jjniss’s AchillesBlog

Snug hard cast

October 10, 2011

Just had an interesting discussion with my surgeon regarding how snug a hard cast should be.  My concern was the cast was overly snug, exposed toes are red and even mildly purple’ish when leg is not elevated.

The doc said a snug cast is preferable to a not so snug cast following the first few weeks of surgery.  I take that to mean the less the repaired bits move, especially during the beginning of the healing process, the stronger the repaired bond will be.

Of course if the leg gets painful or I cannot feel my toes than the cast will need to be removed and replaced, but that has not happened yet!

Makes sense to me, the inconvenience of elevating my leg while at my desk is a fair trade for maximizing the quality of the healing process.

My assessment of the surgeon’s healing and rehab approach is he’s on the conservative side.  He’s had the same surgery which I think helps and he had to do more repair on me than typical for an ATR so I get where he’s coming from.

In any event there are just 11 more days to getting a removable cast, although I still won’t be allowed to weight bear at all till 6 weeks post surgery, ahh!  Not to mention I’m warming up to my shiny blue cast

Entry Filed under: ATR recovery, Uncategorized. Tags: achilles tendon injury, achilles tendon rupture, Add new tag, ATR recovery, snug hard cast.