This looks GOOD?!?!? (aka Doctors are an interesting breed)
Had my first post-op visit yesterday. I’ve never looked forward to a doc visit so much. Three things I wanted to do:
1. Feel air on my leg again. I’d been in a splint up to my knee for two weeks.
2. Attempt to move my foot.
3. Ask a list of questions I had compiled in the two weeks since my surgery.
I arrived at the doc’s office. The nurse removed the splint (more like peeled it off my leg). Ah, sweet relief! The feeling of fresh air on my leg was awesome. Then she removes the sutures and leaves. For the next few minutes, I investigated. Wow, is it still swollen around the ankle. I’ve got a 3-4 inch incision starting just above the base and slightly to the inner portion of my ankle.
So I start to wiggle my foot (as much as I could). I was able to raise it about 1 inch. Not much, but at least I wasn’t like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill Vol 1. (”Wiggle your big toe.”)
Next, my doc comes in, and say “This looks GOOD.” I think he’s crazy, but I’m ready to have my questions answered. Here’s my prognosis.
- My right is no more/less likely to bust now that my left has.
- I’ll be a full cast (knee to toes) for another month. It will be off in time for Christmas.
- After that, we begin a walking boot (with wedges) and physical therapy.
- Increasing my protein intake will help my recovery.
- There is no medical evidence that increasing my glucosamine and chondroitin intake will aide in recovery or prevent future injury.
One comment about the likelihood of me blowing my right leg…
He said it was a force issue. My foot was in position A, my knee in position B, and when my calf muscle fired, the Achilles blew. Now, I’m an engineer, and I like numbers. So I tell him that I have competing statistics. I’m just as likely to blow the right as I was the left, but the chances of me blowing the right are minimal (he’s never seen a bilateral Achilles tear). To resolve this conundrum, I’m comparing this to “winning” the lottery. My chances are low to win it once. But if I do, it does not increase or lessen my chances of “winning” again. This is the only thing that helps me while I’m hopping around on crutches, fearing that I’ll tear up my good leg.
So now I’m in a nice blue cast. I asked if they had a “Twilight” theme … for my girls. They did not.
My wonderful wife tried to get the nurse to give me a pink one. I nixed that. 
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Your incision looks pretty decent to me. The photo isn’t enough of a close-up but it looks like it is healing quite nicely. I won’t say anything about the cast, never had one and research doesn’t really support their use.
One word of caution. Try to “hop” on your good leg as little as possible. I was getting really good at hopping around on my right leg and after a few weeks of it, my right knee started to complain and got seriously painful at times. Now that I’m FWB and in 2 shoes, my right knee is beginning to recover.