Week 10 Update
November 3rd, 2014 | Uncategorized |I feel like I’ve made a mini-recovery breakthrough over the last week. It seems to be a combination of increase dorsiflexion mobility and strength. I finally feel like I am full loading my fore-foot during normal walking and everyday motions. I can go up and down stairs by loading the fore-foot first. The affected leg is still too weak to fully support all my weight without touching down with the heel. Previously I was going up the stairs flat footed and down by weighting the heel and hanging the front half of my foot over the edge. I can feel the forced through the tendon without the slight itching/pulling sensation I had when I first got out of the boot.
My endurance has picked up a bit. I was able to hike around some sandy washes for a couple miles at Joshua Tree National Park over the weekend.
I’m enjoying the slow recovery and looking forward to the next positive surprise.
9 Responses to “Week 10 Update”
Leave a Reply
- derek has completed the grueling 26.2 ATR miles to full recovery!
Goal: 365 days from the surgery date.
Click here for the Group Marathon Tracker
- derek has completed the grueling 26.2 ATR miles to full recovery!
Sounds great. But keep Watching Your Step!
I am at week 5 post op. I have a Bledsoe boot. Doc wants me to go FWB. I am finding it extremely difficult to walk without crutches. Any advice?
tmcelia, sorry I didn’t see your post. I hope you are getting along well FWB.
I practiced rolling heel to toe with one crutch and gradually applied more and more weight until I could get all my weight on the boot. I think the rolling motion really helped.
Hi Derek, if you interested there is a really good progressive exercise schedule on the Mass General Achilles tendon rehab outline for toe raises http://www.massgeneral.org/ortho/services/sports/rehab/Achilles%20repair%20rehabilitation%20protocol.pdf
Also for what it is worth, my OS told me running is ok but absolutely not to try jumping until I hit the 6 month mark.
With respect (at least to you!), retired65, there is nothing progressive about MGH’s rehab protocol. Stay in the boot for TWELVE WEEKS?!? Better not. Their advice on op and non-op and their description of optimum non-op treatment are also between uninformed and malpractice. No signs of evidence-based medicine that I can see.
And BTW, their version of WHEN ATRs occur - “third to fifth decade” - is off by about 10 years, probably because the author and editors are a bit innumerate! (Our 30th birthday marks the END of our third decade, not the beginning, and ATRs are rare in the under-30 crowd.)
I’d let this one gather dust, or be used only with disclaimers, until MGH revises it, into this century.
Is it possible that posting from my phone (as I did above) makes my normal outspoken bluntness even more extreme, more like a rant? Nah…
I assumed that retired65 was referring specifically to the toe raise exercise progression, rather than making a statement on the overall recovery protocol. Either way it has some good examples of a range of PT exercises. I agree that twelve weeks in a boot deserves a little outspoken bluntness.
I did try a little jogging today during my walk (about 20 yards). I could feel general weakness in the affected leg on the initial loading, but pushing off into the next stride felt good.
Norm, you did sound a little “ranty” but I understand :). I wouldn’t suggest the MGH rehab protocol either… I was in 2 shoes in just over 6 weeks. The reference was just to the toe raise exercises as Derek clarified (thanks Derek)
And I skipped over the exercise diagrams because I’d lost faith in the authors by then because they’d included so many errors. Sometimes I discount good advice when it comes with a grammatical error. I’m working on it, but it might just remain how I am… (And sometimes I avoid following bad advice even though I don’t know what’s wrong with it, because it was surrounded by errors.)