Hood’s AchillesBlog

Well, I apologize to all my faithful readers (haha) for keeping you in suspense. The recovery from my re-rupture is going well. I was in a splint for 10 days before switching to a cast. My surgeon kept me in equinus, as I expected. He usually moves people straight to a CAM walker and starts PT at that point, but since I was a re-rupture, he wanted to have a couple more weeks of rest. At my appointment, he told me that I could weight-bear all I want, but that it would awkward and difficult, being in equinus and all. I was happy about that, because it meant I could hobble around and not use my knee scooter or IWalkFree to go from room to room. Here are some pics of my leg after 10 days of non-use (atrophy on top of atrophy, at this point) and the wound. Squeamish folks need not apply here, even though these are quite tame compared to my last post.

The wound actually looked better than my old one did, which I was happy about. Anyways, got casted up and did a week at work using my IWalkFree and basically hopping around. I have a stand a lot at work and was relatively miserable. The IWalkFree is nice, but I haven’t been able to really get comfortable in it. I still use the scooter mostly, and use the peg leg for times when I need both hands, but I can only wear it for 30 minutes or so before I start getting a decent amount of shin pain, which later turns into neuropathy. If I wear it for more than an hour, I have pins and needles in my feet for up to 8-10 hours after. No good.

The scooter has been an absolute God-send though. If not for that device, I would be quite the depressed dude right now. Last week I spent in Ireland, which was not ideal, but I still was able to get around almost like a normal person. It also performed well at yet another wedding. Here’s a picture of me at the Guinness factory with my wheeled companion.

It also traveled well, and all the cutting to fronts of lines and sympathy is worth the weird looks you get from basically everyone. Especially in Europe - people looked at me like I had extra limbs.

My next appointment is in two days, when the cast finally comes off (I shouldn’t complain, I’ve had it 3 weeks less than my last one) and I move to a CAM walker. Also supposed to start PT this week. Should have the CAM for 4 weeks, which is fine. As long as I can ambulate to some degree. Also, in no rush to rush things.

For those of you who have been unfortunate to also re-rupture, were you hyper-vigilant about the state of your other, non-injured, Achilles? I have some random pulls and pains around my ankle, which I am so worried is something more than it probably is. It likely is just weird strains from having to use my other foot so much, but holy crap, I’m worried about tearing the other one. Another update after the cast comes off. Consider yourself lucky that I can’t upload smells.