Hello world!
Yo, I am 29 years old male and on 4/18/2017 I tore my left Achilles tendon playing basketball. This occurred exactly one year after I grade two sprained my right ankle playing basketball (officially retired now). I wanted to diary out the process I have been through this far to potentially help someone in the future and also hear if my experience is similar to others.
Mistakes:
1. My first mistake was playing basketball at 200lbs and after almost a year of rehabbing my right ankle. My body still wanted to play as if I was still 180.
2. Waited 3 days to see a Sports Occ doctor who later consulted me to an orthopedic surgeon who saw me over a week post injury. This was a mistake because I allowed the two ends my tendon to spread apart making surgery my only option.
3. Not immobilizing my left leg. Even at a week I could of done boot therapy if I just would of not walked on that foot.
Things I did right:
1. I chose to get an ultrasound vs. MRI which was thousands of dollars cheaper and able to diagnose me the same.
2. Decided to go to the doctor.
Now that is out of the way I wanted describe the pain and sensations. When the tear happened, it felt like another player simply stepped on my heel. I fell down but knew something was wrong. Pain at this point was like a bad muscle cramp. I was able to treat this with ibuprofen. I refused to go to ER because I have the high deductible plan and I figured a few days would not hurt. In addition, I could still point my toe making me think my Achilles was fine (This was false because you have other muscles that can do this, they just don’t have any power).
After a couple days of only walking around with minimal pain I tried to self-diagnose.
1. I still have no power. (Weird)
2. My knee hurts more than my Achilles from walking funny. (Good because I felt a rupture should hurt worse) I have no pain in my calf (bad because at this point I was trying to convince myself it was a calf tear)
3. Running my finger up my leg I could still feel my Achilles, but there is a spot just 4 inches up where I did not feel it… this is what ultimately took me to the doctor. From this visit I had an ultrasound and was told I tore at least 75% of the tendon if not all of it. I went to an orthopedic doctor and he told me my only option was surgery. I was bummed because I really wanted to avoid it, but I also wanted it fixed the right way. So on 4/26/2017 I had the surgery.
Take-aways so far.
1. Get the nerve block. I almost did not because I was convinced the pain would not be any worse after the repair than before. Which I handled with Ibuprofen. On a scale to 1-10 before surgery I was at a 2, after the block wore off I was at a 6-7 just laying down. Like a constant cramp.
2. Be prepared to get some rest. Honestly not much more you can do.
3. Get the scooter. I almost did not because I wanted to man up with crutches. The splint you get weighs a lot and your knee will take a blow holding it up while using crutches.
Day 2 of post-surgery I have to say was miserable (pain was consistently around 5-7). At first I didn’t want to take pain medication, but ended up having to take some. I used Norco 5-325 mg 2 pills every 6-8 hours. I was trying to tough it out for a couple of hours before taking more even though it typically wore off after 4 -5 hours. I have minor epilepsy and I was not sure how the meds would do so I was trying to be careful. On top of all that, while I was awake I did not mind being in pain. I was more concerned about not getting used to the medicine by the time I wanted to fall asleep. I was also prescribe a generic form of Valium, but I made the decision to only use it at nighttime to help me sleep.
Day 3 (2 days after surgery) my pain levels are down around 3-5. I am still taking medication every 6-8 hours but now only one pill. Since I was not in as much pain, I decided to scoot around on my scooter and clean up bit. It did not take long for me to grow tired (20 minutes). I assume this is normal. Tomorrow my goal is to be 100% off the daily medication.
Week 1 – I was very mentally unstable. I had read everything I could on the injury and what to expect. I read about Re-ruptures, my chances of rupturing my other Achilles (at one point I was more worried about when this was going to happen than the one that was actually torn), I watched videos of athletes tearing theirs. This was about when I reached out to achillesblog for the first time to try to ease my mind. Shout outs to cserpent and pjhalifax for helping. It was also at this point that I decided to no longer google any more on the injury.
Week 2 – I received my cast and I have to say it is nice. It is way lighter than the splint and stronger. I am no longer worried about my daughter accidentally jumping on my leg while I am laying down to give me a hug (she is 2.5). When the doctor removed my splint, I was surprised at how small my calf had gotten in about 3 weeks of not using it. I was also shocked at how stiff my Achilles was. He tried to get my foot to neutral, but it wasn’t happening he said he has seen worse though. When he pushed on my foot, it was weird. The best way I can describe it was like a week rubber band stretching. Right before he put my cast on I asked him if he wanted me to try to get my foot more neutral and he said no. Said there was plenty of time later to rehab it. The only pain I have is from the incision and that is only occasional. At worse feels like I fell and scraped my leg.
Week 3.5 – I am in great spirits the non-google treatment is easily the best thing I have done for myself. On top of that, I have grown used to the new lifestyle of bumming around. This week I get my cast taken off and I go to a boot. I am thinking I will go straight to FWB, but I am not positive. My doctor seems to be a little more aggressive, but on top of not googling my injury I told myself I am going to do exactly what the doctor says. I would say there is absolutely no pain and I started moving my foot side to side in the cast to start a little rehab on my own. I am avoiding movements that would activate my Achilles, but I will say a couple times I have flexed my calf. There was no fan, but my calf did feel tingly. Yesterday I took a few basketball shots while on my scooter, and I am afraid the itch to play may never die.
Good Luck on your recovery!
Filed under: Uncategorized and
Hi, this is a comment.
To delete a comment, just log in, and view the posts’ comments, there you will have the option to edit or delete them.
Glad you’re doing better mentally! A lot of it is just that - LOL! Of course every step forward on the road to recovery does make you feel even better. You can probably scrunch your toes in the cast too - though it doesn’t hurt to ask your doctor first. I wouldn’t give up playing basketball - ATR can happen doing lots of different things as you’ve probably read with the various blogs here. I hated the splints and the cast - the cast was much heavier for me. Glad it is better for you. I was so glad to get into a boot at 3.5 weeks! I agree that the knee scooter is great!
I have to say that I’ve had excellent recovery following my doctors protocol. I’ve had very little pain throughout (well can’t really say what I might have felt the first 5 days since I did take norco as directed then). I’ve actually had more random pains lately than I had the first 3 months. Nothing that requires more than an advil when I go to bed, sometimes. They don’t last so I assume it’s just pains from new things moving or scar tissue breaking up or …
Good luck as you move into the boot and PWB to FWB.
Glad things are looking up!
You aren’t kidding about the MRI costs…I had one done the same day I went to the ER and they billed nearly $5000. I was very lucky to be on my wife’s insurance (just got on the plan on 3/1, injury on 3/3) but this still got expensive really fast. The bills have been mind boggling.
Everything got a lot better for me around week 4. Now weeks 1-3 are mostly a blur. Definitely a low point but once I could move around a little more that faded away.
Week 4 - So I am officially in the boot! That being said DANG that hurt. So by far the most uncomfortable thing I’ve done was stretching this bad boy out the first time to get it in the boot. Looking back I was so naive to think I would be walking out of the clinic today. The pain has subsided a lot since the initial stretching, but Im not gonna lie that part was rough. At one point I had to ask should it be popping (not popping like when i tore, but little pops) they said that is expected.
I cant say I am thrilled to start PT next week, but at least I am making progress!
Did anyone else feel extreme discomfort the first time they really had to stretch their tendon? Mine is so tight right now that I am holding off on a shower until tomorrow so that it can stretch out over night in the boot.
My foot was forced from a lovely plantarflexed position to the horrid forced dorsiflexion when I went from the back slab to the full cast. My surgeon sat there, pushing on my foot, while the cast set, and I uttered several unpleasantries. It got used to the position pretty fast though.
PT should help with pain and swelling and the tightness. Good luck going forward.
Yeah it definitely was not fun. Last night was pretty miserable as well. I had constant sharp pain and burning in my heel. If I stood up for a little bit and put a little weight on my foot it went away for about an hour. Eventually I started getting this pain in my toes as well. This was when I started to think it was a circulation issue. Regardless it lasted all night and woke me up ever hour. I am hopeful today it is better, but I think it is already starting up again.
On a positive note I am able to walk with crutches and put around 30% body weight on the foot. I’m a little concerned to do too much, and wonder if I need to let yesterdays stretch heal a bit before I try to do more. I really don’ know how all this works.
Wow, I don’t think I could have handled the stretching at all. Every time the doctor or assistant even touched my foot in the early days I felt like I was going to pass out…I mean, I almost did. They had to have me lie back on the table until the room stopped spinning.
After that they put wedges in the boot and didn’t try any pushing! I peeled off 1/4 inch wedge pieces every few days to ease the transition.
So that is the other crazy part. I only got an inch wedge made up of 2 half inch wedges. It was insane haha. I mean its not like it stretched that much; however, when I felt i was at my max, they said i had 3-5 inches to go and this was like all within a couple minutes. The nice thing is my calf muscle tightened up so it doesnt look as sad and pathetic now.
I dont see the doctor for another 4 weeks. He said at that point he expects me to be walking fairly normally in the boot with no wedges.
5 Weeks - Well I am about 1 week in the boot and I can walk on it with out a crutch about 50% of the time. It is not great but I will take it. Tomorrow is my first day of physical therapy. I am a little nervous for it, because I am pretty sure it is going to be very uncomfortable having them stretch my tendon. Im still sticking with they know what I need more than I do, and if something gets screwed up then its their fault haha. What was everyone else experience with PT? When I was fitted for my boot i remember my tendon popping and burning. I was told this is normal, but I just wanted to see if others experienced this? My dad has gone through 2 shoulder surgeries and he reassured me this was normal.
Disclaimer this part is gross so stop reading:
How does everyone clean their boot? I made a mistake and showered without getting all the dead skin off my foot, and now it is caked into my boot. I want to clean this bad boy so I dont offend my physical therapist haha. Im kind of a clean freak and this thing is grossing me out.
My experience with PT has been good, for the most part, and that it helps a lot. It took me a long time to realize that more isn’t always better, and to stop before reaching the pain level. And “no pain, no gain” doesn’t usually apply here. I’m also a little OCD, maybe an overachiever, so if I’m told to do x exercises, I will do them NO MATTER WHAT. But I have learned to listen to my body more than my brain, and if I’m hurting it’s OK to take a day off - it will likely end up better in the end. I always feel like the bad kid in school who didn’t do his homework if I don’t do my PT exercises, but sometimes rest is the best thing. There’s a fine balance between doing enough and not too much. After my surgery last spring (I’m on my second one now), I ended up with tendinitis in 6 different tendons because I pushed too hard and tried to do too much too soon. And in the end, ended up having this second surgery.
As for the boot, I always wear a thin sock under mine. My surgeon was kind of adamant about that. I have heard of some people using baking soda, for odour. With some boots the foamy inside is removable (attached by Velcro) and can be washed. Mine is like this and it took me weeks before I even realized that!! Failing those, I’d ask Google….Google knows everything!!
Good luck with your first PT. Let us know how it goes.
I always wore a sock in my boot too. Usually an ankle length sock and I would cut the top off of my hubby’s old socks to cover the calf area. I didn’t see a way to remove the foam to clean it so I just made sure I always had a sock on.
And it will take more than one shower to get all that dead skin off! I worked at it diligently and I think it took over a week. And it was kinda gross!
And, if you haven’t read that many blogs, don’t assume your PT folks are good. Make him/her prove it.
There are good and bad in every field. If they are doing things that feel wrong tell them so and if they don’t listen find someone new. At least that’s my take from reading the various blogs.
I’ve only had one PT session since my doctor wanted me to focus on light stretching and strengthening this month. So my PT guy showed me what to do, checked a few things, found that my glute muscles on my surgery side were really weak - gave me some more exercises for that and sent me on my way with pictures and directions to do my exercises daily. My next PT appt is Friday and I think the real work will start then. My PT experience, thus far, doesn’t seem to be the norm. I’m guessing yours will be more involved from the get-go.
Thanks for the suggestions I ended up hand washing it and used a hair dryer on it. Seems to be back to new. I found the instructions and it specifically said not to wash it in a machine. I think that is because mine has a little pump on it and I would assume they don’t want something going wrong with it.
I am not terribly worried about my PT but more so curious as to what is to come. I seem to be somewhat in the minority with the first time my Achilles stretched being so bad. I cant find anyone else having the experience I had so maybe I am just weak haha. The first rip (literally felt like a rip) was most likely the top pain in my life and I’ve had appendicitis that I hear ranks pretty high on the pain scale.
I only wanted to add my own gross dead skin story. My foot wasn’t that bad in the early going - I washed it pretty well as soon as I could, and I was surprised that there wasn’t a ton of skin coming off.
That all changed last weekend when I went to the pool in my parents’ community. I did some walking around in the pool and played with my son a bit. Then I carefully climbed out and saw a lady staring at my foot - it looked like something you’d see on a corpse. All this nasty skin was coming off and my foot was kind of wrinkly-looking. I crawled to my chair and used a towel to wipe off my foot…the skin just kept coming off. It was so nasty, but kind of funny, too. They’ll probably ban me from that pull though haha.
hahaha, I can see how that would happen since mine seemed to happen after mine had soaked for a bit.
Week 7 - So far PT has been a breeze. They have not been very aggressive with it, but at the same time I have found I am able to do more things than I thought. At week 6 PT had me in 2 shoes riding a stationary bike which is probably my favorite thing to do. Every week my swelling has gone down considerably, and my foot in general is starting to feel normal. Surprisingly my flexibility is almost 100% back. I contribute this to doing my exercises everyday and really getting after it. I never did it to the point where it hurt, but I would stretch it to my comfort zone. Because of this my PT has asked me to start wearing 2 shoes at home as soon as I get off work for as long as I can stand it. Which is amazing and scary at the same time. Next week I go back to my Ortho where I will most likely be officially released from my walking boot. Woot!
Words of advice - The first two Week in is by far the worse. 8 weeks seems like an eternity away, but you just have to live each day to its fullest. Sure you might not be able to do anything, but if you get through those weeks you start to see advances quickly. Second, dont focus on the 6-12 month goal. That is forever away. Take your time and focus on what is going to make you better next week or even tomorrow. When I started doing this my mood improved greatly.
Also I apologize for not being on here much, it seems anytime I start reading to much about my injury I end up causing myself stress. I find it is easiest to check in every few weeks. Good luck to everyone!
Finally in 2 shoes, though I got to say it is pretty scary walking around. In PT we did a test and I was only able to push about 30lbs with my toe. Unfortunately I weigh a lot more than that. So I am either going to go a crazy diet or beef this bad boy up. The doctor was good to scare me before I left warning me that I was susceptible for re-rupture for another month so i needed to be careful. Im hoping the strength builds up quickly now.
Congrats on 2 shoes! The strength will build - but not quickly! Remember to focus on smaller steps so you don’t strain it as much as you walk. You’re foot will probably tell you to do that anyway
Did anyone experience shin splints when they forst started walking? My repaired leg’s shin is super sore.
10 Weeks - Shin Splints are gone for the most part. The worst thing I have now is occasional pain in the actual Achilles. It seems my calf is really tight towards the bottom, and this keeps me from walking normally. I really havent been able to do an exercise that I feel in my upper meatier part of my calf. Limping is super annoying, but I can already tell it is getting better. I think its a matter of wanting to walk fast like I used to, but instead having to go at a snail’s pace. I am up to walking about 3 blocks straight before I have to stop. Tonight I am going to shoot for half a mile, but im going to focus on going slow and easy. The bottom of my heel seems to be what takes the most abuse right now since I still cant displace my wait on my entire foot very well.
I know this post was fairly negative, but I really am feeling pretty positive. To end on a brighter note yesterday I was able to stand on one foot on a foam balance block for 50 seconds. My foot strength has improved greatly!
Focus on smaller strides but stepping as normally as possible - if you aren’t already doing that. Longer strides stretch the achilles more than it can be stretched right now. I was walking incredibly slow to start and taking little bitty steps - LOL! Of course my Westie loved it since he had LOTS of time to sniff. My Schnauzer not so much since we were going slow and didn’t go very far - LOL! But as the achilles healed and I continued to walk I slowly was able to increase my stride and my pace. You really don’t want to walk or exercise to the point of pain. I’m at 19 weeks now and my PT still tells me - if it hurts stop. So that’s what I do. I was doing 2 footed hops and did a diagonal one and it hurt so I stopped. The achilles is still sore today - so I’ll back off on exercises that stress it today and try again tomorrow.
If you haven’t already check with your doc or PT about what kind of stretching you can do now - but don’t overdue it! Things are still healing.
ka744 — I still get that feeling in the area you described and I’m at 17 weeks. Now it’s like more of a thickness or swollen feeling, rather than an ache. I’m okay being on my feet almost all day and doing quite a bit of walking, it’s just that toward the end of the day I slow down and my limp comes back a bit.
cserpent - I’m sure you feel like a broken record repeating yourself, but thank you for doing it! My PT actually had me do quite a bit of stretching early on and he said my flexibility is where it needs to be. So he had me quit. He said we will pick it back up in a couple weeks, but didnt want it to get too flexible.
pjhalifax - Last friday my PT massage the hell out of my calf and said I had several knots. My calf has felt much better and I was able to walk 8 blocks straight yesterday. My goal is to add a couple blocks every week.
15 weeks - Similar to some of you guys I kind of feel I have hit my first plateua. I know I am getting better, but its just really slow now. Ive developed another concern with my “good” leg which involves sharp pain in my achilles and general tightness when I stretch it. It seems I may have developed some tendonitis due to over using it. Has this happened to anyone else? It seems like whenever I stretch it I get some sharp pains. Im hopeful I am over thinking it, but it definitely seems to be my achilles. The pain is substantial enough that I also know im not fabricating. Hopefully it all goes away, I really do not want to fall into the rupture the other within 18 months statistic.