Feb 29 2012
As The World Turns…My Own Version
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:
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My AT would have the “bad” tissue removed and would be sewn back together.
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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.
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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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2 responses so far
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First thoughts are ‘Ouch!’, next thoughts are that it is so similar to my tendon tear, I am battling with it after quacks n doctors who all failed to really do anything but send me a bill. (first doc said just rest it), second doc at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN took an MRI and put a boot on but then failed to send any PT instructions before resigning, I only found at at week 6 with the boot..hmmm…. Have you tried ASTYM? It is a non invasive PT method that is designed to break down the scar tissue and then realign the fibers in the tendon, its just like having a deep massage with the PT/Therapist running what looks like a rounded piece of plastic along the tendon. I had a session and it felt great, the swelling went down and not alot of pain during the process. Not to be confused with ESTYM, anyway thought I would mention it, if I can avoid invasive treatments I will, might be worth a try before going under the knife.