Getting MUCH better! I feel I turned a corner about 2 weeks ago. Suddenly I can walk without a limp, and pretty much all of the pain has gone. It has coincided with not having to stretch out my tendon (i.e. plantarflexion) regularly to ease the stiffness and pain. And finally my (new) physio is happy that the swelling/puffiness in the flesh around the tendon has now gone down considerably.
I have no idea why it has so suddenly got better. I’m inclined to think it’s mostly Norm’s “tincture of time”, but it could be any of the following: New physio prescribed Ibuprofen for 5 days, and also taped my leg with a sort of fan of sticky tape up the leg. I’ve also been doing his exercises diligently, with the standing on a step with heels hanging off ones the most taxing (but I’ve been doing those for over a month now). RICE-ing afterwards. Gardening seems to be very therapeutic; gentle exercise and stretching without straining anything, while sitting at my office desk for extended periods seems to make things worse.
I went for my first outside bike ride last weekend, quite gentle (no hills!) and short (20 mins). I no longer think about the tendon ALL the time, or have to concentrate on not limping. I really feel as though life is getting back to normal, and that getting back into running is not far off/a reachable goal. I can even do a one-legged heel lift (not very far up, admittedly).
I’ve begun to look forward to skiing again – I will need new boots, though. I needed new boots anyway, so luckily did not buy them before the injury. I did go to the Alps with the family in April for 2 weeks, and my surgeon said it was OK to ski cautiously (I think on the basis that a ski boot is a bit like an Aircast). However, the new physio thought it was a bad idea. And I thought that spring snow can be tricky for ATR victims; ice turning to porridge could result in being thrown forward unexpectedly (I know some people rupture that way). In any event, there was no way my swollen and painful foot was going anywhere near my ski boot. Even getting my Après ski boots on and off was a struggle. So I went for walks instead, did my exercises, read books on the balcony in the spring sunshine, and found a very good sports massage chap, who normally tends to the French Triathlon team, and he worked at my scar tissue a few times.
That’s all folks, I just wanted to share this as an encouragement to those also in the slow lane, as I was getting very downhearted a few weeks ago, and thought the tendon would never get better. I was scouring the web for hopeful stories of slow ATR recovery. So here it is - I might even throw the battered Aircast boot away! Thanks again Dennis for this blog.
April 27th, 2014 at 2:15 pm
Thanks for sharing. As someone that is around 2.5 months in and in that two shoes plateau its great to hear that the corner can turn somewhat dramatically. Every day feels like pretty much the previous for me at this point.