Nearly 7 months and back to normal
July 4, 2014
Yippee! Physio has allowed
me to start running again, with a VERY gradual build up. Started at run 1 min,
walk 1 min, X 3, day off, then X 4, then X 5. Then 2 mins run, 1 min walk, X 3
etc. etc. Still doing single leg heel
raises every other day as well; 12 slooow raises X 3, twice a day, every other day – still
very tough – only the first few are proper to-the-top ones before the calf
muscle starts to cave in! I’ve signed up
for a very hilly 10 mile race in September, but I’ll be happy to walk up the
hills and take it easy. I’m now cycling
to the station again every day (3.5 miles each way) and have resumed Pilates
classes, which I love. Physio is going
to sign me off next time I see him (week after next).
I have no difference in feeling in my tendons now, just
maybe a bit stiff in the injured foot first thing in the morning, but after a few
minutes walking about that goes away. There is still lots of lumpy scar tissue,
though, although I think that it continues to diminish. I think I have healed very slightly long, as
I noticed I can pull the injured foot slightly further forward than the other
one. I put that down to my first physio
who wanted me to do calf stretches from early on (from 8 weeks if I recall,
which I soon ditched as way too painful), but the 2nd (much better)
physio never prescribed stretching at
all, just strength building exercises.
Good luck to all of you in this journey, and I hope this
post provides comfort to those of you still in the early stages and wondering
if you will ever get better/do sport again.
July 4th, 2014 at 10:28 am
I want to know why did it take you so long to build back up to running. 7 months seems a little to long to be able to run again, and even so at your rate you should be running a mile by now.
July 4th, 2014 at 10:41 am
I guess it’s partly becuase it took me so long to feel normal in 2-shoes. I wasn’t really pain and limp-free until about 18 weeks. And then my physio had me strength building first, and then when he did clear me to start running (about 5 weeks ago), I had a week-long business trip, which got in the way. I should be up to a mile in a week or so. I’m happy to take things gradually, so long as I get there in the end!
July 4th, 2014 at 10:47 am
I am sorry if my post above sounds aggressive, but I am just scared, because I received had surgery on my tendon the 20th of June of last month to fix the rupture, I don’t want to take 7 months to be up to the point I have to run, since a job I need requires I be in good running condition.
July 4th, 2014 at 10:50 am
So yeah, I just want to be able to run and the idea of 7 months to run a mile is scary since I was able to run a mile before the injury in just under 10 minutes, that was a huge step up from the 17 it took, to be reset back this much is horrible, but none the less I will wish and hope you recover enough to be back to normal or better.
July 4th, 2014 at 10:51 am
I think others on here have started running sooner, so maybe you will be more fortunate, and perhaps I have been over-cautious. And I am in my mid-50’s!
July 4th, 2014 at 1:17 pm
Chris, I’m afraid many people wait longer than 7 months to run or jump. I waited 10 or 11 months to run or jump - but then I was fine going full-bore, playing competitive court volleyball with a bunch of 20- and 30-somethings in my mid-50s! Full strength, too.
I’m not a big fan of super-gradual return to sports, despite my CONSTANT support for incrementalism in general. It’s partly that I like knocking myself out and giving 100% when I play sports, so starting early and playing halfheartedly doesn’t appeal to me, it just doesn’t scratch the itch. So I just kept walking and cycling (around town, gentle hills) and exercising until my conservative OS cleared me 100% (after I could do a bunch of 100% 1-leg heel raises without grunting!), and then I went 100% and it was all good. For 7 years, ’til I tore the other AT on the volleyball court.