southafrican’s AchillesBlog

Can I please get the name of your surgeon in Cape Town???

Hi,
I have been suffering achilles tendonistis for 1 year .. does anyone know a good consultant in cape town..

Sorry to hear that, hope it’s nothing too serious - try to stay positive and keep us posted.

Yikes! Obviously if it doesn’t improve fast by itself, get some serious attention. It’s all news to me, and doesn’t sound like good news.

What a pain! At least they found the cause of your problems, and presumably a solution, too. The heart-surgery crowd calls this sort of thing “a bump on the road” to recovery. This, too, shall pass.

I had several days of those injections — low molecular weight heparin, branded as Lovenox here — after my open-heart surgery. After a few days, they could stop stabbing me, when my blood levels of the oral Warfarin was high enough to prevent my new Mitral Valve repair (ring) from throwing a clot. (I’m supposed to quit the Warfarin after 3 months — about 1 more month from now.)

I think my “stab holes” were relatively slow to heal, too — hope your experience with that is better.

I’m a full-fledged member of the post-op crowd now, and sincerely hoping to avoid clots of my own!

Good luck with yours.

My PT also said that internal scar tissue is not smooth like normal muscle so does not slide over the nearby bits as it should. Its why it sometimes feels a bit jammed I think, you know how sometimes the ROM is good (like in a calf raise) and sometimes not so. That is why the massage is good for getting in to try to break down the lumpy stuff.

SA, when you said “seven needles” on my blog, I just assumed you meant hypodermic needles, injections. But you meant acupuncture needles — I get it now! I used to have a Chiropractor who did some of that, but not recently, and not for either of my two ATRs. I think he sometimes attached electrodes to them, too, and sent little currents through them.

I’ve never heard of that “internal scar bump” theory before, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. Scars can be bumpy on the outside, so it’s easy to believe they can be bumpy on the inside, too. Lots of good AT function depends on one thing sliding over another, not rubbing or grabbing. . .

For sure, surgical incisions encourage “adhesions” — another kind of “bad healing” where layers of tissue that are supposed to slide over each other, end up growing together instead. Adhesions can be harmless, or a nuisance, or a serious impediment to full function, depending on how extensive and where they are. Many PTs like to try to break them up, though I’m not familiar with acupuncture needles for that, either.

Hi Mark wow that is bad that you re ruptured yours again . Were you out of your boot walking in the street.
How many weeks post op were you ?

My P T believes that the inside of you scar sometimes forms bumps (scars ) that can irritate your Achilles .It scratches your Achilles when it slides up and down.He found 7 places on my scar that had formed small knots on the inside .
He treated it by sticking needles into the knots .He left it in for about 10 min , wiggling them now and again.

Help anyone ! i have had 2 P T sesions , My achilles is much thinner now , but my foot is now shaking uncontrolable, if not suported (.toes jurk upwards).

Gerry the surgeon explained scaring of your A T happens during a activity like sport when you stress the A T excessively .jumping off a wall,getting a hard knock on it.
We do that all the time (while it is not warmed up first) That is life like i know it. then the tendon string like strands break or tear.only one or two out off thousands.Your body heals that naturally forming a scar on your A T . You just feel a bit of tendonitis next day. The scar is less flexible .After many such scaring over the years that is when you can rupture your A T

@Norm - The procedure southafrican described is actually not that rare, but you’re right that it may be somewhat unique with bloggers on this site. I believe the procedure is generally used for ruptures that were neglected for several weeks and for tendons that were severely degraded prior to rupture. I’m assuming it was the FHL tendon that was used for reinforcement of southafrican’s AT repair. It is the same procedure that my surgeon planned to use for my second surgery if my tendon was not healthy. I’m happy that my tendon was still relatively healthy so the FHL transfer wasn’t necessary. Most of what I’ve read seems to indicate that there is little to no long term benefit with this type of procedure for most ATRs. The short term benefit can be increased initial tendon strength, but I’m not convinced it’s that much different that an early weightbearing protocol.

A tenon is one half of a mortise and tenon joint used in woodworking.

The toe has two tendons ,the main tendon is used for this surgery . this leaves u with minimum movements of the big toe . u can not toe paint or pick up a pin from the floor. the sport surgeons do not recommend this op to high or long jumpers

patatoe -patatoe …….tomatoes - tomatoes….. tonons -tendon this abc spell check insist it is tenons

SouthAfrican, your surgery sounds very interesting, and rare or even unique on this website. If it works reliably and better than standard surgery, I hope your Doc or somebody else will publish some studies on it. Are you expecting any noticeable loss of function in the big toe?

There’s a published report by two Japanese doctors showing amazingly quick and successful results from their new-fangled ultra-strong surgical repair (with no cast or boot!!), but I think theirs just used extra sutures, not the extra tendon. Novel Approach to Repair of Acute Achilles Tendon Rupture: Early Recovery Without Postoperative Fixation or Orthosis. Am J Sports Med February 2010 vol. 38 no. 2 287-292, Tadahiko Yotsumoto et al. The abstract’s at ajs.sagepub.com/content/38/2/287.abstract .

Great that Beckham is back scoring goals at 7 months post-op, and got back in the game at 6 months! In one interview, he said he felt ready to play 90 minutes after 4 months(!), but was wiped after running for 10 minutes. Still, not many of us could run for 10 minutes at 13 weeks. . .

Gerry, lighten up, man!

My understanding of scarring is like Tom’s. Heck, I’ve been taught that muscular development is from a kind of scar formation, triggered by micro-tears in the cells. Even tissue “adhesions”, though most often caused by surgery, do occur without it –e.g., as a very rare complication of NON-surgical ATR treatment.

Tendon, tenon — as long as you’re HEALTHY!!

The more I think about it the more I think you’re correct about the traumatic injury. But, you would have to have a traumatic injury of some sort for scar tissue to build, you don’t get scar tissue just by playing sports. Well, maybe boxing build up scar tissue in the brain. LOL

You may be correct, but I have not heard the term used that way and none of the orthopedic surgeons I’ve been to about the occasional problems with my right knee, which I tore up pretty good inside in college, have talked about scar tissue in there.

@Gerry - It’s my understanding that scar tissue can form from any trauma, including those that may occur during the activities mentioned by southafrican. Perhaps this isn’t the technically correct usage of the term scar tissue, but it’s the way it seems to be used by the general population and medical professionals to refer to internal healing of muscles, tendon, organs, etc. which have been damaged by trauma.

“All these cause scar tissue on Achilles making it less flexible.” Did a doctor tell you that? I hope not because the only things that cause scar tissue have to do with invasive procedures that break the surface of the skin, whether by accident or intentionally like surgery.

By the way, your body doesn’t have any tenons, but it has lots of tendons. Unless of course you are made from wood, then you might have tenons.

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