Squash’ed

Today I went to see a physio to try and get some informed opinion on what realistically I can start to do. Boy am I glad I went!
My op to repair the full rupture was done like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DNeeGuHKGU

so, unlike most scars I have seen I have a 2inch incision across the back of my leg (rather than down the leg). The physio heard my tale and then took a look. He hadn’t seen an op like mine before and questioned whether I had actually had a full rupture (I confirmed I had). He prodded and pushed and was pleased there was no hardness or swelling around the wound and actually quite a lot of elasticity. He then had me try and bring my toes up towards me when lying on my back, followed by pushing my toes away against his resistance.

After this he confirmed that my foot was already back to neutral and beyond.

Can I swim? Of course I can!
Can I do some stretching exercises? Of course I can! He made the point that what we need to avoid is a sudden strain on the tendon. If you listen to you body then there is no way that you stretching using your own muscles (to whatever is comfortable) is going to re-rupture the tendon. So I can dorsiflex and hold to whatever pressure I can cope with. I can face the wall with my injured leg out behind and flat and gentley stretch the tendon by bending the knee on my good leg placed out in front.
Can I try a static bike? Why not!
Can I take the wedges out of the boot? Of course! I’m already at neutral and beyond.
Do I need to wear the boot? If I’m outside a “safe” environment then probably, just in case of a slip, but at home, at work two shoes are fine.

Well worth the money for this visit, go back in a week for some further work/advice.
All great stuff!
My first NHS physio appointment isn’t until early May and I’d been told not to remove the boot at all and I’d still be on 5 wedges! Go figure!

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