Day 1 of a long journey

My brother,
When I had a cast on my leg(right) getting a bath took some trial an effort. What I found work best for me, was to stand or sit in front of the sink and wash from there.
It will be difficult at first but you will get used to this.
Rest and keep the foot elevate should help ease the pain.

Hey I am Joss, 36 male. had my surgery on 3.7.13 tore mine playing indoor soccer. I had no pain before surgery and no pain on day, started hurting bad day 2 evening I started feeling pain. I could hobble to the bathroom but today I will not. hurts like crazy. I thought ahead and before I left my surgery room I had the nurse give me a pee container to take home.

I have not attempted a bath yet. prob won’t till there is no severe pain.

A couple of you mention pain when standing. You’re not standing on the leg that had surgery are you? For the bath, a cast cover and bath chair were both great investments,

My friend, We both had surgery on the same day. (Although I went through the same process 3 weeks ago - I re-injured the tendon last week). I’m sorry for the pain you’re going through. After my first surgery, the nerve block started wearing off about 15 hours later on Friday morning. It was quite painful (about 7 on a 1 - 10 scale) and while laying on the sofa I could ease it a bit by raising my leg to the top back of the sofa. Later that night my temperature started to rise (101.5) so I called the Dr. office. He suggested taking about 400 mG of Ibuprofin to help with both the fever and the pain. I napped for a short time and when I woke up BOTH the fever and the pain were gone.
I was more nauseated after yesterdays procedure - we had to pull over to the side of I-64 on the way home so I could leave a gift to the vomit gods on the side of the road. I was able to sleep fairly well, but woke up around 3 AM to a bit of pain. Again, not horrible but enough to remind me that some new activity had taken place inside of my leg / ankle area. I’m staying put on the sofa and keeping the foot iced and elevated. I’ve also got 3 of the portable urinals by my side so I don’t have to crutch myself to the bathroom every time I gotta pee.
Please take it easy and let your leg rest and heal.
Keep us posted on how you’re doing.
Jack

Determined,
I had my surgery yesterday as well (3/7/13). Like Joss, I tore my Achilles during an indoor soccer game. I felt fine after surgery, until the nerve block wore off and then the pain set in. I tried to go to the bathroom and once I lowered my foot to the ground (NWB) it felt like it weighed 50 lbs and the pain was intense (bring on the pine cone). Felt so good to crawl back in bed and elevate my foot. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to sleep but my doctor recommended Ambian along with Percocet which helped me get some rest.
This morning I felt a little better but didn’t have much of an appetite. I had a piece of toast but couldn’t hold it down. Good times! I know we just have to get through the first two days, and then the first week and things will progressively get better. I am in the process of reducing the Percocet with the hope of not taking any after today. I will let you know how it goes. Good luck!

Hey thanks to you all I m trying to get use to the sensation of the bowling ball toe syndrome. It’s when you crutch around and your toes feel like they are going to explode, but I have not gotten to the couch yet. Netflix has been my baby, but I am going to take a bird bath in the sink, hope I can get my drawers off don’t want to have to call my wife in, that would be another embarrassing moment she would bring up one night at dinner! “remember when you couldn’t take a bath, and I had to pull off your underwear???” not funny but hey it comes with the role of husband and wife! I’m really going to try to take pills only at night to help with sleeping nd during the day just bare the pin as much as possible. I want o hill with the pills! You all sty blessed and stay away from the square shaped pine cones! Lol

You know these prost bring me back to about 5 months ago. Know it can only get better and it will. At this point you need to rest and control the swelling and pain as much as possible. Elevate that leg and continue to manage your pain and rest as much as possible. I started to use my NWB days off of work to complete some projects around the house that I neglected like organizing my desk and fils cabinets, and practicing my guitar. After the pain subsided I was able to do some light exercises that didn’t involve any weightbearing. These were things to help me keep my sanity. Many of us are used to extremely active lifestyles and the first couple of weeks of recovery can be mentally difficult, but it also prepares us to patient and dilegently approach our rehab and recovery after the initial healing process. Good luck and happy healing.

I’d honestly not worry about the addictive aspect of pain management - right now we need REST, and the only way to do that is to be as comfortable as possible. Three weeks ago I found out that the first 3 or 4 days were the worst, and after that I was able to drop the pain meds down to night-time to help with sleep. Doing it all over again.
ONE GOOD THING - my arms and right leg are pretty strong after 3 weeks of crutching around, so I don’t have to go up THAT learning curve again.

Today was intersting for me. got my Short term disability started. The good news for me is there is no cut in pay or benefits. I also managed to get insurance to cover my trip overseas that i booked the day before my injury. its a once in a life time trip so cancelling is not an option.

I oversletp past my meds time and i felt the pain like no other. Made the mistake of taking meds on an empty stomach and threw up big time. horrible. i also got itchy all over and took a shower despite the pain. made me feel better.

I also was very active. over the last 18 months i have shed 30lbs by running, doing the insanity work out, playing soccer and staying very active. this will be a long recovery for me. i started watching my diet today the first few days all i wanted was comfort foods. I am keeping myself entertained with netflix, pandora and TV.

As I just posted elsewhere, the “good” news is that my ATR surgery was WAY more painful than my much more recent open-heart surgery, believe it or not! So once you’ve survived this one, you can probably take just about any surgery, pain-wise. Of course, if you do tear the other AT, you should also consider skipping the second surgery, but that’s another discussion for another day.

Jackinva and others: Many experts refer to evidence that ibuprofen and the other NSAIDs are bad for tendons in general, and for tendon healing in particular. Maybe a pill or two for a day or two is insignificant, I don’t claim to know, but if Acetaminophen=Tylenol will kill the pain, I’ve never heard about it being contraindicated in “our” situation.

OMG, no one needs Netflix or Isohunt with your posts!! You are awesomely funny… although my 13yr old has odd visions of square-shaped pine cones now. He just had to come over and see what all Mom’s shoulder-shaking was about. I laughed pretty hard at your post/recent comments. Whoa! “Tree Man with that HPV disorder” after just a couple chips?!?! You should write a book while you’re out of commission for the next few months. I would absolutely buy it. Hey, maybe Dennis would even create a widget to advertise sales for you. Hehe. Seriously, I’m so sorry for your situation. I’d say I feel your pain but being on the non-op path there’s no pine-cones in my… I really hope the pain gets a little more manageable in the near future for you though and please stay away from those chips man. Wowza!!

Joss, I don’t understand your “I also managed to get insurance to cover my trip overseas that i booked the day before my injury. its a once in a life time trip so cancelling is not an option.”
So the trip is far enough in the future that you’ll be able to go (and you don’t want to miss it), but your insurance is going to PAY for it??

normofthenorth: - i managed to find travel insurance that covers pre exiting conditions like mine. they will cover expenses if i flare up or get complications. if i can’t go they will refund everything too. i am not pushing it for the trip. my primary goal is to recover from this injury so that i can be active again. The trip is a 4 generaton family reunion.

Medication: I was also told to stay off anti inflammatory meds like ibuprofen.

my trip is in early May.

Thanks, Joss, I get it now.