First Blog - Day 27
April 15, 2008
Surgery 19 March. Rupture I think probably started on 2 March. Background is as follows: I’m a reasonably active business guy aged 58 live London and Edinburgh but travel a lot…hiking in Bhutan in February, was at Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland on 2 March and had a session with the hotel Personal Trainer; probably did a bit more than I was used to, and had a calf pain in left leg a couple of days later. Got worse and went to my GP (family doctor) as I was worried it might be a DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis). He took a blood test which checked out OK and he thought I might have torn a muscle. Gave me painkillers (Diconal)………got worse and worse.
About to go to Thailand on 19 March…..pain by now really bad, went to see a local physio just before leaving for airport (Catherine, Sloane Square Clinic)…..she told me she thought I had ruptured my Achilles Tendon. Amazingly located one of the top Ankle surgeons in London - Mr Klinke (great guy) - who said if I jumped in cab could see me right away. Went to hospital, saw him, confirmed rupture, said he could operate that night, cancelled my trip, went home, got wash bag, came back, operated at 2300.
Stay in hospital two nights; some pain but not bad massively better than pre-op. Everything OK…..go home with leg in plaster cast. Start of Solitary Confinement.
One week later back to visit surgeon…..everything OK…….changed plaster cast
One week later back again (now Day 14)…….still OK. Moved to XP Walker Aircast boot. Brilliant improvement Possible at night to unbuckle front-half. No weight-bearing. Getting around house on hands and knees, Zimmer Frame, and crutches.
Now Day 27. Back to see surgeon tomorrow and hopes he can say that I can start some weight-bearing…..have been cheating the last couple of days a little bit on this just to try it out.
Mood up and down….terrified it’s going to happen again.
Interesting differences between US and UK treatment.
Keep moving guys.
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: Achilles Tendon rupture, London, recovery, UK.
3 Comments Add your own
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed
1. Tom | April 15th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Gerry - Welcome and thanks for sharing your story. It sounds like you are progressing well and staying positive. Weightbearing will definitely help to keep the spirits high. Keep us posted on your progress.
2. michael | April 15th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Gerry - Welcome to our very non-exclusive club. If you peruse the various posts by the ATR bloggers, you’ll note that even in the US protocols vary greatly by region and by physician. There seems not to be one accepted course of post-op treatment. Some docs start weight bearing while the patient is in the cast and others, like mine, say NWB until the cast is off (this Friday for me, surgery was on 3/24) and then FWB. Others have been NWB for 6 weeks. My doc originally wanted that for me, but I was able to negotiate him down to about 4 weeks (and I might add, a water immersible cast that I’ve been able to swim with). So, do your ATR web research and share your findings with your surgeon. Participating in treatment decisions is both empowering and therapeutic.
3. ross | April 15th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Pretty impressive that you may have been walking on it for two weeks before surgery…
Glad to hear recovery is going well..
One day at a time..
Doc Ross