michaelz’s AchillesBlog

Just as I started creating this post I looked at the calendar and noticed that tommorow will be exactly 1 month (yesterday was 4 weeks) since my ATR. I went the scene of the tear yesterday to watch some of my friends play softball (took a picture and posted it with #tornachilles as part of the tweet).

Anyway, I digress. My post is about swelling and wiggling. I have notied that 3 weeks since the surgery and 1 week into this cast the swelling has started to go down. That doesn’t mean its gone because if I dont elevate it above my heart - or as my Dr. said “TOES TO NOSE” - my foot gets uncomfortable.

I can wiggle my toes as my Dr. said to do for several reasons, one of which is that I had a tendon transfer as par tof my surgery and the Dr. wants me to wiggle my big toe so that I have strength in it when the cast comes off. As a result of the decrease in swelling (and my calf muscle has continued to atrophy) my cast is getting looser on my foot and leg. Which brings me to my question, when wiggling my toes yesterday I realized that unwittingly I started to flex my foot - dorsiflexion I belive is the term when your foot is flexed towards your shin. I feel no pain but mentally that worries me, so I have stopped wiggling my toes up and down for now. Anyone have any thoughts about that?

First I would like to Thank the team at Achillesblog for helping me get this up and running.

#Tornachilles is the hashtag I use whenever I post a picture of my foot on twitter.  I decided to post pictures of where I take my foot during this journey.  So far its to my Kids B-ball games and work but I hope to increase those pics as my mobility increases.  My handle is @mwz524

I had my injury on 04/21/2013 and surgery on 04/26/2013.  The MRI and x-rays (because of what looked like a bump on my heel they took and X-ray) showed a complete tear and that it was a bad one.  The X-ray showed prior trauma and some calicfaction in the area of the tear indicating prior trauma that never healed correctly.

THE SURGERY:

Due to the severity of the tear my Dr. suggested that we also do an FHL tendon transfer.   The surgery went well and afterwards she said it was worse than he thought and had to remove about 1-1.5 inches of torn tendon so the FHL transfer was a good idea.

POST-OP:

I think my post-op was similar to a lot of peoples where there is no pain due to the nerve block but you BETTER make sure to start your pain meds IMMEIDALY because when the block wears off you will not feel great.  I found this out because while I decided to start my meds immediately upon arriving home, the next day I thought I was feeling ok so i slowed down my meds and THAT wa a BAD idea.  It took me 8 hours to get comfortable again.  There wasnt pain it was just that I couldnt get into a comfortable position.

1ST FOLLOW UP:

BY the 2 week mark I was ancy to get the splint off and see my stiches.  I was a bit scared because I heard that this area is the hardest to heal due to the lack of space between the skin and tendon.  Turns out my Dr. said it looked great, no pus or oozing and the sutures were removed.  I was then told that due to the severity of the tear I would be in a cast for 4 weeks .

The Dr. had me put in a cast with a heel wedge and told me I could walk on it if I wanted to or use my crutches whatever I felt.  He also told me to do as many toe exercised as possible.  stretch the toes massage them, etc.

So here I am at 2 weeks Post-op with a cast for 4 more weeks.