An Ironman’s recovery from an Achilles Tendon Rupture

Three days later and I’m still busy doing a lot of stuff like………………walking, woo hoo!!!

Every day feels better and better and much progress is being made. My walk is starting to look like a walk but there is still a bit of a limp since the Achilles still fairly tight (especially in the mornings).

I’ve been to physio (at Physiobility) 2 times this week (one more tomorrow) and the treatment continues to be awesome. Lots of hydrotherapy, ultrasound, massage, and laser. The last massage was very painful as he got right in there to break up scar tissue. The benefit was that I gained more flexibility the next day. A bit more swelling too though.

I continue to do all of the stretching and range of motion exercises on my own. While on the computer, I also roll a golf ball along the bottom of my foot for a deep massage, especially going after that sore heel area. It also helps stimulate the feet, and smush up any adhesions/scar tissue.

I got on the bike Wednesday (indoors) for 15 minutes. I was not riding all that fast or forcefully but I was pleased to be back riding. The Achilles loosened up a lot by the end of the ride. I wore bike shoes but did not clip into the pedals on the left side. Not enough strength or guts for that yet. I’ll try riding again today.

I took a few pics of myself to see how much my left calf reduced, but as you can see I actually looks bigger. However, the reality is that the muscles are all mush. It it likely bigger due to swelling and the fact that my right leg was taking most of my weight as I took the picture. But the good news for me is that I did not sustain major shrinkage. After seeing a ton of pictures on these blogs I was very interested in seeing how bad the atrophy would be. While the size is sorta there the strength definitely isn’t.

Let the recovery continue.
Thanks for reading. Happy Healing.

Hoss