Walked on a tear for a month
My situation is a little bit unique, so any advice or information you can give me is very much appreciated. Well i injured my achilles playing basketball in a 1 on 1 tournament on my military base. I exploded to hard off my right leg I guess and i felt a pop. It didnt hurt that much except for the fact that it felt like someone hit me in the back of the leg with a basketball. Since I never had a injury like that before i had no clue what was wrong. When i tried to get back up i realized my heel felt weird and i could barely stand on it. Im in the air force and in the military everything is done by appointments, and after four days I finally saw a on base doctor. We already established something was wrong with my Achilles but he was unsure of how extent the injury was because i had full range of my ankle but the test where you lay on your back didnt sit right with him so he set me up to get a MRI off base (they dont do MRI’s at my base clinic) that was another 4 days of waiting. In the meantime I was getting better and my limp started going away. A week later after getting my MRI the base doctor called me back when viewing the mri and said it was a complete tear and I have to go see a orthopedic. This was about another week and that doctor said you have worsen the condition by walking on it for four weeks. So the tendon is now 3 inches apart from each other. Of course I was scared and confused because I was feeling better and walking normal, but the problem was i couldnt push off hard enough to run or jump. That doctor basically said hes not sure he can fix the issue so i I went to another doctor and he basically said it did in fact worsen and my choices arent very good. he said with surgery theres a good chance he could repair it but theres a chance it wont work. Im getting the surgery on august 14th which is exactly two weeks from now and I dont know what to expect or if Im every going to be able to run again. Naturally im worried, because im not that old (37) and otherwise in very good shape. Im actually very healthy and before this i was very active. Me and the doctor didnt talk that much before i decided on the surgery (im sure we will talk more prior to it) but he did said hes very good and his success rate fixing these kinds of things was at 90 percent. He did say I will be alright but since i was still in shock from what he said before; everything else he said afterwards seemed like a blur. id appreciate anyones insight or opinions on what i just told you. Id love to know what my recovery time will be and what i should do during all this.
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All except the 7.5 weeks, of course! Keep advancing, and keep enjoying the activity, but keep it incremental, and keep Watching Your Step!
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Hi there! Let me reassure you that you will be fine. I walked on my ruptured tendon for 30 days to the day before I even saw one doctor. I just had surgery on Wednesday, August 8th. My Ortho doctor was concerned about what he would find when he went in, but he said it looked as though I had just ruptured it and it was 30 days. I ruptured on July 3rd, went to the doctor on August 3rd and I am expecting a full recovery. Don’t let them scare you. I do pray and I spent a lot of time praying for my Achilles Tendon. I will pray that you will have an excellent recovery. This website has helped me get clarity about the process. Read and be at peace. Listen to the doctors and do what they say….That is what I am doing. I figured out earlier today, there is no speedy recovery. But there is a light at the end of the long road to recovery. I have begun my journey. I look forward to hearing how things are going for you as you begin to walk through your journey! Blessings!
You can do it. I was 20 days past injury at surgery. It’s a bit harder that a quick repair but they will usually wait a few days anyway to allow the swelling to subside. It’s kind’a amazing how you can clubfoot around and not really realize your are injured. For me the real factor was when the tendon started really retracting. It felt like a charleyhorse which could not be worked out. I figured it was gonna be surgery when instead of finishing my drive to work, I pulled off the road and in tears begged my Ortho to see me that day. (His office assistant was gonna work me in a week later but I was ready to head to the E/R)
With age on your side you’ll at least be jogging by Christmas. (I didn’t say it wouldn’t hurt though)
Thanks, this did help because mentally it was driving me nuts. and i appreciate the prayers, because trust me Im doing a lot of that myself. As for walking around with a club foot, it hurt a lot the first week but ive sprained my ankle plenty times limping for about two to threes days with worse pain so i wasnt worried at first. Eventually after a week ankle sprains got better and i was shooting around on the court by no time. since I never had this particular injury however I assumed the same thing, especially since I started seeing the swelling go down and my limp beginning to go away. apparently it was just everything around the tendon getting better but the tendon still torn because as we now know they dont fix itself. Im confident that i will get better from reading everyones comments and your encouragement but still really nervous. I will keep you posted as i hope you will do the same.
I can relate totally. I ruptured my AT playing paintball and as I was running, it felt like somebody hit my calf with a baseball bat (not too hard…a fairly gentle hit). I staggered, figuring I had tripped in a chuckhole, and kept running. Played paintball for another 2 hours after that. It really didn’t hurt very much and I figured that I had just pulled or stretched my tendon and that it would heal up in a couple of days.
Well, to make a long story short, I walked around on it for 3 weeks and finally went to a doctor, not because I suspected an injury but just because my ankle was swollen and I couldn’t get the swelling to go down. I was floored when he told me I had ruptured my achilles tendon. I thought it was supposed to be a very painful injury! Oh well, no sense, no feeling as they say. In hindsight, I kick myself for not figuring out what it was. I was walking with a limp and normally a limp is an attempt to minimize pain. Well, in my case, the limp wasn’t an effort to reduce pain, but rather simply just that I couldn’t push off with my toe when walking. Duhh…
Anyway, when I finally met with my surgeon, she said I could either have it sewn back together or take the non-surgical approach where they just cast you with your toe pointed down. She pointed out that since it had gone so long untreated, the calf had shrunk some and that the non-surgical approach probably wouldn’t work, so I opted for the surgery.
Its now almost 4 weeks since the surgery and I’ve been very fortunate to have experienced very little pain, even after the surgery (never did use any of the pain meds that I dutifully bought). Really, the only thing that kind of hurt was when they took out the staples from my incision, and that only for a few seconds.
Anyway, the bottom line seems to be that the tendon can be repaired normally even if it goes untreated for a long time. My surgeon did mention, that if the calf shrinks too much, then they have to put in some kind of splice since the ends of the tendon aren’t able to touch each other for an easy connection.
I partially tore mine and went on to train for 2 half marathons.
One I walked and one I ran 1/4 way.
I did not find out I had tore my Achilles until surgery for bone removal 2 years after the incident.
I ruptured my right AT about 4 years ago & it took Tricare (Military insurance) 6 weeks to send me to see a surgeon. In the meantime, I was hobbling on a boot & crutches. I was sent to a hand doctor specializing in pain management who told me it was a muscle thing & I could toss the boot & crutches. Never mind the fact I couldn’t walk right. He also told me not to waste money on the MRI I finally got scheduled for the next day. The MRI wasn’t the waste of money! It showed the ATR, leaving no doubt. Finally got to an orthopedic surgeon who asked why it’d taken me so long to see him. Sigh.
Now I’m working on my ATR on my left- 8 weeks post op. Thankfully, Tricare got it right this time.