ACHILLES TENDON TEAR,REPAIR AND RECOVERY

I went for my four week post-op visit and they finally took the hard cast off. I don’t envy anyone in one of those. Thank God I can take a shower and get everything wet. My doc said the wound healed very well and he put me in a walking boot cast with dials on the side.Look like Herman Munster.( See pictures.) Each week I crank up the dial one notch. I start in a toe pointing down position and will enventually end up with a foot in a 90 degree angle. I still have to use crutches and the knee walker. The doc wants very little weight on the foot.He don’t want the tendon to detach. I can’t wait to get a regullar sneaker on. How painful is physical therapy. Am I going to be in more pain. I just want to be able to go shopping for myself. Depending on people is a B—h. I have the grocery store deliver, since I can’t push a cart with crutches.  Has anyone flown with their cast and crutches. I want to get away for a while. How is it sitting for 2 -3 hours with your foot down. Is it worth it? 

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 Well on Friday I had my second Dr. visit. Once again they took off the cast to look at the sutures. The Dr. said they were ready to come out. It felt good just to get air on the leg. I wished they would have   someone there to wash your leg. The sutures were removed, and steri-strips were put on. I didn’t realize I had a T shape cut. That’s because of the reattachment back to the heel. The Dr said I will be in this cast for two weeks with the foot still pointing down. My next visit he may put me in a dial-up walking boot, still with NWB, foot pointing down. I guess my recovery will be a little slower than most. Seems like everyone else had at least PWB by the fourth week. I am getting around pretty good with the knee walker. I think the front wheels should be able to turn better, but it gets the job done.

 

 

 

 

 

My first Dr. visit since surgery. He took the cast off and said everything looks good. He’s not ready to take stitches out yet, so I am set up for next week for suture removable. My scar didn’t look as bad as I thought. Its about a 5-6 ” cut starting at the back of ankle. He told me he had to cut about two inches of tendon off and reattached to heel bone. I’m still trying to get use to these dang crutches. I ordered a knee walker . They have them on sale for $295.00 instead of $450.00. I decided to get a pink cast this time. I told the Dr since I will be in and out of his office so much, I will have tried all the colors. I did have nightmares about how they cut a cast off. This is my first time with a cast, and all I thought about was a drill and my skin. It wasn’t too bad. Hope everyone is keeping that leg elevated and not going stir crazy

I was in a walking cast for 5 weeks along with PT 3 x’s week for four of them. I had another MRI and the Dr said it was worse then the first one. Along with the tear I also had a bone spur and some diseased bone. He schedule surgery for July 30th, 2008.

Surgery went pretty good. I had same day surgery. Reported to the hospital at 7:00am, surgery started at 10:30am, and I was sent home by 3:00pm. My advise to anyone is to practice with your crutches ahead of time. It’s no fun trying to negoiate crutches while you are still drugged from the surgery. I think if I was at my high school weight, that would have helped also. I am not one to take alot of pain medicine. They gave me percoset, but I took Tylenol extra strenght only. Took three of them the first day, and haven’t had anything since. Trying to get use to this cast. Feels like a rock. If you are not good on crutches, my sister came up with the idea of using your computer chair with wheels. It worked out great for me. Especially since I live in a rancher and have hardwood floors. I can fix my own plates and carry anything I need. Today is 6 days post-op and I am not as stir crazy as the first three days. My sisters and I own a Quilt Shoppe, and my Mom picked me up yesterday and took me to the shoppe for a couple of hours. It just felt good to get out of the house.    My son hooked my pc up to my 50″ plasma screen and I watch alot of downloaded movies. It’s great. I went to the Library and got enough books to last me a couple of weeks. I read about three books a week. My leg is starting to swell, so I need to start icing it down. I do this about four or five times a day