Greetings fellow rupturees
March 16, 2014
Having haunted this site for many weeks, I felt I should join the community. Thank you Dennis, and all the diligent bloggers and commentators, for making this site so very useful. And I have learnt so many new acronyms LOL!
About me; 54 year old female, keen skier, runner, cyclist. Ruptured my Achilles (9th December) trying to “scoot” my bicycle from a standing start up a steep hill to get enough momentum to start it in top gear - doh! Surgery 5 days later under private healthcare, not NHS. I did have the option for non-surgical, as the broken ends of the tendon were touching in equinus (that was shown under ultrasound), but I was impatient to get it FIXED.
Very uneventful recovery so far. 4 weeks in a light solid cast, changed halfway through. Then 6 weeks in an aircast, firstly PWB then FWB. I was very lucky to experience absolutely no pain until 2-shoes, and have had no issues with infection etc. I did have to inject myself for 6 weeks with anti-DVT drugs, which was not very nice; my stomach was like a pincushion by the end. I have a small (2cm) sideways incision/scar in my heel about 4cm off the ground (my rupture was quite low).
So now I’m at week 13, having been 2-shoes for 3 weeks. The longed-for 2-shoes was a shock! Suddenly things HURT. It’s sore to walk (most of the time) (but not all) and the swelling and yukky scar tissue is more obvious. And this is despite wearing the aircast for my daily commute. I THINK the pain is getting a bit less, and I’m walking more limp-free, but the last 3 weeks have been a bit discouraging. I have a check up with the OS tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see what he says.
On physio (PT) I have been given the usual theraband exercises, and stretches. The latter hurt too much, so I’ve stopped them. I’ve started swimming, which is great (as so many others have found) although so boring, I can only manage 20 mins. I’ve also been massaging the scar a lot, as I think I have quite a lot of scar tissue.
Thanks again to the AchillesBlog community, and get better soon, everybody!
Jojo
March 17th, 2014 at 11:25 am
The scar tissue that matters is the stuff that drags your skin along with your AT (adhesions). Just look at your leg while flexing and extending as far as possible and you’ll see it. Your PT should want to help break it up; if not, switch PTs!
There are a number of good reasons to choose surgery, IMO, but impatience is not one (IMO) - especially as you’ve gone several weeks slower than optimal non-op rehab speed! The good news is that going slow does much less harm post-op than non-op.
The location of youp pain is important. Pain underfoot can be addressed with Crocs or gel footbeds. Friction pain at the incision can be addressed with double socks or wraps or open shoes. AT or back of heel pain can best be addressed by backing off until it goes away!