kiwiclaire’s AchillesBlog

Even though from reading this site I knew that from 11 weeks would be a depressing slog with progress so slow that you hardly felt you were making any, it still hasn’t made it much easier.

Everyday life got back to normal - work, shopping, housework, socialising etc. however sport did not and I have had to make a real effort to keep working on the achilles. The best thing by far has been the pool; I made a commitment to go twice a week (I usually go once) and as well as my usual swimming I worked on single leg raises in the pool - first with water at chest height (10% body weight) gradually working towards it at hip height. I did the same progression for walking forwards and backwards, going slowly and really working my calf to push me up or let me down.

When I did a landbased single leg raise at 17 weeks I felt I’d turned a corner as I can now do more landbased stuff and it psychologically made me feel safer to try other things - i.e. get on the horse off a bank at the side of a track rather than a mounting block.
I am walking further each time, still with the geeky walking poles but who cares?! I feel the end is in sight and the non surgical rehab I have followed has really suited me. I don’t know if it has been much faster as for as long as I can remember I’ve told people to expect it to take 6 months for achilles rupture, and for me I am anticipating it will be around then that I do my bi-weekly 10k hilly walking loop without the poles and feel confident to get on my horse from the ground.