Juan’s Achilles Rupture Blog

Week 1

After surgery I was told to just go home and rest for the next two weeks. I agreed to one week at home, and I would go to work the week after. I had serious pain the first 24 hours after the surgery. The second day it was mild. By the third day I stopped taking any pain pills.

Week 2

I went to work on the second week. Since I had my PEMF machine (nicknamed Mr Miyagi), I felt confident my wound was fairly closed.

Mr Miyagi working on healing my leg

When my mom ran the rehabilitation center in a Chicago hospital 10 years ago, she researched electro-magnetic fields to help in faster recovery. The ended purchasing several devices that were used to speed up recovery in all kinds of cases. The results were amazing.

I researched the technology and there are tons of articles confirming how it helps the body heal itself. The devices range a lot. I didn’t want some cheapo imitation device, but I also didn’t want to pay $40k for a hospital grade machine. It turns out there is a device called the SonaPulse. At ~$1,300 I thought it a worthy investment. However, it turns out that the creator of SonaPulse created a second version of the device with many improvements. It is called Alleva-wave. It isn’t approved by the FDA, so he sells it to race horse owner and vets. If it can heal a race horse, it can heal me! Besides, it’s much cheaper at $700.

So I bought it and had it overnighted to Miami where a friend would then FedEx it to me here in Bogota.

May 24, 2014

Arrived at the hospital. They shaved part of my leg in preparation. I opted for local anesthesia. It was really cool to hear the whole process. I wish I could have seen it while they did it, but I was upside down.

The doctor said everything went very well. He wrapped another small tendon around the sutured tendon for added strength.

Ready to go home

Had to wait for the numbness to go away in order to be released. Doctor never came to talk to me again, but he gave my wife and mother the results of the procedure and that I was to stay at home for the next 2 weeks.

I was put in a cast, I had no idea I could have used a walking boot like the VacoCast. Was prescribed a pain killer, an anti inflammatory, and something to prevent infection.

The antiviral drug was hard to get from the pharmacy. It turns out it’s used for cancer and HIV, Nelfinavir. Unless there was something I didn’t know about, it seemed like a mistake.

Went home to relax for the next 10 days.

Called the hospital asking about he drug and they refused to help. After many phone calls, my wife finally managed to get a hold of my surgeon. He had no idea what that drug was but was very concerned about prescribing a drug by mistake. (third world again)

This phase was so frustrating it was laughable. The lack of organization and communication between the doctors, hospital staff, and insurance is a reminder that I live in a third world country.  I’m very thankful to my wife. She managed to push all of the right buttons and wrangle all of these big egos together.

Quick overview of the ball dropping that went on.

1. Insurance said they would have an answer by the 26th
2. Scheduled surgery for Monday the 26th (gambling that the insurance was gong to approve it)
3. Never met my surgeon
4. Was never asked to get any blood-work or see the anesthesiologist
5. Forced a meeting with my doctor (which I had never met)
6. Said he doesn’t operate on  Mondays, rescheduled for Sat the 24th
7. Asked the doctor what I needed, he confirmed that I needed to speak with the anesthesiologist
8. Had to push the insurance to approve for Sat the 24th

The medical service seems like a buffet. You have to know what you want. We ended up having to coordinate everything on our own.

Arrived to Bogota on Sunday morning. This is where my wife saw me dragging one foot. I didn’t want to tell her the day before because she would worry about my trip and insist that I ride on a wheelchair. Her worrying wasn’t going to reattach my tendon, so I didn’t tell her.

After speaking with my mom (a physical therapist) and an orthopedic friend of mine, they both told me to go the emergency room, so I did.

We took a taxi there, since in Bogota driving and parking is a nightmare. The doctor analyzed my tendon and wanted to have a scan done to confirm. They conducted an ultra sound to view the extent of the rupture. The results said it was a 70% tear. During the surgery, it was confirmed that it was actually a 100% rupture.

They stated my options and said that if I wanted to play sports at the same level, surgery was required. In reading this blog, it seems that the non-operative method can yield the same results. I couldn’t schedule my surgery because the insurance has to approve the surgery first. Good thing I wasn’t bleeding to death.