jumpmanrugs’s AchillesBlog

Andrew it’s hard to tell you exactly what is going on, “sharp pain” feeling means different things to different people…so I’ll preface this by saying you should see your doc if you are concerned… If rest helped that tells you that you were doing too much….I get two types of pain…what I call “at the repair site pain” which is along the tendon, not sharp at all but more throbbing, a feeling of tenderness and it lasts all day sometimes….I get what I call Zaps, which are sharp, intense, and don’t last but a few seconds, those are due to nerve endings….the bump may be fluid built up and trapped, sometimes lymph nodes can get blocked making pockets of fluid, I only know this because it happened to me and it was at the top of my incision, and now that bump, after a few months is going down as I swell less and less. I only swell now if I use the tendon too much. I don’t do any high impact moves to work out or rehab. I still swell but not much and not often…(22 weeks now). If you had not been swelling and now you are, again it may be due to the high impact running stress to the healing tendon or just too much activity overall.

Hey going on 21 weeks post op. I believe it is part of the healing process. I was concerned about sharp pain few weeks ago that lasted for a couple weeks..I stopped going gym and just massaged and iced which stopped the sharp pain feeling. I think rest is critical to the healing process. I have been getting a lot of swelling and a little bump forming on bottom of my incision. I have been running 3X week and been running around on basketball court but not jumping yet. I don’t feel any pain but was curious as well if anybody is expreining more swelling than previous weeks

Well it’s hard to say what’s going on with someone else. I can say at 20 weeks on my off days from calf work (anything involving the tendon) I often get nerve tingles. Don’t know why it happens on off days, but it does. Like you nothing serious, you just know it’s there.

Nice! I was playing golf at 8 weeks. Maybe not the smartest thing, but I went on total instinct, not just what I was told to do. I followed how things felt and stopped if I felt any pain.
Always, always be careful where you step, but do a little pushing along the way and you will recover faster!

Wow! I can’t wait to join you on the treadmill.

How is 20 weeks? Are you almost fully healed?

Thanks for sharing your story Derek! I have been pushing hard also, if I’m honest I haven’t had much down time at all because it drives me mad, i need to be locked away on days I don’t do anything, thankfully I am either walking or doing form shooting on those days so it’s active rest. How is it now? I’m excited to hear more!

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Hi Norm!

Thankfully I haven’t hit any kind of plateau at all yet, because I keep pushing and pushing. I haven’t lost my nervousness, but have gained confidence in my Achilles. I don’t want to not do enough because I wasn’t confident, but don’t want to do too much because I got too excited, so am doing what my body feels!

I will take a look, thank you! I am sorry you had to go trough that!

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I was asking if other people have had a recovery in 6 months and gone back to their normal activities, really.

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I am at almost 20 weeks. I have experienced periods where I thought I was making fast progress, then it has felt incredibly slow making it to the next breakthrough. I am just now starting to do very light plyometric type exercises and that seems to have kicked me up to the next level. I’m running on a treadmill, doing dynamic lunges and one legged jumping and hopping exercises in PT, rock climbing, and hiking off trail. No running on pavement yet or any activities that would require jumping or landing in uncontrolled environments.

I have been pushing pretty hard through most of my rehab. I try to keep a good balance between workouts and recovery. I have noticed that if I push too hard, the additional downtime required during the subsequent days was probably counter productive. I am now happy with being back to normal, less the running and jumping activities, and have been seeing steady progress for the past few weeks. At his point am I happy to take what recovery my body gives me and to avoid any time consuming setbacks.

I think the answer is Yes, that you’re ahead of the curve now. I don’t think that makes you immune to the “frustrating plateau” that usually starts soon, but you’re doing great, don’t stop! And don’t lose all of your nervousness and fear, either, because you can still suffer painful setbacks if you overdo. I outline a painful MONTH-long setback of my own on one of my blog pages - from following the advice of my sports-medicine-clinic PT, when I KNEW she was wrong!

I’m not sure what you’re asking with your question. Are you asking if you others could run at 12 weeks as you tried and were able to for a short distance? If not can you restate your question?

Donna, thank you so much for your kind words! You are awesome!! Happy Holidays to you too!!
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I enjoyed the You Tubes, especially being able to go back to where you were at the point I’m at now. Thanks! Happy Holidays.

herewegoagain - You are awesome!! Thank you so much for your kind words!

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My location is Scotland, and it’s flippin’ freezing haha!!

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Gravity, that is so freaking awesome! Yeah it’s changed a lot since then haha, but at least the 90’s knew how to play hard basketball and not cry at fouls! Haha my surgeon actually made a comment like that and said ‘You don’t want to be a 40 year old guy trying to do things you could do when you were 20′. I disagree, I’ll still be aiming to school people at 40 haha!

I hope you are in them, will check out your blog asap!!

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Exactly what I thought when I got back in the gym NOTN! I did 10 sets of each and started off light, when I knew it wasn’t hurting I pushed a bit more. It’s still not maximum weights but it’s enough to make a difference and save me mentally! I make sure to stretch inbetween my sets as well so nothing gets tight (Tendon wise, I mean)

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Sounds great, but I’d concentrate on the exercises you can do a bunch of in a row. Lots of reps, low resistance. Strength and bulk will come.

Jumpman sorry for the late reply here, been busy… I played back in the late 90s in Finland, so looking at how the game has developed since, especially physically, I would have no business on the courts anymore And “for a living” in this context is what I considered a living back then, but it paid the bills… Funnily enough, I did my AT playing ball now, maybe it’s dangerous to play a game you once could actually play when you get older. My doc certainly had some pretty sarcastic comments about gents nearing 40 thinking they are 20, but it is what keeps him in business. Will update my own blog after the 6 week mark and fingers crossed will be able to talk about two shoes then…

Bending your knee is a Good Thing! Especially when boot walking. Your ankle is the only joint you should be nervous about.
I see the ATR Timeline Widget now (& the NYC Marathon one), but it doesn’t list your location. That’s entered in a separate step, IIRC (it’s been a LONG time since I did mine!), then the info/data goes into the Widget.

I love your attitude and am sure that you will have a great recovery. Keep icing that ankle and it should east the ache!

normofthemoon - Thank you so much! Yeah it’s really sore today, and I was walking in the boot too so it’s odd that it is. I think it’s from the last two days of not having it on. Feeling it in my knee where I’m scared to bend it though! Lots of screaming at Physio today! Haha, I’m in the UK, and I thought I had put the timeline widget on?! I’ll try again!

gravity - Awesome! Where did you play?! How did you do yours this time? Thank you so much, i appreciate your kind words! Haha he certainly did, and I plan to come back with a chip on my shoulder just like my idol!

As someone who once made a living on bball, I can imagine what a setback this feels like. I was lucky enough to escape any serious injury back then, now this is more of a hindrance rather than a threat to my livelihood. So great attitude, positive thinking can only help. And remember, Kobe seems to do ok after his ATR

Great attitude, love it! Might as well be positive - as my Dad would say, “for the same price”!
Walking uphill is a MAJOR challenge in early 2 shoes, you’re right to use the boot for it.
Good luck, keep posting!
Where are you? ATR Timeline Widget will answer that and other FAQs.