20 Weeks Post Op
Five months after surgery, my surgeon is letting me go. Saw him today and he told me I don’t need to come back unless I’m having problems and no more physical therapy will be prescribed. Going to miss those guys! At my last session earlier this week, they gave me a black Theraband as a parting gift. Working with them made all of the difference in my recovery.
I did have a setback a couple of weeks ago where I pushed too hard (jumping, squats, jogging) and strained my posterior tibial tendon. Had a very painful couple of weeks where we backed off in physical therapy with less aggressive exercises and the PT worked on it instead of my Achilles with the deep massage. It was significantly better this week. I plan to slowly ease back into activities; the PT suggested adding one thing a week to see how it feels. My surgeon gave me some inserts for my shoes to tilt my foot and to give my PTT a break.
A couple of shoe inserts and a Theraband later, I am on my own for the rest of my recovery.
I have all of the exercises I need to work on my calf, which feels strong, just smaller than my left. I bought a balancing pad to build strength there. I do toe walks, heel walks, monster walks, and heel raises. Double heel raises are easy and I can go up two, shift to one just fine. A controlled single heel raise remains elusive. The surgeon doesn’t seem to be too worried about it. He just says to walk a lot. So, hopefully, spring will eventually arrive (another Midwest snowstorm this weekend) and I can get outside to walk. I plan to continue to focus on upper body and core at the gym while riding the assault bike. Still afraid of aggravating the PTT with rowing and squatting. I’ll add them back one week at a time. I was hoping to get back to Crossfit classes in March, but I’m pushing it back to April, just to be sure. I’m tired of setbacks, so I’m ignoring all of the other blogs that show people doing a ton of activities at five months. My body told me to slow down, so I’m listening this time.
On the bright side, I noticed a definite improvement overall this week. My Achilles feels stronger and more stable. The limp is gone and as long as I don’t go too hard, the PTT feels fine too. Feels much closer to normal than last week. Still have some numbness from the nerve block on the outside ankle, but it has no impact on anything nor pain.
Hoping today’s doctor’s visit is truly my last one!
Filed under: Uncategorized and
But I can do an unassisted heel lift on one foot. So, again, recovery for each of us is unique. I have moments when my foot feels totally normal. A nice change, but it doesn’t happen too often yet.
Way to go! Congrats on being released at 5 months! And definitely don’t overdue it! Setbacks suck - LOL! Setbacks set me back over a month - only because I didn’t know how I was overdoing it. But I’m making progress again - at 7 months and just starting to run/walk.
But I can do an unassisted heel lift on one foot. So, again, recovery for each of us is unique. I have moments when my foot feels totally normal. A nice change, but it doesn’t happen too often yet.
Thanks, cserpent! I am having more moments that feel more normal-ish. I’m just glad the PTT is improving because I was terrified that I had torn it too. So I’m slowing down, but pressing forward.
Sorry about your PTT but glad you got it calmed down. Note taken about listening to our body and slowing down. I am at 10 weeks and have began full weight bearing exercises and even walking barefoot at PT but my foot near my last two toes has sharp pain that comes and goes to the point that I am walking barefoot in PT one day and then can’t barely stand on the foot the next. Very weird, likely from the nerve damage and the nerves trying to re-innervate the muscles in my foot which feels really weak. Does this all sound normal to you guys in terms of having ups and downs while trying to get back to walking in shoes?
Anyway, thanks for sharing kamueller and congrats on being cleared! Stay diligent and keep up the hard work to make sure you get all your strength back. Best of luck, you’ll be jumping like cserpent in no time!
@beginnersmind19 There were lots of ups and downs day to day. It was more helpful to see progress in terms of weeks, where I could clearly see improvement. I still get random pains shooting through my foot, especially around the numbed area. Probably trying to come back to life. Also, I’m 47 and I’ve accepted the fact that life now is random unexplained pains here and there, lol.
I feel like you’re the only other person, aside from me, recovering from a torn Achilles and is experiencing posterior tibial tendon pain!!! How long did it take for your PTT to stop hurting? Did you just back off your activity level, have PT done on the posterior tibial tendon, and added shoe inserts? Mine is killing me and has been for several weeks now. I’ve pretty much backed off on all my activities, icing like crazy, and gone to see a PT specifically about it along with a sports medicine doctor who said she doesn’t think it’s torn. But I’ve also scheduled an MRI for it because I’m incredibly concerned about the PTT pain.