Posted on December 1st, 2020 by michelleg
This week is all about patience! I really want to advance my therapy and physical activity. However the Physical Therapist admonished me to follow directions. I’ve got one shot at getting this right.
This Friday will be my 12 week follow up with the surgeon. Hopefully I will be cleared to stretch the calf so that I can move towards full range of motion.
Leg presses hurt on the right side of the ankle. I can tell if I were to push it by running I would throw the rest of my body off because I can’t do the motion correctly … yet. I know there is progress because I can do the step off without pain. I still have stiffness in the morning.
Towards the end of the day the ankle and foot still swells. Still have occasional planar fasciitis and am still limping, PT still says this is because I don’t have full range of motion engaging my calf.
Still have hard incision nodules on both sides of my ankle that don’t hurt with shoes. The calf percussion massage doesn’t bother me as much anymore. But the calf scrapping tool is ridiculously painful. I call it torture! So formal PT once a week in the office. And the other days I repeat the same exercises in my other post. The PT didn’t add anything new this week. I’m up to a six mile bike ride a few times a week.
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Posted on November 25th, 2020 by michelleg
Week 10! My typical stiffness is still there in the morning, followed by PT repeat at home, an activity like cycling (I am up to 6 miles now/30 minutes), then swelling. The plantar fasciitis that I get towards the end of the day might be getting a little better. The doctor keeps doing the percussion massage once a week, while it hurts like hell, I did better with it this week. Then he does this scraping thing all over the muscle. He went a little deeper with that this week and that hurt. Still walking with a limp and the physical therapist says that is because I’m not able to fully stretch the calf muscle yet. By the next post op visit I should be cleared to do calf raises and really stretch out the calf muscle. I can’t wait!!! That will be week 12.
Also new this week I balanced on a square bosu flat side up for 2 minutes in a partial squat. Stepping off a 4 inch step (equivalent to a curb) is much improved! Much less pain.
Mentally I’m hanging in there. I’m missing tennis a lot. My fellow achilles recovery friend hit with me again this week and is helping me change my serve. That is something to look forward to there is nothing like hitting the snot out of a ball. For now the next milestone will be the post op visit in 2 weeks and moving into full range of motion. Yippeee!
I really don’t see the difference in my calf size from the left or the right. I’ve always had pretty big calves.
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Posted on November 17th, 2020 by michelleg
I showed up to PT without the boot. So I am officially out of the boot and in shoes. It’s easier to walk around in shoes versus barefoot. The tightness is annoying as well as the limp.
The physical therapist added leg strengthening exercises (leg lift supine, then on the side and clamshell with resistance band) 3 reps x10
He had me step off a step with my non injured foot. Wow is that difficult! It’s gotten better through the week.
I rode my mountain bike on a paved trail 4 miles with a long rest in between. The ankle really swells up. The PT doctor said that is normal and will lessen over time.
I still have the hard knots at the incision site above where the anchor was and hopefully is partially attached to the bone. Luckily those spots aren’t irritated in the shoe much.
My day has been wake up to stiffness, do my PT, the achilles feels good and has the best mobility. Do an activity and the ankle swells, ice it and then later in the day the bottom of the heel hurts (plantar fasciitis). I use a tennis or lacross ball for soreness, myofascial release.
I was able to get on the tennis court and hit a few balls that were fed to me and practiced serves. This makes me so happy!!!!!
Physical Therapy once a week followed by me repeating those exercises plus some I found on YouTube that correlate with the week of recovery I’m in. Such as towel slides, ABCs and ankle pumps with the foot elevated on a Swiss ball as well as gentle rocking on the Swiss ball moving the ankle forward backward and side to side while on the ground.
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Posted on November 8th, 2020 by michelleg
Now transitioning into 2 shoes. This week I took off the boot and tried to walk barefoot around the house. The achilles is super tight. I’m limping because of the tightness. If I decrease my stride I can walk without the limp. Hoping I don’t do too much too fast impeding recovery. I want to get back on the court so badly. I really hope the physical therapist is onboard with the doctor in letting me out of the boot. I am now walking really well with the boot on. If I can ride a bike (not just a stationary one) I will feel some sense of normalcy.
Physical therapy is once a week and exercises are done at home daily. The therapist used a percussion massage gun on my calf and it was really uncomfortable. He added 3 minutes of:
toe crunches with a towel
seated heel lifts
seated toe lifts
step up and off a step
leg press
Even though eight weeks is a long time, the next recovery milestones are likely going to be farther in between. I recognize this is a long recovery. I’m hoping to be back to tennis by the six month mark. Only time will tell. Everyone recovers differently.
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Posted on November 2nd, 2020 by michelleg
At 7 weeks I’m walking around pretty comfortably in the boot with the even up shoe on the other foot. It is easy to do too much though. With the new found freedom I’m walking all of the time. At the end of the day my heel hurts.
I purposely walked a mile and it was no problem. I have two inserts left in my boot and I’m taking one out today. The first physical therapy session was virtual because I had to leave town. I have a stretch band for resistance and have isometric exercises (30 seconds x 3 reps) to move the foot eversion/outwards, inversion/inwards, plantar flexion to neutral.
I will transition out of the boot next week!
The physical therapist gave the approval to ride a stationary bike with a seat. I will see the therapist again tomorrow. That is one small step towards progress and a giant leap for my mindset!
Also, I began driving last week. I couldn’t take it anymore. I was careful to be sure I could drive around the block with no issues first. The injury is on my right foot which of course is my driving foot. I’m confident that I can drive safely so that is just another slice of freedom to enjoy!
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Posted on October 23rd, 2020 by michelleg
Actually 6 weeks post op is technically Monday. I moved up my surgeon follow up to today (3 days early) thank goodness I did. My father is in the hospital and I need to travel to Florida to take care of mom tomorrow. I have nurses taking care of her until I can get there.
Here is what the doctor said. That hard lump on the side of my ankle is most likely the anchor that came loose. I probably did this with that middle of the night twitch stretch. He said he wasn’t worried about it the achilles seems to be ok. He could feel that. The anchors are just to aid in healing. Ok so I’m not going to stress about that it is what it is. Next he said your good to start PT and aggressive weight bearing. Two weeks till you are out of the boot. I got home and thought how am I going to help my mother with transfers on a knee scooter or crutch? There would be no way to get into the bathroom with her in either contraption. My even up shoe didn’t arrive today as scheduled. I took one of the inserts from the boot and strapped it onto a tennis shoe with tape. Now I have an even up shoe. I started walking in circles around the kitchen with the crutches. Little by little I used the crutches less until I was walking. OMG I’m walking!
So PT is scheduled for next week and I’m going to beg they will do virtual while I’m in Florida. Technology baby! Let’s GO!
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Posted on October 19th, 2020 by michelleg
The scabs are all off at the incision points. The hard knot is still there and not as painful. Hoping the knot will just absorb. For an entire week the knot changed constantly. Swelling is down. A nurse friend of mine says it’s probably the surgical knot and will absorb.
I feel like I need to move on to the next step which is bearing weight. When flexing and extending toes I can feel my achilles move. It’s a little tight.
This weekend I went on a girls trip and decided to get actual crutches because I knew I’d be on a floating dock. The dock was a long ways and I knew I needed something that was really stable. Let me just say my shoulders ache and there is no place to carry things when using crutches. I am so glad to be back with my knee scooter and knee crutch and will use the crutches at minimum. Hands free means you can do more for yourself and bother people less. I had no shame at taking stairs on my bottom. So grateful for patient friends.
I am so tired of not being able to drive and lugging around my leg like its a useless appendage. Getting rides is ridiculously annoying.
Hoping the October 28 follow up visit will be huge! Physical Therapy and Partial Weight Bearing here I come! Not letting this situation bring me down.
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Posted on October 13th, 2020 by michelleg
This hard knot developed just above one of the healing incisions over the last couple of days and is now painful when it touches anything to include the boot. I have a call into the doctor along with pictures to see what can be done about it. The knot is about the size of a dime. Ice doesn’t help and neither does Advil. The only relief is to keep the boot off and have nothing touch it. At this point I welcome aspiration just to get rid of it so healing can continue. I have no idea what the suggestion will be.
UPDATE: The doctor said don’t worry about it. Pain comes and goes sometimes it’s bad. Sometimes no pain. Who knows. The hard bump is still there. I did take out a wedge insert out of the boot because I was told to take out one every two weeks. I’m back in the boot and it seems to be ok.
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Posted on October 10th, 2020 by michelleg
I’ve been sleeping without the boot and I think in the middle of the night I stretched it without realizing. Woke to sharp pain. Of course I’m worried about re-rupture. I called the doctor and spoke to the person fielding the calls and explained the situation and she didn’t seem to be concerned. I’m having discomfort on and off during the day. Icing the ankle especially on the one side seems to help a lot. It’s somewhat comforting to know as the incision wounds heal during the repair process you can have shooting pain at the wound site. This has definitely intensified and I can’t wait to be done with it!
I have noticed a hard bump under the incision site on the inside of the ankle. Anything other than an ice pack touching it irritates it. The boot irritates it so it’s off. Called the doctor.
I found this site which puts recovery into phases and details goals and what kind of mobility goes with the phases. I really think it’s useful: http://tcomn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/PBE_Achilles_Tendon_Repair_Post.pdf
For now gentle massaging of the toes up towards the top seems to really help with swelling. Also gentle movement of flexion extension of the toes is great too. That with a little toe movement alone is really good. I am going to incorporate more of the suggested exercises in the document referenced above for phase 2 into my routine.
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Posted on October 7th, 2020 by michelleg
Swelling is still there. Icing more and trying to elevate a little more. At the post op a compression wrap was placed around the ankle which has kept the swelling down. However top of my foot and toes look like a balloon. I’m now wrapping to cover up to the toes and I think it is helping. I’ve gotten comfortable taking the boot off to sleep (bandage still on). So far even waking up I’m aware that I can’t go anywhere without the boot.
For exercise I’m lifting weights at the gym and doing some floor abdominal work. Working with smaller weights. Lifting is one of those activities that you can do incorrectly and hurt yourself. Especially if you haven’t done it. So I’m relying on fitness videos for correct movement.
Still not driving! It’s such a pain to ask family to take me places. Someone needs to invent an achilles driving boot. At least the incision site is not going to rub at the top of the back of a tennis shoe whenever I can put one on! Yippee
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