Achilles Tendon Rupture recovery by Feb 8th, 2009

47 responses so far ↓

• 1 dennis // Jul 23, 2008 at 9:22 pm

  sheila - whoa, thanks for those suggestions! They give me valuable insight into how the website can be improved for everyone to use.

  I think adding a feature for recommendations will be very useful. I’ll think about how best to do it. I’ll probably write it so that you can add recommendations from your blog command center, and it’ll appear in a separate page, along with everyone else’s various recommendations. I’ll also create a widget that’ll display your recommendations , and you’ll be able to add it to your blog as you have done with Achilles Timeline.

  I’ve created a separate page, where questions and feedback can be added: http://achillesblog.com/dennis/questions-and-suggestions-for-the-website/
  Answering your questions:
  1) do you want to be able to see if there are any new comments on someone else’s blog’s post that you commented on, or do you want to be able to see if there are any new posts on someone else’s blog that you’ve commented on?
  Maybe a clearer definition of the terms post and comment will help. A post is your article that you post on your blog. People can comment on it. A comment is what you write on other people’s posts (as well as your own.) Comments are appended to the end of posts.

  2) There is a list of blogs, but it’ll be all 140 or so blogs on the main page. You can add the widget so that you can have that same list on your blog too.
  If you wanted just a select few that you want to closely watch, you can use “Manage” -> “Links” and you can add links there, and it’ll show up on your blog. (Assuming you have “Links” turned on your blog.)
  I guess it can be made easier by providing a [add this blog to your favorites], and having it appear on your list of favorite blogs. This will take some work..

  Again, thanks for the feedback, and I’ll keep you posted on the progress!

• 2 offdibb // Jul 24, 2008 at 7:18 am

  hi dennis,
  this site has been a godsend during my recovery so firstly thank you.
  question: is it possible to change the order of page tabs within my site. when writing a new page does it get shunted to the right of created pages?
  i do also wonder if some ATR’ers find the initial web page creation thang daunting and therefore never get their hands dirty, whaddya think?
  carry on the good work, and safe healing.
  tim

• 3 Tom // Jul 24, 2008 at 9:43 am

  Offdibb - When you create a new page there is a box at the very bottom of the screen that says “page order”. You can click on this to assign an order to your page. To rearrange your existing pages you’ll have to go to “Manage” on your admin page, and then click on each of your previous pages to assign a new page number.

• 4 offdibb // Jul 24, 2008 at 2:44 pm

  cheers tom,
  you’d think with all this time on my hands i would have found it by now!

• 5 jacksprat // Jul 24, 2008 at 8:40 pm

  Hi Dennis,
  first thank you for setting up such a worthwhile and well laid out hub for people to share. This site is invaluable to ATR sufferers and should be recommended by Doctors!
  One small comment that comes into my head right now is about email addresses: when you leave a comment your email address is seen by the person who posted the blog; is there a way to keep email addresses private?

• 6 dennis // Jul 24, 2008 at 10:33 pm

  jacksprat - glad that you found the site useful, and thanks for being part of this community. As for the e-mail address, I think you can just put a phony e-mail address like: noreply@noone.com

  You can just make it up, and make sure that it’s obviously phony so people will know not to send e-mail to that address.

  I hope this helps.

• 7 dennis // Jul 24, 2008 at 10:45 pm

  jacksprat - one more thing. You might want to sign up for another e-mail account that you use specifically for forums, blogs, etc.

  And keep your personal e-mail address reserved for your family, non-online friends, etc.

  This way, you can separate your e-mails in a clean fashion.

  It might be a bit of a pain having to check multiple e-mail accounts, but I think it’s worthwhile.

  It’s a good policy to hold onto a bit of anonymity online to prevent against spams, identity theft, etc.

  I recommend Google’s gmail. It’s free, easy to use, powerful, and it’s really nicely implemented.

• 8 dennis // Jul 24, 2008 at 11:12 pm

  offdibb - glad that you found the site helpful. Thanks for being part of the site. I am glad that Tom was able to answer the question for you.
  Thanks Tom!

  I agree that starting a blog might be a bit daunting for some, but if you really want to start a blog, then we are all here to help.

  All it takes is just a comment to ask for a bit of help to get off the ground.

  For those who don’t want to create a blog, you can still setup an Achilles Profile and track your progress on the Marathon Tracker.

  Also, it’s fairly easy to participate in the comment-discussions, so I think some choose to just do that.. which is perfectly okay.

  And then there are probably some people who just read the blogs and not participate in the discussions, but are able get useful information and encouragement in their recovery.

  I am glad that the site has grown, and I really appreciate the fact everyone has a positive attitude about their recovery even in trying times and very supportive of everyone in the community.

• 9 sheila // Jul 25, 2008 at 2:20 pm

  Thanks for the help, Dennis. I’ve tweaked my blog and it is much easier for me to find things I’m using regularly.

  Your ideas for the rec page sounds good. Good to have it consolidated, but also helpful being able to see on a specific blog what items someone has found useful, particularly if we’ve been following their progress.

  Not sure if I’d replied to this elsewhere, but tracking a new reply in any post I’ve commented on would be helpful. I have the widgets for new posts, new comments, but haven’t seen one to track new replies on any post I commented on (so I’d know if someone replied) or a way to traceback to any posts I have made to see if there is a new reply. If this exists, please let me know.

  Other forums I have used basically have a post/comment history for their activity that they can review when they are logged in. I’m sure you’ve seen this type of thing. Again, pie in the sky suggestion.

  Thanks! And I love the shirts!

• 10 jim // Jul 25, 2008 at 5:29 pm

  Some rehab info:

  I was looking for information on how to develop the medial and lateral heads of the gastroc, as these seem to be the most difficult for me to hit. I found a fairly short, but scientific explanation of how and when different calf muscles fire. Seems the gastroc likes to fire best in quick, eccentric movements (eccentric is when the muscle contraction allows the muscle to lengthen, like being on your toes and lowering yourself). Looks like I will be getting the jump rope out soon! Some good info here.

  http://www.exrx.net/Muscles/Gastrocnemius.html

  I don’t have a blog Dennis, so I just decided to post on your page.

• 11 daveleft // Jul 25, 2008 at 6:19 pm

  As it seems like many of the community are receiving their tees, how about a page for photos of members wearing them? I think it’s a better idea than the Hall of Scars I was going to suggest originally.

• 12 dennis // Jul 26, 2008 at 12:03 pm

  daveleft - Thanks for the suggestion for a photo gallery for the t-shirts. I’d love to see some photos of people wearing their t-shirts.

  I’ve been looking around for a good photo gallery plugin, but haven’t found one that’s appropriate.
  I’ll let you know in a day or two with what I find out there.

  Also if others have suggestions for a photo gallery plugin that’s appropriate for wordpress mu, please let me know.

• 13 kkdub // Jul 26, 2008 at 12:45 pm

  Daveleft/Dennis - love the tee gallery. My whole family loves the shirts. We’ll all wear them and take a nerdy pic to post.. kkdub

  Dennis - love some of your recent changes, fonts, wiggies.

• 14 dennis // Jul 27, 2008 at 4:25 pm

  Several people requested a photo gallery feature for their blogs, and I found a good plugin called NextGEN.

  This tool is useful if you want to post several pictures, and you want to show them on your blog as slideshows or thumbnails organized into albums.

  This is for those who want to tweak their blogs even more.

  You can see it action in a “page” here: http://achillesblog.com/achillesblog-t-shirts.

  You’ll also find information on that page if you want to post your pictures wearing the AchillesBlog.com T-shirt. (And you don’t need this plugin, or even a blog to be able to do that.)

  To setup this plugin:
  Please activate it from the “Plugins” tab from your command console.

  It’s called “NextGEN Gallery” and “NextGEN Gallery Widget” in the Plugin Management page.

  Once you enable them, you’ll see the “Gallery” tab, next to “Comments” tab.

  You can add slideshows/galleries/albums to your posts or pages. There are a couple of widgets as well that allows you to add them to your sidebar.

  Let me know if you have any questions.

• 15 Lynn Tappe // Jul 29, 2008 at 11:36 am

  I ruptored my Tendon in Oct. of 2007 while playing basketball. I am wondering if you could give me some ideas on what type of therapy exercises they gave you to do after the bands for ankle, toe raisers, and the basic stretch. I couldn’t afford to go back to get more therapy and now I asked them to help me out and they won’t see me because I didn’t go through the right protocol. What do you suggest for me?

• 16 johnk // Jul 29, 2008 at 11:49 am

  Lynne,

  I am currently receiveng PT twice a week and the excercise that I amgetting are all strength based i.e. leg presses, treadmill, bi-lat and uni-lat heel raises, etc.
  Stationary bike work is good also, as is some light road work on the bike.

  Johnk

• 17 dennis // Jul 30, 2008 at 10:26 pm

  Brendan’s suggestion - Required link on everyone’s blog back to the main AchillesBlog site.

• 18 dennis // Aug 4, 2008 at 10:06 pm

  Following up on Brendan’s suggestion, I’ve added a header that’s common to all blogs, that shows a link back to the main site.

  If you are logged in, it’ll show you the admin tabs.

  Currently, the admin bar chops off the top of the blogs by a little. I am looking at ways to fix this.

• 19 dennis // Aug 5, 2008 at 10:40 pm

  I’ve shifted down the pages for many of the designs, but not all. If you check your blog and find that the top of the page doesn’t look right (Like your title is hidden, or cut off) by the Admin bar, please let me know, and I’ll fix it.

  There are like 100 themes to fix, and I think I fixed most of the popular ones. That was time consuming, but necessary.

• 20 dennis // Aug 7, 2008 at 7:33 pm

  To those setting up AchillesBlog widgets on their blog, if your blog was created after August 6th, 2008 then you can skip the step of activating AchillesBlog plugins. It’s already done for you during the sign-up.

  You just have to add it to your sidebars from the widget list.

• 21 dennis // Aug 8, 2008 at 12:28 am

  Recently Updated Posts on the main page now shows the number of comments for each of the posts.

  This makes it easier to see which posts are new, and haven’t yet been commented on. If you see “0 comments” on any of the posts, please check it out.

• 22 m3521 // Aug 8, 2008 at 1:28 pm

  Hey Dennis,

  Thanks for the great site. For some reason I can’t get the ATR timeline woking. I followed the instructions and it does not appear. Any suggestions?

  thanks
  -Mario

• 23 dennis // Aug 8, 2008 at 4:37 pm

  Looks like you didn’t “activate” Achilles Info Display Widget. I enabled it for you and added it to your sidebar.

  People who create blogs from now on can skip this step of “activating” the widgets. It’ll just be a one step process.

• 24 sanfrantourguide // Aug 8, 2008 at 5:48 pm

  It seems to me that many of us cannot get enough info on risks and warning signs from our doctors, simply because there is never enough time to take care of all questions, or even to know which to ask. Meanwhile, folks further along the timeline have come into difficulties - pains, throbbing, inflammation, re-ruptures and re-hospitalizations for infection, even. From these unfortunate things all of us could take our warnings and be ultra-careful. I wonder if there is some way to organize these things, probably under the FAQ’s, but with more detail.

  I can say for myself, I am reading with great interest the blogs of others in order to understand what I should not do. This fantastic resource here has helped me to know that I should be ultracareful; certainly my team of surgeons did not go into any such details. (E.g., the fellow whose cast got wet in the rain, then in the shower, then stank badly after 24 hours before getting removed. ) Many of us may not understand such a simple thing as why not wet the cast, and may be careless in the rain or shower!

  CAll me naive or inexperienced, but I never did know ANY thing about this injury, or any injury at all, until this happened to me.

  Mary

• 25 dennis // Aug 9, 2008 at 12:13 am

  sanfrantourguide - I agree that those complications and experiences can be compiled and organized better on the main site. I am still looking for some volunteers to manage and organize some of the content.

  Brendan had done a great job with the recovery tracker early on, and I hope some of the more recent members can contribute their time.

  If anyone is interested, please let m know.

• 26 daveleft // Aug 11, 2008 at 2:42 am

  Dennis, the new setting for the user profile won’t let me update the date for PWB because it doesn’t recognize the 00/00/0000 place holder for FWB, 2-shoes and PT. It gives this message: This date must be later than the Surgery Date. Thanks!

• 27 dennis // Aug 11, 2008 at 11:03 am

  daveleft - Thanks for pointing that out. Looks like I need to fix the data validation code. I’ll fix this when I get home this evening.

• 28 dennis // Aug 11, 2008 at 8:38 pm

  daveleft - I’ve fixed the Achilles Profile problem. Let me know if it works for you now.

  marianne - I’ve added the Marathon tracker to your blog. Let me know if it looks okay. I’ve also “deactivated” some of the plugins that you don’t need.

• 29 marianne // Aug 12, 2008 at 12:16 am

  Dennis,
  Looks great…..thank you so much for all your hard work on this site!!!!!! I love my t-shirt too!

• 30 richard // Sep 8, 2008 at 2:36 pm

  Ey up,
  Grand site. However I’m a blog virgin and a bit confused. When I log on to my site I don’t seem to be able to navigate away from that to the main site to view the general site wide comments page. - Help

  Richard
  ps - please keep your advice technically simple !!

• 31 dennis // Sep 9, 2008 at 9:10 am

  richard - I’ve added [Main AchillesBlog.com Page] to the navigation bar at the top of the page. You can click on that to get to the main site. I hope this helps!

• 32 Richard // Sep 9, 2008 at 12:21 pm

  Thank-you alls well

  Richard

• 33 Richard // Sep 10, 2008 at 7:31 pm

  D,
  Please may I have the marathon tracker on my page.
  Thankyou in advance
  Richard

• 34 dennis // Sep 11, 2008 at 9:24 am

  richard - It looks like you’ve added the ATR Timeline widget already. You basically follow similar steps to add ATR NYC Marathon.
  Let me know if you have any problems.

• 35 Richard // Sep 11, 2008 at 4:56 pm

  Dennis,
  I told you I was a blog idiot - it says ‘active’ on my plug in but doesn’t seem to appear
  Richard

• 36 dennis // Sep 11, 2008 at 7:12 pm

  richard - it’s setup for you.

• 37 Richard // Sep 11, 2008 at 8:26 pm

  Dennis,
  Good show
  Richard

• 38 Richard // Sep 16, 2008 at 10:44 am

  Hello Dennis,
  As you know I am a bit of a newbie at this blogging lark although I am finding it v enjoyable and importantly time consuming . I’ve got a suggestion which may or may not be possible - How about some photographs of the NY marathon course say one every mile or so which we could click on via our little circle and hence view where we are? What do you think?

  Cheers
  Richard

• 39 dennis // Sep 16, 2008 at 1:31 pm

  Richard - do you mean like a street-level view of the area?

• 40 Richard // Sep 16, 2008 at 5:57 pm

  Dennis,
  Yes I think so - a sort of joggers view(without hundreds of other peoples bottoms!!)

  Richard

• 41 dennis // Sep 16, 2008 at 11:59 pm

  Richard - that’s an interesting idea. I’ll see if I can integrate it with Google street view. That would indeed be really cool. thanks for that suggestion.

• 42 marilynrd // Sep 21, 2008 at 9:51 am

  Dennis,
  How do I add pic to my blog? Also, I got a few emails because people don’t know how to leave a comment on the blog….do I need to add something for that?
  Thanks,
  Marilyn

• 43 dazf // Oct 12, 2008 at 1:04 pm

  Hi Dennis,

  Is it possible to use Word 2007 to write your blog posts? I know it is possible to use Word for this now but i tried to set my account up in Word to access my blog and no matter what i tried i could not get it to work.

  Any ideas?

• 44 dennis // Oct 12, 2008 at 6:34 pm

  dazf - I haven’t tried using word, but I think there are other blog editors out there that’ll do the job pretty well. I just login directly to the blog, but maybe others can chime in..

• 45 Pattie // Nov 18, 2008 at 2:19 pm

  Dennis:
  I can’t create a blog. do I need to be a rocket scientist? Am I too old? Wrong generation?
  What exactly do you mean by “append”? Is this a specific symbol? Please assist. I am from at least two generations back from you, but I still ruptured my achilles. Be a pal.

• 46 maestro // Nov 18, 2008 at 2:30 pm

  follow the instructions in link http://achillesblog.com/wp-signup.php

• 47 dennis // Nov 18, 2008 at 8:04 pm

  Pattie: “append” means to “add to”.
  For example: if you have a word “clinton” and you want to append to that the current year, it would be: “clinton2008″
  Now if you want to append the current month to that, it would be: “clinton2008november”

  I hope this helps. We have to do this to stop the spammers.

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