13 weeks and happy
Just wanted to say Happy New Year to everyone - if you are in the first few weeks of recovery from an ATR, hang on in there! Things will get better. After initially feeling frustrated at 8 weeks back in 2 shoes, the last month has been much better. Weeks 9 and 10 were still tough but I tried to take it easy, following my physio’s advice to go back to using 1 crutch to help eliminate my limp and doing calf raises. I’ve also been swimming as much as I can, and hiked a few miles on a holiday for new year…. Now I’m 3 months post injury, I can start to ramp things up a bit although will wait another couple of months before trying to run….
I’m incredibly grateful for all the advice I’ve received from people on this site - I’m back to the orthopedic doc tomorrow and will be handing them all the research on non-op recovery - trying to persuade them that they don’t need to try & persuade people to have surgery.
January 4th, 2015 at 5:34 pm
Good luck with that, and congrats on the fine recovery so far — and without a single day off work!!
January 4th, 2015 at 10:06 pm
Happy New Year! So glad you are doing well, I am 6 weeks ahead of you and can only say it just keeps getting better.
January 5th, 2015 at 12:25 pm
Hi Heelings,
We have so many things in common here, I ruptured my AT on 28 Sep, one week before you did yours, also from playing Badminton. But I spent about 4 weeks in a cast before putting me into a walking boot for 3 weeks with 2cm wedges then 2 more weeks without wedge then off the boot completely. Really glad that I opted for non surgery. I can walk almost normal if I concentrate otherwise will limp a bit. I’m now doing physiotherapy every week for calf and quality strengthening. I do bike exercise instead of swimming.
April 24th, 2015 at 6:04 am
Just read through your blog. Sounds like all has gone well. I’m 9 days post ATR and doing the conservative route. How did the orthopaedic surgeon react to you passing him all the research on non-op recovery?
May 1st, 2015 at 7:13 am
Hi Kristian
I never did do this, as I cancelled my last appointment because the foot and ankle surgeon had left the hospital!
At my last 2 previous appointments I saw only junior orthopedic staff who gave me about 5 minutes of their time, and it seemed pointless to try and convince them. I told one that I had had a full rupture of my achilles despite it being logged as ‘partial’ on their system. I explained that I had failed the Thomsen test in the ER the same day I did it … and that perhaps by the time I had the ultrasound 10 days later it was already knitting together by itself (I’m assuming they made the diagnosis of partial by looking at this scan). But I was met with a blank stare …
Hang on in there! If its any consolation, Richard Wallace, the orthopedic surgeon from Belfast who has treated 2000+ people conservatively, told me this last week, for an article I’m planning to write on this topic.
“I cannot justify doing an operation when not doing an operation gets a slightly better result.”
Hopefully this will help you to see that you definitely made the best decision - no general anaesthetic, no scar, no potential nerve damage. 6 months post-ATR my life is pretty much back to normal and it almost was after 3 months, with no surgery. It can feel very hard in those first 12 weeks, when you can’t put weight on, can’t drive etc but just take it day by day and focus on the end result: as normofthenorth always reminds us - this is a temporary disability and many people are permanently disabled. Chin up!