Attempting walking barefoot
My instructions for week 6-10 were rather vague. The instructions on boot use and adjustment were clear, but out of boot time was not as clear. Since the day of surgery I was told to move my foot as much as possible to get blood flowing and keep range of motion, this was reiterated for week 6-10. Range of motion is amazing, strangely it seems better than pre-surgery due to my other ankle problem.
What I’m not clear on is, should I be trying to walk bootless? I’ve been walking barefoot and it feels “ok”, I can even push off with my toes to a fair extent. However, the tendon is rather tight, as are the supporting muscles around the foot and ankle. Having done physical therapy to try and forego the ATF tightening surgery, which foregoing that my have caused the Achilles problem, the supporting muscles of my ankle were strong. With those muscles atrophied I can really feel how unstable the ankle joint is.
I can only assume that walking barefoot, based on the stories of others like ryanb who already have themselves in shoes, is probably just fine. The caveat being that I’m careful and smart about it. Throughout this whole process I haven’t felt rushed or anxious about being active again, which seems weird to me. Part of it could be that fresh out of surgery I wasn’t in a cast, boot, splint or anything. Sure, crutches were not fun, but the rest of the time I was just sitting there moving my foot around like nothing happened. The comfort level of not having something around my leg all the time made all the difference.
Reading other stories I may question the 6 weeks of non-weight bearing I had, but I was moving the tendon pretty much the day out of surgery, often flexing my calf to music to build strength and keep it engaged. At week 2 when my stitches came out my doctor told me, thanks for being careful with your foot, but really you should be setting it on the ground while seated, I didn’t know… It started feeling really good about midway between week 3 and 4, but I stuck with crutches for walking, and continued doing seated calf raises while trying to get my foot at 90 and my knee at 90. Overall I’m not sure I would follow a different protocol, it has felt about perfect for how my healing feels.
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At this point- I would consider the boot to be sort of like a motorcycle helmet. It doesn’t do much for you when your riding, but it can do a whole lot for you if you’re crashing. Riding (nominally) without it isn’t harmful; but it’s risky. If you crash, the penalty can be very severe.
Unlike a helmet, the boot has some down-sides too. You’re already feeling how much weaker all the other support muscles are, and how unstable your ankle is getting. The longer you keep them from working, the worse this will get. At some point, you will decide that these downsides are starting to out-weigh the benefit. I made that decision early- recognizing that I was (and still am) accepting more risk by doing so.
You will need to decide when you feel OK walking. Most people want to get their docs/PT’s approval first. I’ll just urge you to be VERY careful when starting to do so. You’re riding without your helmet.
That’s a great analogy…. I like your analogy about the 100 hr pilots as well, that seems to be right where I’m at…
I think there’s a good amount of people on the site who were walking around the house barefoot by week 9. Some of us were even earlier than that. It’s all about how you feel and what you know about yourself. If you know you’re a bit clumsy, you may want to wait a bit longer before walking around more so you don’t step on a shoes and re-rupture. If you were really active and athletic before the surgery then you may feel it’s not as much of a risk for you to walk around.
I’d also take a look at the tracker: http://achillesblog.com/atrpt.php and find some comparable people to your age and rupture activity to see when they went to 2-shoes. It’s pretty safe to assume that they were walking barefoot before that date.
Cheers