It has been four weeks since that dreadful day when I re-ruptured. The encouraging words from everyone were very helpful in those following days–thanks again. I am sure many will disagree with my decision, but I couldn’t bring myself to have surgery. I decided to immediately put the ankle in a boot and let it ride. If at four weeks it didn’t seem like it was going well, then I would have to reconsider.
I have been following the UWO protocol pretty closely with only one exception so far. The protocol calls for the ankle in a splint for two weeks and then a boot. The splint may keep the ankle at a steeper angle; nevertheless, my ankle was set at 30+degrees. One tip for Vaco-Cast users: the beads were kinda deforming my Achilles . . . mostly from the swelling around the boot liner. I made a real effort to push the beads away from the Achilles with my fingers. This seems to have taken any pressure off the tendon and it feels much smoother now when I take my boot off.
Bottom line: my tendon has healed together with no tenderness or irregularities other than a small uniform ridge at the rupture point. I have been extremely careful not to stretch my Achilles and thus repeat my error from the first go round.
Since week three, I have done gentle movements per the protocol along with using the electric massager. I have also begun protected weight bearing using my crutches. I believe the protocol calls for weight bearing as tolerated from week four onward. However, I probably will continue PWB for another week or so before I go FWB. I don’t feel any pain and probably could easily go FWB right now, but I want to protect from pre-mature stretching.
Hope everyone has swift and complete healing. Blessings, pk