Rod’s achilles rupture

On Monday, the 14th of September, I had the cast removed.  I was fitted with the cam boot and given instructions to begin rubber band strengthening within the next two weeks.  The boot is OK but I marveled at how much atrophy there was in the lower leg and calf muscle.  The incision had healed fine but is still itching a bit.  I got most of the dead skin off after about two days.  I am now able to shower, swim and drive.  Can’t believe how much I missed driving myself around town.  Even though it is a hassle to walk to the car with the boot, take off the boot and put on a soft driving shoe, get to my destination, put the boot back on and then stop at various local stores just to repeat the process when driving back home.  I am planning on returning next week to work and will see how that all pans out.  I’ve noticed like other ATR’s that at the end of the day, I have swelling and a little soreness around the ankles but in the morning all of that is gone.  Tried to walk without the boot an that was pitiful.  No strength for pushing off, so I’ll be patient and wait until I can get into the full swing of physical therapy.

Labor Day at my sister's house

I can actually stand without the boot but there is no pushing off because the muscles are really weak.  A very scary observation is that the other Achilles (the good one) has been sore recently.  I brought this to the attention of my Ortho guys and he stated that it is because of the additional weight and pressure that has been on the tendon since surgery.  I have vowed to be very careful as I do not wish to go through this again.  The thought of experiencing another ATR on the opposite leg is totally depressing.

My newest assistant. The boot!

Incision site after cast removal

This entry was posted on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 1:21 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.