dfoss’s AchillesBlog

Not much to report but somehow my blog messed up and the only way I know to fix it is to post something.
I am starting my sixth week and still seeing signs of improvement daily. I am FWB (in the boot) and going for a walk every morning and evening increasing the distance slightly as long as there is no suspicious pain. Went 2 miles this morning. My injury is a debridement, not a full rupture, and the tendon was not cut from the bone during surgery so my recovery may be quicker than most. However, the tendon was a real mess before surgery so how quick and how complete my recovery is are 2 different things. I have a lot of work to do. Stretching the tendon starts at PT this week for the first time. I’ve gotten more comfortable living in the boot than I expected to and am a little nervous about giving up the protection. I am considering buying a range of motion (ROM) boot before I go back to work in week 8.

I’m at 5 weeks now and am still on track. Started PT in week 4 but the first session was partially a waste of time as the ortho office didn’t send my PT the protocol as requested. I was annoyed to say the least but my PT said this is all too normal. He gave me the phone number of my ortho’s PT staff and suggested I call them, not the ortho’s office. He did the same and by the next session he had the protocol. Now I have a full regiment of daily foot ROM exercises and upper leg \ core strength exercises.

ADVISE - If you are not using your ortho’s in house PT staff then call them early and often to make sure they send the protocol to your PT on time.

As scheduled in week 4 I also started gingerly putting weight on my foot and by the end of the first day I was walking on both feet, with crutches and boot. The next day I ditched the crutches and 2 days later the dog and I went for a ¼ mile walk. The next day I walked a mile (in the boot), this was too far. I had swelling that night and could “feel” my Achilles tendon for the first time since surgery. This is a sensation I always had during the past year and was a constant reminder that something was wrong. I never “feel” my right, healthy tendon. It reminded me that this sensation will be a major criteria in measuring healing and activity allowance going forward. We must listen to our bodies but sometimes I need mine to say “don’t do that, stop now” but instead it says “earlier today you shouldn’t have done that, now you’ll pay”.