3rd post op appointment and physio - bye bye cast
After 11 ½ excruciating weeks my cast was finally removed on Thursday 29 June . I’ve put the date in bold because it was such a momentous day and the end of much frustration.
In the end I never did get an aircast boot due to a mix up at the hospital (???). Following Norm and Mikes advice I tried a little gentle pester power (phone calls, faxes, etc) to get my cast removed sooner but had my 10 ½ week appointment cancelled (fog at the airport this time) and ended up waiting the surgeons originally prescribed time.
At the appointment, my cast was cut off, surgeon did the Thompson test to see if the tendon had healed and I was left to go on my merry way with a referral note for physio (no heel lifts which was a surprise). My poor calf was non-existent and I had a lot of dead skin underneath my foot but everything seemed OK.
I dropped by at the physio dept and met a physio I know. Although I didn’t have an appointment she kindly asked me to come back in half an hour and took me through a few exercises. One of the benefits of living on a small island is that you know just about everybody. Apparently my scar looks good and my leg/ankle had decent ROM and strength considering the amount of time I was stuck in a cast.
My calf is still so weak that I still need to use crutches to walk ‘properly’ and stop me from learning bad habits during my rehab. I asked my physio whether I could make as good a recovery as people following more modern protocols. She thought that I should be able to catch up eventually if I worked hard although she may have just been saying that to put me at ease. I haven’t read of anyone else on here having surgery and then wearing a cast for so long and don’t fancy being the test case!
Anyway, things are a lot more positive now that I’m getting physio. My tendon feels good and my calf strength is returning quite quickly. I hope to throw the crutches away on Thursday this week and get the all clear to start driving.
I’m wearing a pair of crocs (which I bought after reading gunners page) and these are perfect for avoiding any rubbing against the scar. I’m doing as much walking as I can and so far I’ve had no pain whatsoever. Also I’m rubbing plenty of scar oil/cream in my incision which doesn’t look too bad.
If any new ATR sufferers are reading this, make sure you get on an early weight bearing protocol and try to get a boot so that you don’t have to suffer the indignity of wearing a cast for 3 months. You really need to do this at the start of your treatment as it’s very difficult to change things later on (as I’ve learned the hard way). I would even say go and buy your own boot as soon as you can so you don’t have to rely on what the hospital has in at the time.
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good advice about early weight bearing protocol. Sorry to hear that you had your regular cast on for such a long time! I couldn’t imagine having your progress victimized in that fashion due to a hopital error. My patience is far too thin for such a thing! I was in a boot by week 4 and walking crutch-free at 5 weeks. I know that pushing my tendon to its tolerable limit everyday is what yeilds my quickened progress, something a plaster cast would prohibit. Such a shame to lose out on this critical phase! The boot is a wonderful thing. I take it off plenty and stretch the foot out and flex my calf muscles carefully as to halt further atrophy. Having muscular calves to begin with was such a benefit as it now just appears average compared to anybody else’s calf muscle
Anyhoo, I’m happy for you that you’re out of your ol’ cast and you’re once again on the road to rehabilitation. Best of luck over the next few months! 
And of course, once you’ve got your own boot, consider slapping your foot inside it and skipping the surgery altogether — see bit.ly/achillesstudies for the four randomized studies showing it produces results that are just as good, and bit.ly/UWOProtocol for the exact non-surgical (and surgical) protocol that was followed in the latest of the four studies!
Donald, I remember reading somebody’s blog here who had an unusually slow protocol (surgical or non-, I can’t remember), then “went nuts” doing physio and exercises to catch up, and ended up with a great result remarkably soon after getting free of the casts. sorry I can’t remember who, but maybe somebody else here can, or the search engine. . .
Heck, after my first ATR in late 2001, and surgery, I was immobilized for a VERY long time (3 casts and FINALLY a hinged boot), and then made reasonably quick and good progress afterwards — and that without being very “religious” about exercise, too.
My Physio was all during the boot period, and I think it ended soon after my PT set me back a month (at 4 months post-op, on the first day when I could walk perfectly in bare feet) by telling me to do as many 1-leg heel raises as I could! I could do 3 or 4, as I recall, but a few hours afterwards I developed a nasty pain at the back of my heel, which lasted a month and kept me in the boot for that month!
But at around 10 months post-op, I was still back playing high-intensity competitive volleyball, with no performance deficit that was noticeable to me or my teammates.
Thanks Jonathon, my legs are naturally skinny - maybe it won’t take me long to get back to normal!
Norm, thanks for the reassurance. I feel a lot more confident about my recovery now I’m seeing steady progress. I’d recommend any newbies to have a look at your page and strongly consider your non-op treatment. I told my doc about it and will give him the studies to back it up at our next appointment.