Jul 29 2008
I have a question…
Folks,
I had my frist post Op. last week and was told things had gone well; the surgeon requested I go to the boot but the cast person put me in a 2nd cast for 2 more weeks, to be safe. I should get the boot on Tue 5th Aug and physio starts the next day.
I just read a copy of the surgeons report from that first check and it states that the Simmons test is negative. I read on the internet that the Simmons test is the pinching of the calf to see if the foot twitches (also called the Thompson test).
I assume the result of negative means no twitching of the foot, which is bad isnt it?
Does anyone know if this is a bad sign for recovery?
4 responses so far
Jack - Negative is good, positive is bad, as is usually the case in the medical field. I know, it’s not very intuitive. A positive Simmons/Thompson test indicates NO plantarflex and likely a tear/rupture. A negative test result indicates everything is normal. So, you’re all good.
Hopefully you’re luckier than me. I had the same problem last week during my first post-op visit. They removed the initial post-surgery wraps & before they started putting on the hard cast, I mentioned to my doctor/surgeon that a few days after surgery I felt a very slight movement inside the leg while I was lying on the couch.
I didn’t feel any pain & it wasn’t a pop so I wasn’t that concerned but I felt it was worth mentioning as this was my first visit with him. The doctor seemed very concerned, asked me to roll over onto my stomach, (I was hoping for a back massage!), & proceeded to squeeze my calf.
Unfortunately he got no response from my foot. He tried my other leg & that foot responded fine (1 out of 2 isn’t bad). He assured me they were very comfortable with the surgery but felt the tendon might have stretched a bit post-op (the doctor told me he could still feel my sutured tendon so that was still intact).
He decided to have the PA leave my foot in a very pointed position while she was putting on my cast with the hope that the tendon would heal properly. Obviously I have some reservations but there’s not much I can do until the cast comes off in another 2 weeks.
Tom - thanks for filling me in on that; thats a huge sigh of relief:-)
I was wondering if I was already showing signs of only a partial recovery (why dont they give an English translation on those medical reports!). Since I cant contact my surgeon until next week I needed an answer fast; I just love this site! Thankyou again Dennis.
drahcir61 - I hope things are not what you think. The fact they can feel your tendon is an excellent sign. Is it also possible your foot is stiff? I will watch your blog for the outcome of this but given they could feel your tendon intact my gut feeling is that you will turn out OK in the end.
There are so many stages that happen during recovery, that I think many of us go through them w/o even knowing due to being in a cast or boot and not ‘testing” for things. I think it is a good sign the doc didn’t go for more testing - an MRI for example, to see what was going on in there. Maybe this isn’t common, but is common enough your doc isn’t overly concerned that it can’t heal at this point. Hang in there and focus on taking care of yourself. And keep us posted!