Hello everyone.
This is my first post. It happened on June 24, 2010 while taekwondo sparring. I was moving around and then BAM! I felt an enormous pain in my left ankle. It was as if I was struck by a 2 by 4 made of concrete. As well, I thought the floor beneath my left foot collapsed. As I fell to the mat, I heard a grumbling sound in the ankle. My first thought was…fracture? But when I saw an indentation, about 3 inches above the heel, I knew it was the achilles tendon. After confirming the injury in the ER at Cedar Sinai Hospital, I made an appointment with an ortho at UCLA. After seeing the ortho on June 30, 2010, I was scheduled for surgery on July 8, 2010. It was a complete tear.

The day before surgery, I rented a knee scooter. Check it out. It sure beats crutches, especially for distance mobility. Surgery was at 7:30 am. Once they rolled me into the hallway to the OR, I knocked out. It must have been a couple of hours when I awoke. As I opened my eyes, I felt chills which must have lasted a good 10 seconds. I saw that my left lower leg was in a splint, wrapped and slightly elevated. The pain was about an 8 out of 10, constant and throbbing. They would give me morphine for the pain, but it would
only last for a good 10-15 minutes. I was discharged at noon with vicodin. The vicodin was no help though. The pain was still throbbing, which continued through the next day. Amazingly the pain dissappeared on the 3rd day. I was instructed to NWB and unable to shower because of the splint. Until my follow-up I used baby wipes to clean myself.

With the help of the knee scooter, I was able to go back to work the following Monday. I had my first follow-up with the ortho on
July 19, 2010. The splint was taken off as well as the sutures.
Taking out the sutures hurt like !!!!! I was fitted with CAM walker adjusted at 15 degrees in plantar flexion. I was instructed continue NWB until the next follow-up which was 2 weeks later. I also started PT, consisting of passive ROM and scar tissue mobilization at 2x/wk.

I had my next follow-up on August 5, 2010. I was given the green light to start gradual weight bearing and wean off of the crutches and knee scooter while continuing PT. Presently I am walking to a certain extent, but my left lower leg is obviously still quite weak from the muscle atrophy resulting from the non use.

I’ll post my progress when I have more.