sfce’s AchillesBlog

Last week during my 8 week check up my Dr said to start working my way out of the boot. I asked if I should put heel lifts in my shoe and she said no. Well I did it anyway, and there is a huge difference with the heel lift as compared to without. I will work my way into the sneakers with the heel lift for a week or 2. I don’t think it is a big deal.

She also altered my PT and added some balancing and extra stretching of the Achilles. To add to the usual I know do 30 seconds of standing on one foot, a stretch where I put one foot directly in front of the other one for a stretch, and lastly the old elastic band for the inversion/eversion and dorsi/planterflexion. My Achilles is extremely tight, I ice it 3-4 times a day to keep the swelling down. The swelling isn’t that bad but I figure since Im on the couch why not.

I ave been hitting the gym and riding the stationary bike for 25-30-35 minutes increasing with every visit. I’m trying to get my hands on an AirDyne for the house. Hopefully, around week 10/11 I am going to start rehabbing on a AlterG treadmill here in San Antonio. I met a guy who used it and he had great results. I wanted to do some hydrotherapy but couldn’t find any place to do it.

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So I have been FWB in the black CAM boot with no heel wedges walking around like a zombie. I have had my VacoCast for about a week but hadnt made the move since I have been so busy finishing up my bachelors degree. Well I decdied to go ahead and throw on the vacocast boot at 0 degrees, well I felt quite the pull in the AT area, this concerned me and really caught me off guard almost to the point I thought I did something bad. The quick shift in degrees all of a sudden gave me some ectra ROM. I did read some other experiences where scar tissues actually tears a bit and gives some better ROM in return. Turns out that my black CAM boot with no wedges didnt have me at neurtral, I thought I was at 0 degrees but to my dismay I havent been.

For the past few days I have been in the VacoCast at 0 degrees and feeling a slight pull in the AT but also feeling a pull in the Perneal area. This bothered me becuase I feel behind the curve at this point. I have really stepped up the physical activity by hitting the stationary bike for 25 minutes a morning. The result of the new gym activity is some serious heel pain and swelling but nothing to crazy. I have had some AT pain but I can never tell if its the scar or the actual AT. I do the scar massage nightly and man that is painful.

Since about week 5 I have been non-stop flexing my calf muscle all day long when in the boot. I dont know why but im obsessed and I have noticed that my calf muscles are getting stronger. Im still doing the physical therapy thing but its pretty lame and I dont really get the 1 on 1 I wish I could. I do the baps board and stretch and then ice it down. I downloaded the protocol from AlterG, which is a special treadmill where you can adjust what percentage of your bodyweight is actually put on you as you walk/run. Since there is one here in San Antonio I plan on incorporating it into my rehab since this other PT is not exciting me.

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6 weeks post op to the day, met with my surgeon. He was pretty motivated at how I am progressing. Told me to go ahead and drop the crutches and take out both heel lifts. Since I am more of a protocol kinda of guy I took out 1 heel lift and will take out the 2nd in a few days. So as of today I am FWB in the boot with no crutches. Walking in this damn boot is the most uncomfortable and ackward ever, but ill take 2 free hands any day.

So I will continue with PT and see about moving to 2 shoes within 4-6 weeks.

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Hit 5 weeks post and have moved on to about 75% beight bearing walking in my boot. Sometimes I get ballsy and take a few steps without crutches and go to FWB. Physical Therapy is every Tuesday and Thursday which consists of:

5 Minute Bike
20 rotations on the BAP (circle like device which rotates)
20 Towel Toe Pulls
20 Inversion and Eversion
30 Quad strengthening excercises
20 Light calf stretches
Finish it off with some ice

I do the exercises everyday at home in addition to the PT. The incision has pretty much closed completely and I have started the scar massage which is extremely painful and leaves the scar bright red and sensitive all day long.

5 Weeks post op

I have a follow up with my Surgeon next week to evaluate my progress to see if I am ready to remove some wedges out of the Boot. Next week I will start doing some more intense cardio exercise now that I have gained some confidence in the ole foot. I still fear of re-rupture but will continue to be conservative. My foot continues to swell by the end of the day so after work I ice and massage every night. Week 5 did though bring back my driving. Since I drive a manual I drive with a crutch that I bought to push in the clutch. Haha its a tad bit difficult but I have mastered it. Many people would advise against it, but I have no choice.

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Today is 4 weeks post op. Over the last week I have been PWB as I slowly walk around in my boot with crutches. I had been doing some ROM and got a lot of movement out of the foot but the atrophy has taken pretty much every muscle in my leg.

Yesterday was my 1st PT session, she basically critiqued my PWB walk and went over the exercises I must complete every day. I am now on schedule for PT twice a week for 7 weeks. Seems I have been so consumed with healing and diet that I have neglected the exercises.

My wound has pretty much closed up and there is only a small scab left on the wound. I am still experiencing the sharp stinging pain and some throbbing in the area. The swelling is down, even though I have only iced a few times. I will continue to do the exercises daily, and work on my ROM while following the UWO protocol!

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Finally made it, the 3 week mark has been my 50 meter target I have been staring down to start being more active on the recovery side. I am going to start increasing the PWB as the week goes by leading into week 4. My ROM has improved everyday leading into week 3. I am now taking my boot off 3-4 times a day to air out my leg and do some ankle rotations and some light massaging.

The wound is healing nicely. There is still some slight swelling and bruising on the foot area. The part of it all that I find a bit troublesome is the area right above the tip of the incision. It feels like the mass is a bit swollen, kind of a lump in there. Since I have began the PWB in the boot I can def feel the soreness towards the end of the day and eventually stay on the couch and off the foot.

My VACOCAST will be here tomorrow so I will probably call my Dr and figure out a good angle to swap into on the VACOCAST. Right now I am in a DONJOY boot with a 2 CM heel lift on the injured leg and on my good leg I have the EVENUP shoe add-on to help even me out. The boot just does not feel right, especially when I stand up. Hopefully this VACOCAST is as good as it says!

Heres a video showing my ROM
Heres a video showing the AT area

3 Weeks Post Op

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So, 2 weeks and 6 days and I am just now starting my PWB on my crutches and taking my dry foot out of the boot to do some ROM. Calf muscled and pretty much my whole leg is atrophy pretty noticably. My wound is healing well but my foot is still swollen, and my ROM sucks. Right about of wound theres a swollen mass I guess ill call it. Iced it today after PWB and ROM!

I have been catching up on my daytime TV as well as NBA playoffs and season 1 & 2 of falling skies on TNT which is not bad at all!

Besides the copious amounts of TV I have been reading a ton on the internet. My new obsession is easily this torn achilles tendon. I have been active my entire life working out and playing sports has been my hobby since I was 16. Taking supplements and such has always been a part of my life especially in the Crossfit community. This is what I have come up with:

The Achilles Tendon like the other tendons in your body is made up of over 90% of Collagen. Collagen like Muscle has to go through a synthesis to grow. Just as we take protein and utilize the Branch Chain Amino Acids to aid in the Protein Synthesis to grow muscle the Collagen in our Tendons needs to do the same. What drives the Collagen Synthesis well that would be good old Vitamin C. Once the Synthesis begins the body looks for 4 specific Amino Acids which are Glycine, Proline, Hydroxyproline and Arginine. Now Proline and Arginine are ‘conditionally essential’, meaning you need them at certain life stages or if you are genetically unable to synthesize certain amino acids or have a medical condition that prevents you from making them. So to get these building blocks as a full grown adult you must add them becuase you will not get them from your diet like you will the other Amino Acids.

So Whats the best way to supplement these Amino Acids? With a supplement. You can buy Amino Acids to mix in your drinks, You can get recovery Whey proteins which have Amino Acid cocktails in it, and lastly you can get Amino Acids in pill form. Now there are dozens of Amino Acids so you have to check the label to get the ones you need. With all this info I collected today I changed my Amino Acids to Optimum Nutrition Superior Amino 2222 which has the essential aminos to spark the Collagen Syntheis to aid in recovery of my ATR. I was previously using BLOX silk amino acids which werent as “all encompassing” as this new one.

Lets take a step back, we all know Vitamin C starts the Collagen Synthesis. As for Vitamin C I am not taking a supplement for the simple reason that foods high in Vitamin C taste good. I have been consuming Strawberries and Oranges in large amounts. The Vitamin C will start the Achilles making engine and the Amino Acids (the building blocks) will start to reconstruct the tendon.

So thats me here is a list of the other supplements I am taking, most of which I have been taking previous to the tear.

Zyflamend from New Chapter - All Natural whole body anti-inflammatory
GLC 2000 - All encompassing joint support
Fish Oil from New Chapter - OMEGA’s 3,6,9
Bromelin - Anti-inflammatory
Zinc - Aids in the connective tissues
Vitamin D - Gotta get 15 mins at minimum of sunshine everyday

Here are the links to everything plus some extra reading, check out the rats and their ATR.

http://www.vitaminshoppe.com/store/en/browse/sku_detail.jsp?id=OP-1071
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18309503

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I finally got tired of trolling everyones great blogs and decided to jump on the site, hopefully in a year Ill be posting my 1 year post op and it will encourage someone like everyone else’s has encouraged me.

As for me I am Active Duty Army stationed in San Antonio on a desk job after 3 Iraq deployments. On May 7th I was at the local playground playing some Basketball, jumped for a rebound and got the text book “pop”. Being a huge basketball fan and reading all about Kobe’s experience I knew right away what happened. There was no pain but the back of my legs was mush.

Had surgery on 14 May 2013 and was sent home in a cast with my toe pointed down im guessing around 30 degrees. Those 2 days after the surgery were the most painful. When the nerve block wore off it was just horrible. The stinging and throbbing was ridiculous.

My 1st pre-op appointment was on 24 May 2013, during this visit my Dr removed my stitches and said the would was healing great. My foot was a lil swollen and black and blue but he said everything was looking good. He then put me in the standard black boot with a 2 CM heel lift. I could def feel the tendon stretching the 1st day in the boot. I hadnt read anyone else being this aggressive but we shall see how I turn out. I am NWB till Week 4 where I start PWB. I have started doing some Push ups and Situps in my living room to get the blood pumping!

I did read great things about these vacocast boots and ordered one from a fello ATR success story in MA. That will be here Friday. I will post some pics of my legs and such once I get a grasp on this blog!

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