Almost 5 months post op…
It’s been quite a while since my last post. Things have been progressing for the most part. Sometimes it seems like I’ve come a really long way and sometimes it seems like I’m not making that much progress. I’ve been seeing a phys therapist 1x or 2x per week for the past couple of months but doing the exercises a total of about 4x per week.
I’m still not back to running yet. My single leg lift strength just isn’t there and doesn’t seem to be getting any better. My exercises include walking on my toes; two-legged hops (small hops) where I land on the balls of my feet; and two-footed toe raises (done on a step with heels extended beyond the edge) where I transfer my weight to my bad leg and slowly lower my heels.
My PT said I needed to be able to do single leg toe raises (about 10 reps) and then hop on one leg before he’d clear me for running. My walking gait is doing great…I got out of the boot in mid-August and over the past couple of months my limp as decreased to the point where it’s barely noticeable today. It almost feels like I could start to jog even though I’m not even close to doing the single leg raises yet. I guess the danger is that all the supporting tissues aren’t strong enough yet and I’d risk hurting them if not my Achilles again?
As far as the overall pace of recovery, I realize everybody’s different but I’ve always been a pretty fast healer so I’m surprised and a bit frustrated that is taking so long. Or maybe it’s right on track? My PT said he was very happy with the pace but I dunno…it seems like I’ve plateaued with my progress.
I also had double the rehab time because my injury was in Feb and I tried non-op rehab protocol and then reruptured in May. So maybe the added time off my leg led to even more calf muscle atrophy? Hopefully having double the injury/rehab time doesn’t double the recovery time.
Happy healing to all. Thanks for reading.
Durwood
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Hey good to hear from you…I’m sure you’ll get there in the end, does sound frustrating though….this will be me too!
Durwood, that sounds like pretty good progress to me. You’ll never get back the time before the rerupture, so write it off, forget it. My first OS (post-op) was ultra-conservative, and insisted that I be able to do a bunch of 1-leg heel raises WITHOUT GRUNTING OR GROANING(!) before I went back to competitive volleyball (the sport that gave me both of my ATRs). For me, that took 10 months, which was when the Fall volleyball season started anyway. I played, and I noticed no deficit in speed, agility, vertical, etc., so I was happy.
For my second ATR, non-op, it seems that I’m never going to get back to ONE proper 1-leg heel raise, much less a bunch, and my volleyball return was delayed a year by open-heart surgery (valve replacement). But I have been back to competitive volleyball, beach and court, for almost exactly a year now, and I’m having a blast at it, including lots of 2-on-2 beach ball.
My Competitive 4s co-ed league team just finished our first 9-week season solidly in first place, and the playoffs are next Monday, should be good. (Mind you, there are THREE Competitive 4s leagues, and ours is the bottom one, so we’re strong but not THAT strong!
)
So it turns out that the actual ability to do a good 1-leg heel raise has very little to do with the ability to run or play sports, but it’s still a useful benchmark for returning — especially early on, as you still are. Early-ish on my blog, you can read my sad tale about doing too many 1-leg heel raises too soon after my first ATR (pressured by a dumb physio), and literally losing a month in my rehab as a result. So it’s still important not to go nuts, even after the risk of rerupture passes.
Thanks Norm. I guess I was sort of expecting to be starting jogging around the 6 month mark. Granted, that’s still about 4 weeks away but if that milestone is predicated on the 1-leg heel raises then there’s just no way I see that coming unless there is a MAJOR breakthrough in my rehab exercises!
It’s interesting because at the last appt with my surgeon a month ago he said I could probably start some easy, light jogging very soon but then he said my PT doc would be the final say on that. And it does feel like it could withstand some light jogging but I don’t want to do it until I get cleared by PT.
On your ATR #2…can you do a 1-leg heel raise today? Or does it still not respond even though you are otherwise happy with it?
And finally, yes, I agree with you that I’ve written off my first failed attempt at non-op rehab. My only point in bringing it up is to wonder whether or not the extended time I’ve been dealing with it due to the re-rupture means I should expect a longer recovery period? I spent nearly 6 months in various stages of NWB & PWB so during that period did my calf atrophy even more than normal and therefore will take longer to come back? That seems plausible to me but I’m not a doctor–didn’t even stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night. So perhaps I should mentally target something like 9 months from my surgery date as a “reasonable” amount of time to expect to start jogging again?
Thanks again for the words of wisdom!
Durwood
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