Foozed’s AchillesBlog

Figured I’d contribute back and provide some comments 6 months post-op.

It’s nice to walk again and be able to keep up to just about everyone

Been starting p90x again.. certainly do notice my good leg being much stronger than my ruptured leg.. the leg itself is also smaller.

Late in the day it gets tired if i’ve walked on it all day.. but its still very very bearable.

Good shoes are a must! I find good sneakers and really good johnston murphy’s are a must for work.  I can’t comfortably wear my flippers (sandals) for long periods of time unfortunately… and its hot here in the summer!

My scar looks absolutely horrible.. maybe due to some of the infection I encountered a while back.. I will try to get a picture of it posted here for all to see… its bad.  Everyone says its bad… oh well - i’m over that because I’m just happy I can walk.

I do try to go for a 1 mile walk every morning with the dog to get my day started.. thats where I notice one leg being weaker than the other (as well as any leg workoug during p90x. single leg wall squats are almost impossible on the bad leg).

But.. I do notice it improving slowly as time goes by.  Each week is better than the next (just in very small increments..)

Stay strong!

So the Dr had my boot adjusted to 0 degrees from the -15 yesterday and I am cleared to start my PT and attempting to walk on it.

Sounds great - but there was the caveat that I am not to put weight on the leg until my heal is touching the bottom of the boot.. and at this point its not yet.  I’m sitting here bare foot seeing how far I can push my foot to the floor and its about 1/2″ away from the heal touching without going too far for the pain threshhold.

I start PT tomorrow in a pool - I hope they’ll be able to get me stretched out soon enough so I can start walking.

The last few weeks have been really trying and I am at my wits end being crippled and unable to do the things I normally do.
I need some advancement in order to keep motivated.

How long before you guys were able to get that foot down once cleared to do so?

Questions for the experienced out there.. is it normal to have a blue looking foot that looks… purple/blue 2 weeks after surgery?
The skin is also very tender, almost like its sun burned or frost bitten. I thought maybe I damaged it by too much ice last week, but I havent been putting ice on it and it has a blue-ish tint to it at certain times of the day. I especially notice it in the shower - maybe its the lighting but my wife notices that it looks blue too. Is it bruised? Or do I have a bigger problem?

I had my first post op meeting with the surgeon earlier this week on Wednesday. The incision is looking fine and he’s told me I have to stay completely off my leg for the next 3 weeks due to the higher than normal location of the tear on my Achilles.
The major pain is still gone, swelling tends to be an issue if I don’t keep my leg elevated.
My biggest complaint now is boredom. I normally have a hard time sitting still and this is absolutely driving me nuts.
So.. some swelling in the foot.. I’m not sure if that’s normal or not but I’m not terribly concerned about it just yet - I’ll give it another week and see where its at.
The Dr has allowed me to shower with no coverings so I can completely wash my leg and the wound which is nice.
I’m also supposed to start flexing my ankle just a little bit this week and continue with some leg raises and knee bends.

I think I over did it on the use this weekend as I really didn’t have my leg raised at all.. I wanted to build a new wine cellar since we just moved into this house so I had my foot in the moon boot (aka the Vaco-Ped) and was on the floor for 6 or 7 hours both days.. probably not the best idea but we were snowed in and like I said the boredom is killing me. I’ll do a better job this week of keeping it raised up.
Thats all I can report at this time!

So it’s 2 days after my achilles tendon repair - starting to see the brighter side of things with regards to pain.

The first 2 days, and especially the day following surgery were absolutely misreable.  I had elected to go with local anesthesia and a block on my leg.  The anesthesiologist said they’d have to ram a breathing tube down my throat for the general anesthesia which I was against, so I asked how the local with the block would be and he said I wouldnt remember a thing anyway (or feel or care) so I opted for that method.

Worked for me! I had no anxiety once they gave me my first cocktail just prior to administering the block.  I couldn’t feel  a thing, wasn’t nervous and was definitely in a euphoric state!  GOOD STUFF!

So the block lasts around 12 hours - so for my first 6 hours home I didnt think this whole thing would be too bad because I couldnt feel a thing.  Then - within 10 or 15 minutes the pain came on strong.  I was keeping my self drugged up with the 325/10 Hydrocodone’s but they weren’t really putting a dent in things.

They also put my VacoPed  boot on pretty tight which was also cutting the circulation on my foot so that was causing some extra unnecessary pain as wel - but  I didnt fix that until the day after surgery.
So anways - been using the Hydrocodones and the Tens3000 (not sure the tens does anything but I figure it can’t hurt and they put it on..)

Day 3 and the pain is becoming bearable.  It still throbs and theres definite soreness but its becoming bearable - unlike the first night teeth chattering pain I experienced.

Follow up visit with the surgeon on Wednesday, 5 days after surgery in a few days - will follow up then.