Posted on May 31st, 2019 by kamrynfig
My 2 weeks check-up was really a few days after 2 weeks. Going in to this appointment, I was very excited to finally get rid of the splint and hopefully get back in to my boot. When they took off the splint, the first thing I saw was staples which really freaked me out because I just assumed they used regular stitches. I had 4 staples for the main incision and then one staple on each side of my heel. They took off the splint and then took me to get x-rays before getting it looked at. The surgical area was surprisingly not that swollen at all and almost looked normal.
After x-rays my PA came in and checked it out to make sure nothing was infected and then gave the go-ahead to remove my staples. Getting staples out didn’t really hurt that much but it was definitely not a pleasant time. After getting the staples removed, he came back in and basically told me the plan for the upcoming months. I was allowed to wear my boot again with 2.5 inch heel wedges and was told I can weight bear as tolerated. After 3 weeks, I can cut down heel wedge to just 1 inch. After another 3 weeks, the heel wedge would be completely removed and then I have to wear the boot for another month.
One thing I was very disappointed about was that they told me I couldn’t do physical therapy. I know people start physical therapy from 2 weeks after surgery to a few months after and I thought that since I was young, active, and an athlete, that they’d have more aggressive means for recovery. When I asked about physical therapy, they told me I wouldn’t be able to start until around September-October, if I even needed it by then. He also told me that I couldn’t do any explosive moves or start basic jogging until around September.
Nonetheless, I was still very happy and very excited that I could automatically start weight bearing and that I had my boot back. My next appointment is with my actual surgeon on June 3 as a 2 months check-up.
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Posted on May 31st, 2019 by kamrynfig
I’ve had my hands full with school the past weeks but now that I’m done I can update again!
A week before surgery, I met with my PA and he gave me forms telling me what not to do before surgery which included taking pain relievers, eating food, drinking water, etc. I also found out that the operation will be percutaneous which I was very happy about. I didn’t find out the time of my surgery until around 2 days before the surgery day. For me, mine was scheduled super early around 6 I believe.
So morning of, the process before surgery took around 30-45 minutes. They put an IV in, checked my blood pressure, etc. Then, the surgeon came and re-reviewed by MRI and marked up my leg of where he was going to cut. He explained to me that it was going to be a small incision where my achilles tore and then he said he was going to anchor it to my heel. That part confused me a bit but I just went with it. They took me back to the operating room and knocked me out.
The operation itself only took about an hour and when I woke up, they fed me some jello and gave me water. After waking up, I was only there for about 30 minutes before they wheeled me out to the car. My lower leg was in a splint that was very, very thick because of all the ace bandages they used. Since I was still in school around the time I got my surgery, I also got a doctor’s note excusing me for 2 weeks because I had to keep my leg elevated at all times.
After reading other people’s comments about how much pain they were in after surgery, I was kind of freaked out and for the first day, I took my pain meds as often as directed. But, now that I think about it, I wasn’t in any pain honestly. The first 2-3 days after surgery, I still wasn’t experiencing that much pain. I was elevating 24/7 (except for when I went to the bathroom, obviously). The only time I was bothered by pain was when I was sleeping. I always woke up at 2 am the first few days after surgery which irritated me. It was very hard to find a comfortable position to sleep in as whatever position I settle in, it always starts to hurt a few hours later. But, after the first 2 days I was completely off my pain meds and I was instead using Advil, which worked just as well in my opinion. I was also taking Bayer to reduce the chance of blood clots.
After a week, it was practically painless. I still elevated most of the time but definitely not as much as I did during the first week. Sleeping got much much better. I found that putting a pillow inbetween my lower legs with my bad leg on top worked wonders. But overall at this point, the huge splint was more of an annoyance than anything else.
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Posted on April 12th, 2019 by kamrynfig
So I’m a new blog and in this post I’ll just be talking about my injury (how it happened, what’s happened so far, etc.). Just for background I’m a 17 year old female and I’ve been told by my doctors (and a bunch of google searches) that it is strange that I tore my achilles since I’m a young, healthy, track athlete.
Two weeks before I tore it I was told I had achilles tendonitis but like any other athlete, I refused to rest. On March 2, 2019 I was warming up for my 100m race when I felt it pop. At first I thought my shoe just broke and it felt like the heel of my shoe came unattached and rolled under my foot. But obviously that was not the case. As soon as I saw that my shoe was fine, I knew immediately what happened.
I went to the trainer at the meet and he said if he had to guess, it was just a partial tear. I went to the ER that day and they also believed it to be a partial rupture. They told me I didn’t need an MRI (spoiler alert: they were wrong). They put me in a splint up to mid thigh so I couldnt bend my leg at all and then I went to my regular doctor that Monday to get a referral to a specialized doctor/surgeon. I believe I had my first appointment by the end of the week. However, he seemed to question that it was a partial tear so he ordered an MRI. I also got my splint taken off and was given a boot instead. Got that done the following Monday and went back to the doctor that Wednesday when he confirmed I’ll need surgery since it was a full tear.
After that it was just a waiting game on when my surgery will be. Three weeks after my injury, I finally got a surgery date - April 2. Looking through other blogs I saw that basically everyone got their surgery within a week of getting injured so I was kinda worried since i wasn’t getting mine until over a month after my injury date.
So between the day I got injured and before my surgery, I basically felt no pain. There was swelling and some bruising but it was all minimal and not too dramatic. I’ll talk all about my pre-op/post-op stuff next post ((:
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