rngr201’s AchillesBlog

Recent update…Saw my Doc on Friday, (3/10/12). As he has previously planned, he wanted me to slowly start “weening” the crutches and go PWB with the walking boot. I informed him in a non-chalant sort of way that I had played with the PWB before this day. To his surprise, I had also told him that I wanted to be completely honest with him and informed him that I has also played with FWB before now. To my surprise, he was pleasantly surprised and then informed me I could have been PWB at 3 weeks given my healing process!!! Shut the Front Door!!! Are you kidding me….3 weeks???!!!

Needless to say, I WALKED out of his office and drove home contemplating my next two moves as any decent chess player would.  The first was to get into two shoes, (as the Doc ordered). I could not wait to get into a “pair” of running shoes. For my next move, I figured I would EASE into this rehab/PT slowly and not rush things. Take it easy, it will all come together, I had told myself. So, I went to the gym with my wife and proceeded to the upright cycles. I started to pedal, (with no resistance), and very little discomfort. Just took a minute to get used to. I added some resistance, pedaled some more. At mile 5, I was kicking at 85-90 RPM going through a HILLS course. At mile 10, I never looked back,  that is until me wife damn near yanked me off the thing. All in all, I cruised to 33 miles in two days and feel absolutely amazing. Slight swelling, which I expected, and humbly sat with my good friend Ice Bag while catching up on Spring Training Baseball.

I have waited two years to be pain free from exercising. That moment has arrived and I couldn’t be more appreciative of life. I know it sounds as though I’m rushing to move forward but the feeling of being able to move about freely is quite overwhelming.

Just couldn’t wait to share what a great weekend it was. There is light at the end of the tunnel for the folks just starting out. Count the days, I encourage it. You can’t stop time and to me, this is a beautiful thing. Good luck to all who are recovering and thanks for sharing in this great moment…

Rangers Lead the Way & Semper Fidelis!!!

      I first injured my AT about two years ago. I had just finished serving 14 years in the US military. I was an Airborne Ranger for 8 years and served 6 years in the Marine Corps before that. Needless to say, I was/am an adrenaline junkie. Anything to beat on my body was completely satisfying. I competed in the US Army’s Best Ranger Competition twice, ran numerous marathons and even twice as many triathlons. When I finally got back to civilian life, my new boss introduced me to trail running and I immediately fell in love with it. The harder the trail, the better.

      I had just completed a 50k race (trail)- Northface Challenge, and realized that although I had the normal aches and pains during the next few days of recovery, that something wasn’t quite right with my AT. I shook it off. Basically ignored it. Told myself to “suck it up” and chose to run through it. Bad choice. After about a half a dozen, half-assed consults ranging from voo-doo chiefs to accredited physicians, it was determined that I had a partial “tear” in my right AT. Soothing an injury wasn’t my speed. It never was. Unfortunately, the military doesn’t breed weakness, especially in a Special Operations Unit such as the 75th Ranger Regiment. I chose to blow off any kind of rehab. I laid off the endurance training and anything “high-impact” for a few weeks, (about a month). Tried to ease back into it. Decent results at first then, after about an easy 8-10 mile run, my AT was screaming.

      It was diagnosed that with the tear I had initially suffered, scar tissue had started to build up, suffocating the natural movement of the tendon. More damage had been done, (more microscopic tears), resulting in inevitable surgery. Since my AT hadn’t fully ruptured, (thank God), my surgeon chose to perform the following procedure:

• My AT would have the “bad” tissue removed and would be sewn back together.
• There is a tendon that runs down the back of your leg and is attached to your big toe. This tendon would be cut at the toe and removed from my foot.
• A hole would be drilled through my ankle to serve as an “anchor point” for which the tendon could be re-routed through. Once this was done and re-attached to my toe, my AT would be sewn to it to allow it to heal and naturally fuse itself back together.

     I am currently 4 weeks+ post-op and questioning the procedure after reading a lot of what other folks have to share on this site. I really have no idea of where I should be at this stage in recovery. I was never placed in a full cast. It was a half-cast after surgery for 10 days. Stitches removed at that point and placed in a walking boot with NLB. Have been on crutches for entire post-op. Am afraid to place any kind of weight on the leg. I’ll admit that I have attempted but it feels as though there is little to no stability.

Any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated…

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