phil c’s AchillesBlog

These where the words of my surgeon when he looked at my AT .
Great words and it brought a smile to my face .
Its been a long road to get to this point in my recovery
(knowing full well it will take a long time to get back to”normal”) ,
The first 6weeks in my case where the worst in the cast !!!!
The last 6 weeks have flown in , especially the last 3 ,since I started to be able to move without crutches . Still not back to work yet but have a lot of ROM in my ankle now and the AT itself doent hurt most times of the day . Buts its always there . Still havent got to the point where I dont think about it for longer than a few mins .
Just as a side note, the surgeon said that I should we swimming everyday if possible .

So now i have my next visit to my PT on Friday ,when he said he will step uo my rehab and push me a bit more ……..sonds scary but i have to trust him and when Im doing it, my body . Dont want to go too far too fast .
Off to get on my trampette now and do some bouncing !!!

Take care all .
Will fill in what extra exercises I get at Fridays visit .

PHIL

Hi all,
Back working (office work at the moment so the company can get me to do something) and back being a dad , so not much time to sit down and write a post for my the blog…..the difference between now and a couple of weeks ago !!!!
Driving is a big difference and if you haven’t got back but are near it , try sitting in the car in your drive and using the clutch , you might be surprised and theres no chance of an emergency stop which is the main reason the docs dotn want you doing it .
BUT,As I write this I fell as certain guilt , as when i was in the suitation at home , I depended on this site to help me through and now I feel as if I have used the site and not been a good contributor to help those who are going through what I have .
Apoligies to the site(posters) and what it represents.
Anyway , went to physio yesterday and he has me doing running and bouncing exercise on a small tranpoline . My knee too wall measurement was twently something , then 18cm and is now 11cm .
So im making “some” progress .
Have ditched the crutches alltogether (bring them in the car with me but only as moral support !!!)
Am back training in the gym , did 4 sessions this week , 90% upper body stuff but am doing some stretches and on the static bike while there . Goin to try the rowing machine on Monday !
Have 1 wedge insdie my shoe (just under 1cm ) but still have a limp or walk slow .
My ankle nor my sole dont hurt as much and things feel like they are getting better .
Progress has slowed down but that is to be expected .

Physio is waiting for me to see the surgeon next wed (24th Nov) before stepping up my rehab.

Bearing in my firdt 2 paragraphs ,
Can anybody advise me on questions I should ask the surgeon .
Bearing in mind my last meeting with him I dont want to leave the room feeling the same way.

All things being equal , i hope to never see this man again ,
SO,
What do I need to know about my AT ?

Hi all ,

day 71.

Since yesterday,
Down to 1cm inside my shoe , FWB , plodding around the house in slippers or barefooted

and driving .

Walking with a major limp, and pain (not the achillies but now and then I do feel something but not much) mainly in the heel of my foot and my ankle.This is while outside the house as while I’m in the house I walk slower and the pain isn’t there . Trying not to walk with my bad foot point outwards but its hard unless you think about every step . While Im walking barefooted I can feel the strecth in he achillies , obviously as there are not wedges but it doesnt hurt and just feels like a stiff calf (i know its not mind) .

I’ve just read some other blogs on here by people that weren’t in a cast for 5 weeks and have realised how much this is now holding me back .(which due to lack of time [ its Saturday and now Im driving its back to being a taxi cab for my children to get to their various sports] I haven’t commented on yet,but I will)

My ankle is still not right and this is obviously due to being set in position for 5weeks.
Knew I should have been more forceful is not letting the surgeon do that .

At this stage how much work should my PT be doing on my ankle /achillies /calf ?
Still concerned that he isn’t doing enough and I should be doing more
or
maybe he’s has me on the path to suit someone who was in a cast for 5 weeks and who’s ankle is still gaining ROM .

I was told to get physio by my surgeon from 1st Nov , so this is 13th and I haven’t had ANY work on my achillies /calf area by the physio yet , he is still working on the ankle .
He has me standing at a table on my tip toes and moving the weight to the bad side while taking some of the pressure off my achillies by bearing some of the weight with my hands on the table .

as always grateful for any advice or comment

Phil

Firstly let me say tat the reason I haven’t posted on here for a week or so WAS because I got a scare Last Friday and panicked . Friday was my 1st day PWB and approximately 1-2 hrs after getting up I put some weight on my AT leg and felt , what I can only describe as a “pop” (it was I thought above the calf close to the knee) and It frightened the life out of me . It didn’t hurt but I definitely felt something , so being a worrier I presumed it was bad. All day I kept feeling the AT to see if there was a gap …….and waiting for the leg ankle to swell or “something” .

Anyway it was something but obviously also NOTHING .

:o)

Back to today ,
went for my first physio session today and mostly good news.

Bad news first , he said I might not be able to drive a manual car for a while .
So I could be visiting a car dealer near you soon.
As I walk for approx 3hours a day as PART of my job , he said he couldn’t see me being able to do that this side of Christmas . This is something I not something I can fix by getting a new car but is something I hope MIGHT change over the next month of physio and exercise.

Good news,

He had a look and said the tendon was strong and the healed well.
He also said that despite being in the cast for 5 weeks there was a lot of movement in the ankle .

75% of my time with him he worked on the ankle and did NO work on the Achilles itself . he said that he had to get the ankle movements rang up before stated to work on the Achilles.

He got me to put my good foot 10cm from the wall and bend my knee into the wall , no problem .
My AT leg was a different matter , foot 10cm away from wall again, but my knee when bent in, to its fullest(had to stop due to tightness) was 25cm away from the wall ……..yes 25cm away .

This was disheartening but having gone through what it has , expectable.

He gave me 2 exercises to do .

First one is , bare feet , 1 crutch (on good side) and basically to walk !!!!
Slowly with the crutch moving with the AT leg . He said the crutch should take 1/3 of the weight , so that 2/3s on my “bad” leg while I bring my good leg forward !!!!
I have to do this EVERY HOUR ……. (no more sitting down for me )

Second one is, 2 crutches , AT leg between the crutches , good one, a step behind and basically to push my knee forward and stretch the Achilles, hold this for 15 seconds and REPEAT , this is to be done ever 2 hrs.

I also asked him the shoe/boot question.

In his opinion , the boot did its job with I was NWB to give me peace of mind but he’d get into a shoe now that I was PWB , (also alluded to getting back into the boot if needs be , as Norm here had suggested) .
Where he differed from the surgeons advice was , instead of 1 cm inside and 1cm outside , he said he’s put the 2sm inside the shoe and I‘ve to go back to him next Monday 8th we’d work from there .

An the end of the day it now feels like the more I put into it ,(not going O.T.T. of course ) in the next 7days the more I will progress

(experienced AT recovery posters please comment on this )

and this is the 1st time it has felt like that in the 59days since my op.

Opinions always gratefully accepted .

Phil