Manny’s AchillesBlog

Manny,

Best of luck to you and your wife. My husband and I have each had surgeries and had to take care of each other. In sickness and in health!

Congrats on your recovery, Oscar. I’m sure your wife is grateful you are able to return the favor.

Good to hear about you. Not so good the wife. At least now you will a chance to pay her back. Thanks for the update.

Hi Manny,

Glad the tendon is coming along. You are not alone as I still cannot do a single heel lift! Maybe we would be strong enough to do it on the moon!

Good luck with the project!

Manny it’s great to hear from you. It sounds like you are now able to dance up a storm! You must be loving that I know lots of people (myself included) who would love to go to space, but you’re the first I know to be actively pursuing that dream … That’s inspiring! Good luck and I hope that all your dreams come true!

felicidades manny!

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Yay!!! Running… That’s quite a big accomplisment, even if it’s just a few seconds!!! Keep it up and you will be surprised how fast your progress will be now!

thanks, couchy007 and YES, I am excited because I actually feel that now I am running better than I sused to… probably due to the physical therapy…
Interesting datum: had an ABI test today and my ankles had substantially higher blood pressure than my arms or big toe… weird…Maybe Metonia knows what it means. I have to wait for the cardiologist to tell me next month.
Take care!
Happy Healing!

Wow Manny that is awesome! You must be delighted, that is a real milestone to celebrate. Nice one!
Couchy

5 months… Looking back, it goes real fast doesn’t it?
Who is calling you a pansy??? By no means you are a pansy, there is nothing wrong with being cautious.
Everyone has strenghts and weaknesses, it’s what make us unique.

Sorry to hear about your infection… Hope it heals soon.
Going down the stairs normally is a great milestone!

One trick to try when you are ready to try single heel lifts: try leaning against a table with your arms, standing with both feet first, then lift both heels, and progressively (daily) decrease the weight on your non-injured leg, and increase the weight on your injured leg. Then, as you get more comfortable with the days, remove one hand from the table, then both.

Jumps would be better to practice in the water, or using a trampoline first, because it’s too hard on your feet.
Let us know what exercises they will have you doing next at PT. I am curious because I quit PT long time ago, and been in need of some new ones… My leg routine has been pretty much what I said before.

Manny - if you lack the strength to control going down on your bad leg then you can take weight off using the other leg. Go down on both and increase the weight on your bad leg as you improve. I know how boring they are and how difficult it is to motivate yourself to do them regularly. I used to do them every time I boiled the kettle while I was waiting. Remember it is important to do straight leg and bent. They work different muscle groups. The bent works the soleus (outside) and the at will give your calf good definition and increase its size more.

Thanks, Beanie, Stuart and Pozaicer! You are certainly great at making me feel good about my progress! Started doing the eccentric exercise lifting with both heels and coming down on the injured leg… have to admit it is booooooooooooring. Came down quick, though, didn’t feel the strength surge to hold the “coming down” part, so will try again tomorrow to do it slowly.
This is actually important for my dancing, since I normally do turns from both legs, not just the uninjured one.
Take care and happy healing, everyone!
Manny

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Manny - I think you are doing so well that I doubt you need much more in the way of PT sessions but that would be up to you to call. You should have enough information and skill by now to progress on your own and I think your caution regarding your weight is most sensible. I continue to tell people the best exercise is walking and I think now you can go down stairs properly you can also use the going up as exercise. At 5 months I started building my house and I was up and down ladders all day. It was tiring and sometimes I had to stop but my calf muscle came back and I got stronger. Possibly you could also benefit from using a mini tramp. Jogging on one is less stressful. Balancing helps build strength in the whole body. You can jump up and then stop yourself from bouncing (bend the knees). I would also continue with eccentric heel rises and can go up on on both legs then come down slowly on your bad. Whatever you do with your bad leg you should repeat with your good on the alternate rise. Keep it up Manny and I would not call you a pansy.

hi Manny

great to see you are still ploughing through! the skin infection will soon be gone and we can, i’m sure, wait fir the further update of manny taking steven seagal in a movie sequel

you just gave me the idea to start tying to negotiate going downstairs with toes first. just realised i use the ankle!

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Hey Manny, congrats on 5 months and all your progress! I hope your infection and pain from the fall get better quickly. Stepping down onto toes again is excellent … I still feel joy when I walk up and down stairs normally, maybe I’m a bit weird, but hey, gotta love the small things

Not sure what exercises you’re doing at this point but I’d say (like a broken record single leg eccentric calf lowers. Lunges are really good for glutes, hammys and quads. Glute bridges. Lots of single leg balancing with bent and straight leg, try throwing and catching a ball while balancing and also closing your eyes. Seated calf raises are good and safe and you can increase weight on the injured leg using anything you have lying around the house. At this point if you can do double leg heel raises then you’re probably ready to try walking on your toes or balancing on your toes on your injured leg. There’s so much I could go on forever, but I hope that gives you some ideas. All the best Manny, stay well!

Thanks, S40love. Only problem right now is that the swelling of my calf is not going down with elevation nor ice, and I might go to the emergency service to check the leg out tomorrow. Yesterday it was seen my a nurse and she just told me to ice it, but today my wife says it looks redder. I just hope it is nothing serious.
thanks again!
Happy Healing!……. Manny

Glad to hear you are well. I also almost had an incident when getting out of the shower and the crutch slipping on some wet spot. Just a reminder we always gotta be careful especially in the beginning when we are more vulnerable. I feel a lot safer and steady now at 22 weeks though. Take care!

Great music, Pozaicer, and what a nice head of hair! The music is great, too: you had me dancing in my chair.
But I didn’t see any risky moves in the video, since I did the turns on my good leg.
OMG, I have a DJ as a blog friend! Wow! LOL
Happy healing!…….. Manny

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ha ha ha, you cheeky manny you got me there.

I know that a dancer stays standing but i definitely don’t walk about in public in such heels

you may get to see this Manny, spot the cautious post-ATR dj

https://www.facebook.com/shannondasilvazumba/videos/1205021156197435/

i hope the music is to your liking

if you are ever in the UK avisame!

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Thanks, Louise and Pozaicer… I’m glad to say the experience was one I don’t want to repeat, though I recovered pretty well. I still have a bruise on my knee, but that is minor.
The thing is that you can’t stop living and doing what you want to do simply because of the injury: we just have to adapt and keep on living life in Big Bites (that’s my motto!)

Pozaicer, as for your risky activity, I can only suggest you wear the boot if you are trying to emulate the Kama Sutra’s artistic poses…LOL

Happy Healing, everyone! I’m glad the scary part is over, and only wish you were near me, so we could have some beers as we go over our “war stories”! LOL
Manny

As I’d tell my mom, I wasn’t doing anything! Just walking around! LOL, though I do admit they had some nice South African beers! Luckily, I was wearing my heels and I assume the rubber absorbed most of the impact. Of course, as Pozaicer knows, being a dancer means you stay on your feet!

Manny?!! i go away for a few weeks and don’t post and what do you get up to??!

Hi Manny, great to read your travelling exploits-I have started to venture out more, think it’s all down to confidence!
But that fear of re-rupture is never far away!
Really good to read that other than a bit of limping, you didn’t cause any lasting damage, it must have been scary non the less.
Take care and look forward to next update.

Louise

well Manny, it’s great to see you are alive and limping

that is one scary mishap! glad to read you are fine and that the months of PT have paid off. i have suffered three re-rupturing-attempts in the last two weeks, one by a very large lady who ‘heeled’ me with platform high heels whilst dancing (luckily only significant bruising) and two by my better half who first kicked me in the tendon by mistake and then kneed me in the calf when trying to avoid touching my leg! (yeah, we were trying to get comfy in bed!)

keep up the travelling and the healing!

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Pozaicer and Beanie, thanks both very much. Am trying all of that and more, much appreciated. Have ordered an even-up which should also help. Cheers!

Hey Manny, I’ve just been checking in and it sounds like your recovery has been going really well! Yay and congrats I remember at about 18 weeks for me that I would often have to take 2 days resting the tendon because I did too much. I found it very frustrating but it didn’t last too long and soon the stiffness wore off overnight instead of needing 2 days to recover. Be gently and take it easy if it’s painful, the rest is as good as the exercise. I remember your Birthday is in April so I wanted to wish you Happy Birthday and have a fantastic trip!

Hey Couchy007, just like Pozaicer said, the boot protects your tendon from stretching which could damage it. Although it may feel counter-intuitive, applying force to the tendon in the form of bearing weight actually helps it to heal stronger. We all experience that fear of actually walking on it again. One of the easiest methods to help you get comfortable is to remove the problem of moving with crutches. Try standing at a table top where you can lean on your hands and easily balance. Then start to just shift your weight onto your injured leg and then back. Slowly as you feel comfortable and don’t feel any pain then you can put more and more weight onto the leg until you can stand and balance there on one leg. Once you’ve felt that then you’ll be more comfortable to try it out with the crutches because you know your one leg can support you. Good luck! I’m sure you’ll be walking around on that boot in no time

Sorry to hear about your pains. It could be that since your calf is not at full strength, you are trying to compensate it on some different muscles. It could be those muscles you haven’t used in a long time trying to revive. Hope it gets better soon!

Hi there. Answer is somehow simple. The boot will take the weight and you won’t suffer any damage. However it is a confidence exercise and you may want to build up in a trusted environment. So, don’t jump out to the world with the new set up and start building up indoors, put gradually more weight on and see how it feels.

It will get tired but shouldn’t be painful, do ensure a right fitting before you start. Once you’re into it you can basically do everything you did before in terms of normal movement (up and down stairs, walking relatively long distances, dancing as manny would have you know and more!)

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Manny and others further up the road, can I ask a question? I am at the stage at 8 weeks where my boot as of today has movement to it, only a little, and I need to start to learn to put weight on it agin. I have been PWB with both crutches for a couple of weeks, no probs, now my Physio wants me to use the crutches differently - as an extension of my natural arm movement, so a crutch with opposite leg. This means that I have to put my full weight on my ATR leg and one crutch, and I am absolutely terrified it will rupture again. I know I have to get through this bit, but I am so scared of doing it! I got to 46 yo without a scratch and this has really stopped me in my tracks. Plus I have never been fab at trusting my body… Huge learning curve. Know I need to get over it and man up, but would really appreciate the insight you may be able to offer. How do I get to the point where I really believe it will be ok with weight on it?
Thank you all x

Thanks Manny for the insight, very helpful. My theory is non-op have less issues with dorsiflexion stiffness due to not losing tendon length, and the tendon reattaching naturally, but it’s just my theory, I might be wrong. I agree that healthy mind and what you put in your mouth make a big difference. Your needle stings could be just the nerves or muscle trying to come back. It should go away eventually. Happy healing!!!

s40love, I had not read the blog http://www.feedyourheaddiet.com/pop.html, and it is really interesting.
He was non-surgical and he was jogging at 4 months! Wow! I will just point out that he as in great physical shape, ate according to a plan, and definitely believed he could heal quickly. Mind over matter is no joke, and he is a real live example of healing quicker than others do.
As for not mentioning stiffness, he mentions that he never felt any pain. We are all different, and heal (and hurt) in different ways. Without endorsing his diet, I will say that he definitely did very well in his recovery.
He reports being 100% at 6 months, going back to all his former activities. And without a whole lot of PT sessions, to boot. This is really impressive, and I’m glad that he did not re-rupture his tendon, so I can push the envelope just a little more (I will be going on excursion next week!).

I’m over 4 months, and the stiffness has come about as I’ve started walking without heels, so I’m not sure what to say. Today I did no exercises and almost no walking, and still feel the tendon and have occasional needle sting

The blog is feedyourheaddiet dot com slash pop dot html.

Hey Manny I have a question for you. You mentioned stiffness on your calf. Is this the first time you felt it? Do people who choose non op route not feel stiffness? I read this guy’s blog that was one of the blogs listed here. Not sure if you read it. He’s some kind of a health guru that wrote books about health and he went non op. According to him he was 100 percent healed in 6 months. Is that possible? And he never mentioned any stiffness. I think the blog is feedyourheaddiet dot com. I am very curious to know if the stiffness issue is worse for people who had surgery. Was curious on your opinion since you are such an expert! Thanks!

LouLou, you will soon be tramping around the fields like before, but meanwhile just be patient and give your tendon time to heal.
For me it was actually a bit exciting to know that I was doing something risky! LOL
Take care and happy healing!……… Manny

You are most welcome, couchy007. I, myself, was surprised at seeing myself easily getting up from the mattress on the floor where I spent one night!
Of course, a six year old who regularly plays with his dad’s weights and lifted over 60 lbs! I made the leg lift as he did, and my knees hurt! so I took 20 lbs off. LOL
During the trip I also got a new pair of slippers, giving up on my old sneakers with lifts inside, and started wearing them inside the house. Since then I noticed my tendon was getting stiff and I had sharp twinges in the center of my heel, on the bottom, which the therapist says is that I’m stretching a tendon there…. So this afternoon I decided to wear my new sneakers with lifts and this eased my discomfort. Being non-surgical, I suspect I should let the tendon rest more and let it stretch mose slowly… I’ll keep everyone informed.

Thanks again, and Happy healing!……….. Manny

Hey Manny, glad to hear about your progress and your achievements, at nearly 2 months in now I cannot tell you how helpful it is to listen to those a bit further up the road. Your last comment about getting up from the floor using your recovering leg is so encouraging, I can’t see yet how I will get to that point, but guess I am learning to trust it will happen. Thanks!

Great progress Manny, I have hard soled ortho slippers and love them. Regular soft slippers are just to painful yet.

Hello Manny
Good to hear you enjoyed your trip. I have to agree that I never noticed how uneven the footpaths where I live are since I started to venture out-well done on the field, that’s still on my ‘todo’ list

nice one Manny! keep it up!

i rebelled and took the heel lifts out, and it’s been fine

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Hello Manny, yes, grass fields are so uneven, it’s better to avoid them at this point… Yay!!! Congrats on your new achievements!!!

congratulations Manny, that is impressive!

i’m only 10 weeks but i can’t do even a few centimetres heel raise! can’t wait to catch up.

interesting note that was passed on to me yesterday, the sign of overworking the achilles is felt in the calf not in the tendon. perhaps you all know this, but i didn’t. i came about this as a result of my enquiry to my private PT on the prospects of gentle dancing salsa NOW!

he he he, i know, brave or stupid…. she said that anything that is fun should be done, but she adviced that due to the ‘heel raises’ involved in salsa dancing this would put significant pressure on the tendon and as a result if the calf feels tired i MUST STOP and sit down for the night. so for those who enjoy a dance i was given strict instructions to only do it for short periods of time (a couple-few minutes at a time, gently, and followed by rest) and sparingly. still this gives you the opportunity to enjoy a few dances during an event, and it is also a good rehab exercise.

thoughts Mr Dancing Virtuoso Manny?

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Good for you! I’m at 9 weeks post-op (so 2 months) with a surgical repair and can’t raise heels yet. That has to feel good. Keep up the good work.

Awesome Manny!!! I am so happy for you!!! Raising heels is huge!!! Keep up the hard work, and pretty soon you will be hopping and jumping and doing all those crazy dance moves!!! Today I am going to work with my trainer on squats too, gonna start with easy weights first, will see how it goes. Take are and happy healing!!!

thanks, Robyn! My philosophy is that life will always laugh at me, so I might as well do some laughing myself!
Happy Healing!………. Manny