szaitz’s AchillesBlog

I know I started out like a house afire blogging a lot immediately after surgery, making inroads to Norm of the North’s inner circle and thinking I was gonna be break recovery speed records - all the while scoffing at the notion that this Achilles issue would be as troubling and unpredictable as it turned out to be.

That was a very long way of saying I’m growing inpatient. Three months since the surgery and I’ve been in two shoes for a while, but the notion of walking without a limp, let alone running, seems very, very far away.

My doctor and PT said everything was roses. I had increased my rubberband and balancing exercises workload a lot from say six weeks post-op. No more boot, no more padded Achilles sleeve pad, very little swelling if any at all. But then two weeks ago, swelling reappeared and fatigue set in after only a few city blocks.

In fact, last week I tried to beat a traffic light. It was freezing and I wanted to get inside, so I tried to ‘run’ for a few steps. No good. A few blocks later, my upper calf started to ache. Yeeeesh. A new county heard from. Upper calf pain? What the hell is that about? I had to re-introduce myself to the ice pack and I now, like a bad girlfriend, we are back together for the foreseeable future. Worse yet, I no longer do step-up or balancing exercises and essentially spend my PT time getting the fluid that encases my entire foot pushed and redistributed up my leg. I’ve gone backwards.

So I deserve all the ‘I told you so’s’ that you veterans might be saying to yourself. All the posts I’ve always read on here have emphasizes patience - the six month to a year kind of patience, which is frustrating - but quite the reality I suppose.

We have a new member of our community, as I am watching the New York Ranger Hockey game and I have learned that the regular commentator, Joe Michiletti, is not there. He has ruptured his achilles playing basketball. Perhaps we will see blogs from him in the near future.

So all of you newbies out there, including you Joe, I have one piece of advice - don’t get over-exuberant and over confident in the very beginning and then try to foolishly beat the clock. The clock will always win.