lsjoberg’s AchillesBlog

…since the surgery to repair my ATR. I am now into just about week 3 of seriously ramping up the sprinting and cutting, and have survived the first 3 lacrosse practices with my son and the local club team here in Zurich. The side-to-side cutting is actually pretty good, since the cutting was a big focus of my PT starting at about Week 14 post-op and much of our lateral quickness comes from muscles other than the calf. The biggest hurdle is the “explosiveness” getting out of the gate, i.e. fore and aft quickness, since this requires the heaviest load on the calf and achilles as you plant your foot and try to explode off the ball of your foot. There is also a fair amount of work in restoring my upper legs and core, since it’s easy to forget how much stress you put on your upper legs and core when sprinting and trying to cut at “full speed” : )

To try and get back some semblance of my former self (which fortunately was never terribly “explosive” in terms of quickness), I’ve cut back the jogging to just a mile or mile and a half for warmup and then added a series of wind sprints and cutting drills, plus the typical stretching, core workout, shooting around, etc. This has brought back some soreness in the bad leg, so I am being very slow and careful in ramping up the intensity and length of the workouts, and am only going about half speed for most of our lax practices. After a long day in dress shoes, I still get the occassional swelling in the bad wheel, though my ortho and PT both told me to expect this to continue for up to 2 years post-op. And since I’m no spring chicken anymore, I’m also wary of hurting something else if I overdo the return to sports!!!

Anyway, so far so good, save for all the biofeedback, read: incredible soreness, to be expected when attempting any return to a more serious workout regimen…

Pretty shortly after we learned that we would be moving across the pond to Zurich, my 13 year old son and I set a goal of me being able to play lacrosse with him with the local club team here in the city. Sooooooo, at 7.5 months, after all the days and weeks of slowly building up to walking, then jogging, and then finally single-leg heel raises, etc., and having not been willing to make the leap this past Friday, I sucked it up tonight and spent 2 solid hours running around like a high school kid practicing with my son and his team (and pretty much spending all of my mental and physical energy trying not to fall on my ***). And, although I will definitely be sore in the morning and may not walk normal until the pre-practice stretch before Wednesday night’s practice, I managed to pull through and the achilles is now the least of my worries : )

Our son had the time of his life laughing at his old man, while my wife and our other kids vascillated on the sideline between cheering and jeering. I still was nowhere near my old self in terms of sprinting, cutting or even conditioning, but I’m pretty sure that words could never do justice to how amazing it felt to at least feel like I was flat-out running, and the stickwork and other parts of the sport did a solid job of keeping my mind distracted from thinking about the achilles all of the time. Even if I had never tried the sport before and had virtually no clue of what to do.

A good night. Heck, a great night. Now if only i could move enough to stumble from the sofa to the fridge for a cold beer…

After surviving our first week across the pond in Zurich, it dawned on me that I am at just about the 7.5 month mark after surgery for my ATR. Things continue to be slow but steady, the swelling is just about gone (except when forced to ride coach on 9-10 hour international flights) and I am able to get through everyday activities like walking with little to no problem. Weather was perfect here in Switzerland yesterday so celebrated with some basketball with the kids and then the first serious sprint workouts since my injury, including several wind sprints, suicides (gassers) and cutting drills at one of the local soccer (football) fields. The hardest part now is the conditioning - jogging and biking is one thing, but competitive sports requires a different kind and level of strength and conditioning for sprinting, cutting, etc., which will take some time to get back. Hopefully by the time fall arrives I’ll be back to just about “full-strength” : )

Our 13 year old started with the local lacrosse club this past Friday, and assuming I can chase down the needed protective gear I will try to join him this coming week. The local club is actually up to 2 teams and plays in a Swiss league with a total of just about 10 teams - the level of competition is quite good despite the youth of the sport here in Europe and it will be a great learning experience for our son (practices are in German, Swiss German and English). Including our son and me, we will make 4 Americans on the club team, plus one Swiss player who learned the sport while studying as an exchange student in Wisconsin, so maybe we are 4.5 Americans!!!

…since my ATR. Had to check the timeline on the blog, looks like I’m just about to hit 28 weeks since the surgery!

Took a little break from the running the last week or so and just biked. A LOT. Some of it was to give the bad wheel a little rest from the running, but mostly it was because with the move across the pond I knew I was going to have tear down our little private riding spot and I wanted to get as much riding in as possible. Having finished the tear down yesterday, today was the first day back running in a little over a week - and the leg felt absolutely great! Almost like a new leg, in fact. Started with an hour biking at our local track, then 2.5 mile run, then an hour of lacrosse stuff and footwork drills (have to learn the game enough to be able to help our son start with his new team in Zurich), and then some hoop in the driveway. Easily the best sweat I’ve had since last December, even if I’ll pay the price for it tomorrow : )

Will be spending the rest of the week down on the gulf in Texas, am really looking forward to a couple of days off from all the moving stuff and some solid runs along the beach in the morning before it gets too hot. Hard to believe that in a little less than 3 weeks we’ll be getting off a plane in Zurich and I’ll be continuing the rehab in a new place. Also hard to believe just how long it has been already, and that every week brings a new feeling of recovery - I am sure that some of the recovery stems from a little bit of persistence and elbow grease, but I am also discovering that a lot of the recovery is just simply the time it takes for these things to heal.

Continued good luck to everyone out there in ATR World, and hopefully those who keep finding themselves fortunate to join our exclusive little club will find hope and optimism (and a touch of humor) in this blog…

Well, just recently (June 3) celebrated the official 6-month mark since my ATR, and tomorrow is the official 6-month mark since the surgery to repair the ATR. Over the last couple of weeks I have slowly crept up to the 3-mile mark for running, and am continuing to work the heel raises, biking and hoop. Just in the last week or so I have felt another breakthrough coming in terms of strength and recovery, which has me cautiously optimistic that I might actually get back to sports at some point in the next 6 months : )

The bad wheel still gets a little tired toward the end of the day, especially after a workout, and I have been spending some quality time working the self-massage and trying to break up the last lingering hints of adhesion around the incision. The calf and other surrounding muscles still have a long way to go, but I am slowly starting to work my way back to a point where the injury is not constantly in the front of my thoughts.

Here is some video I took the other day shooting around in the driveway. I went back and watched a similar video I took at 14.5 weeks, and it’s honestly amazing how far I’ve come in just the last couple of months (as well as amazing at how far I still have to go)…

Well, it has been just about 24 weeks since my surgery to repair the ATR. I suppose I am now at the point where I truly appreciate just how right all of those people were 6 months ago who told me to expect a looooooooooong recovery. Every day continues to get better in terms of strength and flexibility, although the noticeable improvements are small. Spent last week across the pond looking at homes and schools, which was a ton of both stress and fun but not great for the rehab process since it meant a lot of sitting in planes and cars. Still, had a chance to spend a little time each evening walking downtown Zurich with my wife, and am now back on the road in San Francisco enjoying the walks up and down the ridiculous hills they have out here.

The biggest accomplishment of late has been jumping rope, which I started this past weekend after our return from Switzerland. Scary at first, and I am sure I am still favoring the bad wheel, but am able to do 3 sets of about 30 seconds each so far. This means my typical workout routine (when I can squeeze it in) has become stretching and core, a 2.25-2.5 mile run at about a 10 minute pace, 10-15 minutes of basic hoop drills, and then the jump rope. I am still working in lots of biking, too, although I have not been able to get on the bike the last couple of weeks because of the travel - thank goodness for holidays and 3 day weekends!!!

My next big goal is to be in sufficient shape to try to learn lacrosse with our 13 year old son once we have settled into Zurich. He started playing in 4th grade with what was then our brand-new local club, and one of our big struggles besides finding a house and schools has been figuring out how he would be able to play in the Zurich area since none of the schools offer lacrosse as a sport (our other kids play basketball and soccer so no worries for them). Turns out that lacrosse has started to grow in Switzerland as an adult recreational sport, with about a dozen club teams now formed and competing, and the local club in Zurich has 2 teams and seems amenable to letting him play - which is a great excuse for me to try a new sport and spend some more time with him : )

Here is our little baby boy this past weekend…

Squeezed out another 2.25 miler this afternoon. The calf and ankle continue to slowly get stronger, and the swelling continues to slowly die down to a dull roar. My rupture was down low, very close to where the achilles meets the heel, so with the suture job, the heel-shaving and the titanium screw in my heel the scar tissue is right down on top of my heel. And while the scar tissue continues to slowly break down / rearrange, I get some discomfort depending on the type of shoes I wear. I can pretty much wear a pair of running shoes untied all day and have no problems, but having to rock wingtips or other dress shoes all day while in the office can be a total PITA. Hopefully the scar tissue continues to break down to the point where I start approaching a “normal” looking achilles : )

Also, just found out that I’ll be moving to Zurich, Switzerland for a 2-3 year assignment. Well, actually about 20 minutes south of Zurich, along the lake. My wife and I get to spend next week across the pond trying to find a house, which will be interesting since our time allows for about 2 days of looking in a country we’ve never visited. With a mid-summer move target, I should be pretty much back to full speed by the time we move. And I’ll be crossing my fingers every morning while we’re over there hoping that I don’t do anything to cause me to experience European health care : )

Took some video in the driveway last week after what is now my fairly-regular 2.25 mile jog. Even got some bonus footage of our 10 year old, mere words can’t explain how awesome it is to really be able to shoot around outside with the kids!!!

The calf on the bad leg is still very much a slow but steady work in progress, it seems that walking and jogging are really doing the most in terms of impact on recovery at this point. And still get a little bit of swelling and soreness at the end of the day, especially when I’ve been up and about on the leg the whole day…

Well, forced myself to try a “real” jog today, even if only a 10 minute pace. Managed to squeeze out 2.25 miles, about half of my pre-injury jog (I hate jogging) - the first couple of steps were tough on the mental side but the leg seemed to warm up and actually felt pretty good toward the end of the run. I am already feeling it in my calf, just from the extra work the muscles had to put in. The achilles was a little sore an hour or two after the run, but the nightly self-massage seems to have done the trick and I’m sure it will feel fine in the morning after a night’s rest.

Have to travel this week again so I desperately wanted to test out an easy run before the trip, in the hope that I can find time to squeeze in a run or two on the road (in the “old days” I used to love getting up early on road trips to check out new places and let the brain ease into the workday)…

Have been struggling with continuing swelling and pain around the peroneal tendons along the side of the bad ankle. Finally had enough and decided to seriously work the self-massage of the area and experienced a real breakthrough in terms of reducing the swelling and pain but also a rather gross moment (involving basically pushing fluid up from the bottom of my ankle up my leg toward the knee). Mere words could never describe the look of horror and disgust on my wife’s face as she watched the whole ordeal, but neither could those words describe just how much the process has helped with the pain and swelling : )

I would guess the bad leg is now nearing the 70% mark, still a long way to go but I am generally able to walk normally, ride bikes to my heart’s content, and at least enjoy more and more sports activities with my kids. I am continuing to push the jogging, and can now run pretty much “normally” for just about 5 minutes before the fatigue sets in (which is mighty depressing given my pre-injury conditioning but also encouraging in that I can feel the leg picking up strength).

Next big goal is to be able to participate in my son’s father/son lacrosse scrimmage, assuming they do one this season, which will be sometime the second week of June. So pretty much have about 6 weeks of continued rehab and conditioning to get to the point where I can at least jog up and down the field and suffer the humiliation of having my oldest son push me around!!!

On to another day on the road to ATR recovery…