Lou’s Road to Recovery!

Hi all. I’m nearly 12 weeks post-op, and until last week was doing really well - walking normally (well, not quite normally, but normal for me!) in shoes, back to work at my retail job, but still taking it pretty easy. Then I got a bit ahead of myself and went to a music festival where I spent all day on my feet, walking from one band to another and since then I’ve been a little bit stiff and sore and I’ve noticed an increase in the lump on my achilles. I’ve had the lump since surgery, it’s just a slightly raised area about an inch long that starts where they re-joined the tendon, and travels up my calf, and it’s not red or sore or swollen but now I’m worried. As I said, I’ve had the lump since surgery, and my whole AT is very thick, but I’ve noticed it’s more pronounced now. Has anyone else had this? Is it just my body telling me to slow down, or should I get it checked out? Any advice would be appreciated.
And good luck to everyone on their ATR journeys!

Hello all! Annie, thanks for the reply, this site has already been invaluable to me and I feel very lucky to have found it.
I saw my surgeon today for my second post-op review and it’s all good news for me! He’s really happy with the way my wound has healed and I have little or no scar tissue which I attribute to the zinc, vitamin C and silica supplements I’ve taken since the surgery. And even better, he’s letting me put weight on both feet and use one crutch for balance! I can’t believe it! It feels pretty weird and looks even weirder (I still don’t have full flexibility in my achilles) but it’s so nice to feel slightly “normal” again. He did tell me that he expected “a girl of your age and fitness to have more flexibility” (I’m 30, but I felt like a little kid when he said that!) so I’ve been given lots more exercises to do and I’m allowed to start swimming which will be lovely. Being able to do my silly one-shoe shuffle means I’ll be able to make cups of tea AND not have to get someone to carry it to my couch for me, I can make my own lunch, have a shower all by myself and soon I’ll be wearing 2 shoes. Ah, the things you take for granted once you’ve ruptured your achilles!
Good luck to everyone on their journey.

Hello fellow recoverers!
My name’s Louise, I’m 30 years old and I live in Australia. I ruptured my right achilles tendon on January 16 playing netball and had surgery to repair it the next day.
Firstly, I just wanted to thank Dennis for this site and to everyone who has posted on it. I have gathered so much information and so much hope from you all in the past fortnight and I’m incredibly grateful I stumbled across this site.
I’ve been very lucky so far, with little swelling or pain. I haven’t been in a cast or splint, my surgeon prefers to leave the foot bandaged to allow for greater mobility.
I had my first post-op visit to the surgeon this week and he is thrilled with my recovery so far. He told me I should have been moving my foot around more (which they didn’t tell me and anyway, I was too scared to move it at all) and he’s given me some simple stretches to do. Hopefully, I’ll start some light weight bearing in 3 weeks, when I see him again. It all feels very fast, but I’m feeling great and my surgeon hasn’t had a patient re-rupture in his 30 years of practice so I trust him. I have to trust someone, right?
Thanks for reading!