holding the tendon together eventually dissolve? The thought of sutures being in my tendon forever sort of makes me feel uncomfortable.
There is some definite tightness in my achilles tendon, and my ROM is not quite as good as my good ankle. However, it’s improved since a week ago so I am pretty happy about that.
My calf muscle looks and feels like it’s back to normal, and there has been a considerable improvement in strength. I am amazed by it, but I cannot help but wonder if I am pushing it a bit too much.
I have to remind myself to slow down since I probably won’t feel much pain even if I damage it.
The pattern seems to be that I am impatient during the day, and I take some risks by being too aggressive. Then when I sit down to write my update, I realize that I am doing too much too soon, and that I need to slow down.
Today, I put on my normal shoes, and I slowly limped outside to get a cup of coffee.
I went to a nearby park afterwards and took a careful, slow, quiet stroll.
It felt almost like my heel was healthy again, and I enjoyed my coffee on the park bench while I watched the joggers run by.
13 responses so far ↓
1 Chad // Mar 31, 2008 at 10:38 am
Hi Dennis,
You and I seem to have the same overall timeline. I had the two week post op appointment, went into the boot, told not to walk at all for another 4 weeks. My appointment was inconveniently scheduled at 6 weeks b/c of my Doctor’s vacation. Did your Doc actually tell you it was ok to walk?
My doctor seems very conservative. Also, what is your mobility like in that foot? I can’t walk normally due to the tightness in the tendon. I can flex it maybe to 100 degrees.
Timeline:
Rupture: 02/02
Surgery: 02/11
Cast: 02/11-02/26
Boot: 02/26 - Now.
2 Doc ross // Mar 31, 2008 at 11:04 am
Dennis..
Sounds great..congrats on the walking. As for the sutures it depends on the type used but more that likely dissolve with time. I have had patients with all kinds of surgically repaired injuries and unless its screws, or wire the sutures slowly get absorbed.
Are you able to stand on your toes for a few seconds??
What about stairs without crutches??
Excited for you.
Doc Ross
3 dennis // Mar 31, 2008 at 11:14 am
Chad,
Thanks for your comment. I hope your mobility gets better, and you should try those heel inserts if they make walking more comfortable. It’s best to follow your doctor’s protocol.
This was my protocol:
Cast for 2 weeks NWB (non weight bearing)
Cast for 2 more weeks PWB (20-30 lbs)
Boot for 4 weeks FWB
Physical Therapy start at week 6
Walking in normal shoes at week 8
Yes, I am not supposed to be walking in normal shoes until next week.. but I cheated a little. I wear a boot if I need to walk a long distance.
The ROM is pretty good.. It’s pretty close to my good foot now.
4 dennis // Mar 31, 2008 at 11:20 am
Dr Ross -
I haven’t tried standing on my toes yet. I was going to get the OK from my PT before I try that. I am doing very little.. and the way that I walk now doesn’t stress my tendon much.
5 Jim // Mar 31, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Dennis, That sounds so great. I am in cast for 7 days longer and then on to boot. Today is my official 4 week mark post op. As for the sutures, mine are permanent. My Dad is a veterinarian and he has to repair tendons in dogs and cats on occasion, so he wanted me to ask what kind of suture and what kind of knot the doc used. The suture I have is called Fiberwire, which best i can tell basically resembles a very small braided nylon rope. This bothers me a bit also, buy I figure I can’t be the 6 thousand dollar man without some spare parts in me.
Jim
6 brendan // Mar 31, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Dennis - Cograts on the new “shoe” milestone! 7 weeks…means I’ve been reading your story for 4 weeks now….with every milestone comes another big thanks for setting this whole thing up! Here’s to a normal gait.
7 brendan // Mar 31, 2008 at 9:41 pm
…oh and forgot to mention, I have fiberwire sutures too, and they are not dissolvable.
8 dennis // Mar 31, 2008 at 11:01 pm
brendan - Thanks for all your help and taking charge of the progress tracker. It’s been really helpful, and I have to thank you and Johnskier (and Go 11 too!)
It looks like this place has become a nice gathering place for the ATR folks. It’s great to see that more and more people are coming to participate in our discussions.
I didn’t realize that there would be this many people recovering from ATR!
9 brendan // Mar 31, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Dennis - I know, this thing has really taken off. I think it’s a testament to the power of networking…not only for our mental well beings through the recovery, but for the information gathering/sharing as well. I was thinking that we have ~30 people who have commented in the past 3 weeks that have all torn their AT’s within roughly 2 months of each other. I wonder how many of us in the US alone are out there right now? http://www.achillestendon.com/Injuries.html#Achilles%20Tendon%20Statistics
This site said that there were ~230K Achilles Tendon injuries in 2002….that’s everything..tendinosis/ruptures/etc….even if ruptures are 1% of that number, that is 2,300 a year…or ~200 a month. That said, we have 5% of the rups captured on this forum/blog site. Pretty cool!
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