Post OP - 5 days

Posted on August 15th, 2011 by pjsarg

The first five days after the surgery went better that I thought. The first day, the nerve block that I had during the surgery had not worn off yet, so I felt no pain at all. I was in some pain during the second and third day; luckily, the painkillers worked like a charm. Their benefits far outweighed the discomfort caused by the side-effects (in my case, constipation and hiccups). Getting up to go walk on my crutches was painful and I could feel a rush of blood coming down to my leg. So I tried to stay in bed. Since yesterday, I’m not taking painkillers anymore and everything seems to be fine. I still try to keep my leg elevated for as much as I can. Today, I have been able to work from home, with my leg over the desk. I think I’ll be able to go to my regular working schedule tomorrow (6th day).

2 Comments »

Snap!

Posted on August 8th, 2011 by pjsarg

Hi All,

I had surgery this morning and now I am writing from my bed. Everything went fine. So far, I haven’t experienced any pain or discomfort in my leg. I received general anesthesia and a nerve block that hasn’t worn off yet. My throat is a little bid dry and sore, so I am keeping my speaking to a minimum.

Anyways, this is how it happened…

It was exactly 15 days ago, while I was playing soccer. Since I arrived kind of late to the game, I didn’t warm-up or stretched appropriately. I was also wearing my 3-year old cleats that were in pretty bad condition. Thinking back, I did everything wrong. However, I had never had any injury apart from a couple of sprains in my ankles; besides, the first digit of my age is still a 2 so I didn’t think I had anything to worry about. Well, I was wrong again.

About 40 minutes into the game, I was keeping up with my marking responsibilities during a defensive corner kick. As soon as the ball was kicked, I tried to sprint and I felt the kick in the back of my left leg and a loud “snap!” It took me about 5 minutes to look for “Achilles tendon injury” in my iPhone and realize what had just happened. I was a little bit puzzled because I was not in so much pain (I’d say that it was 4/10).

I managed to drive myself  to the ER. Driving was not easy because I drive a manual stick car, so I had to use my heel to press the clutch. In the ER the pain subsided and I was feeling rather well. However, I could not extend my left foot so I was almost sure it was the AT. I was told I had a partial tear and that I should see my PCP between 5 to 7 days and went home with a splint and crutches.

Within the next two days I became increasingly uneasy with the “waiting” so I called to my PCP office and got a referral to the orthopedist. I was 8 days out when I went to the orthopedist. He felt the gap in my left leg and my Thompson test resulted positive. He told me that I had a complete tear (no MRI). I was scheduled for surgery one week after that, that is, today.

So far, I have managed to get around with crutches just fine and, for the most part, I have not been in pain (0/10). I think that the fact that I was not in pain misled the doctors in the ER to assume that I had only a partial tear. Eventually, this resulted in my surgery being 15 days after the injury. I have been reading many stories of people in their blogs and, in general,  their surgeries were much sooner. Oh, well… not much use in complaining about this.

I am glad that I found this blog, so I can share my story and read yours. I’ll be posting more soon. My wife just brought my 10-month old to play with me for a while. She will be playing with the keyboard for a while now…

Paulo.

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  • bcurr | August 24th, 2011 | 5:17 pm

    Only thing I can suggest for when getting up is spend a couple of minutes gradually lowering your leg. You’ll still get some discomfort but nowhere near as bad as if you just put your leg down. I’d almost forgotten how bad that part was … ouch!

  • mrknox30 | August 24th, 2011 | 4:00 pm

    Don’t rush your recovery. You need to allow time for your AT to heal properly. Moving around at work and the everyday stressors that plague us as humans, does not allow your body to heal properly. I stopped taking my pain killers after about a week, but I stayed with asprin when needed. That old blood and those fluids are the reasonyou are getting that pain when you stand up. You foot swells and throbs, you need to elevate it, that is really the only things that will help. Also, stay positive and don’t read all the negative things about your injury. People recover everyday and go on to live active lives after this injury. The people who re-injure are the one’s who did not rest and allow for proper recovery before they went back to normal activity. Best of luck to you.
    Mr Knox 30

  • pjsarg | August 10th, 2011 | 11:28 pm

    Thanks for your replies! I’ll keep in touch.

  • runnerwannabe | August 10th, 2011 | 10:18 pm

    Don’t worry about the ‘delay’. My doctor told me that he prefers to do the surgery between 1-2 weeks post rupture. He says the tendon is essentially frayed, like spaghetti and it is very hard to approximate the ends. By waiting, the tendon congeals and it’s easier to bring it all back together. My surgery was 11 days post ATR. I feel like I have done very well, so hopefully his protocol is a good one. Good luck and happy healing!

  • rugbyjo | August 10th, 2011 | 9:53 pm

    Hi Paulo,

    Welcome!! I’m surprised too that you didn’t have surgery sooner. My rupture was on July 23 - went to ER that night and they said see ortho doc on Monday. Saw the doc and he scheduled surgery for Tuesday. I tried postponing surgery as I was flying to Vegas on Friday. Doc was like yah, you’re not going to Vegas. What he said was that the longer you wait to have surgery, the tendon will actually start to shrink and it will make it harder toreattach. I, like you - felt no pain, just heard the snap and slid down the half pipe I was running up.

    Good luck with recovery. Sore throat will prob go away by tomorrow -who knew they put tubes down your throat in surgery. Oh, numbness took over 24 hours to go away - although I had by bone shaved down to so that could be why.