tategregory

Just had my six week follow up this morning.  Dr said everything looks and feels good and strong.  After examining my achilles and the incision he asked if I was ready to get rid the of the crutches.  I emphatically said,  "absolutely" assuming he would tell me just a few more weeks or something along those lines.  When he told me I could ditch the crutches right away I had to fight to keep from smiling like a kid on Christmas morning.

My walk is ugly as hell and the height difference from my booted foot to other foot is a little awkward but I’m on cloud nine right now.

Today marks exactly 35 days since surgery and only 5 days until my 6 week follow up where i swear on all that is holy I better get to transition to PWB.  I don’t even think about the fact that i’m on crutches now as they’ve kind of just become part of my life and don’t really hinder me from doing anything.  I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been putting some weight on it with the crutches, but never more that a few steps in a row.  I know I’m stupid and taking a huge risk for not following orders to a tee but I do know my own body pretty well and haven’t had a shred of pain in the achilles for weeks….even in the two instances where i was falling and put my full body weight on the booted foot.

Physical Therapy and rehab is going pretty well.  My strength and range of motion feels better every day and my confidence in the achilles has gone through the roof.  Theraband work drastically improved my strength and ROM over the past few weeks and my PT started me on a passive stretching program earlier this week.

I’ve been on the stationary bike (barefooted) 3 times in the past week and i’ve increased the intensity each time.

first time was 5 mins at 17 rpm.  left foot was extremely shaky and i was probably putting less than 5 lbs of pressure at max….not gonna lie, i was scared and being kind of a pussy.

second time was 5 mins at 25 rpm.  was able to keep constant pressure of the left foot on the pedal  and actually give a little bit of push…no shakes.

third session i kept it over 30 rpm for full 5 mins and was able to evenly keep pressure on the left foot.

The achilles itself feels like a steel chord back there these days.  Really, really tight…but at least it feels strong.  I can get to 90 degrees with no problem and plantarflexion is almost even with my other foot.  I get a little soreness and swelling in the foot and ankle ligaments depending on how hard i push myself each day with rehab stuff.

My goal since surgery was scheduled was to golf 12 weeks post op so I’m counting down the days to July 10th.

It’s been exactly 28 days since my surgery and It’s going along pretty smooth.  I’m really getting fed up with never having my hands free to carry things and I’m sick of every single daily task being such a chore but I’m past the halfway point of the non weight bearing nightmare so the final two weeks of it should go by pretty fast.

The past few days I’ve seen a huge amount of progress since they started letting me do some band resisted range of motion at PT.  My foot and ankle strength/mobility have increased more in the past 72 hours than it did in the first week and half out of the cast.  I’ve been very passive working dorsiflexion as I’m well aware of the risks of the tendon healing too long.  I don’t work it past the initial point of tension right now.  I’m also able to move my foot/toes a lot faster and with less concentration and effort than I previously could which tells me my nervous system is starting to function properly again.  The swelling has also gone down drastically and really only gets bad when I have the boot on for an extended period of time.

I rode the exercise bike (barefooted) for 5 minutes at PT the other day and even though i didn’t even push off the repaired leg i could feel the fatigue and tension in the achilles from the continuous motion/usage of the foot.   I was petrified to put any pressure on the ball of my foot at first but gently applied a little bit as i got going and it felt fine…tight, but fine.  Therapists were adament that if I felt any sort of pain or discomfort that I had to stop.

I’ve been doing all of my exercises at least twice a day and icing 3-4 times a day along with constantly squeezing my toes and wiggling the foot while I’m on the couch watching TV  so hopefully my Dr gives the go ahead to become PWB in 2 weeks.

I did accidentally confirm that the tendon is strong enough to handle my full body weight the other day (in the boot of course).  I was on my way our athletic training room building and it was raining pretty hard.  A couple steps inside the building the crutches slipped out to the sides and I instinctively caught myself on the repaired leg it what was basically a walking lunge position.  I didn’t feel any pain or stretching of the achilles but was still scared as hell.  The trainer examined my achilles and everything felt/looked the same as the previous days.

I had my first PT session this morning, three weeks to the day of my surgery.  Not a whole lot to speak of, mostly just teaching me the exercises i can do.  They measured my active dorsiflexion at minus 16 degrees and active plantarflexion at 28 degrees so my range of motion is pretty limited.  How does that compare to where many of you have been at 3 weeks post op?

They had me do a few sets of circumduction (20 reps/set) both clockwise and counterclockwise, movement was very, very slow as i hadn’t worked anything other than plantar/dorisflexion on my own.  Next was isometric inversion/eversion which felt good.  I could really feel stiffness/soreness in my ankle ligaments on the inversion.  After that was a set of toe curls pulling a towel on a wood board.  One therapist who had an ATR last year said the toe curls on a towel were brutal for him but they weren’t too bad for me going for a minute.  I have been curling the toes and squeezing the foot a lot on my own.  I’m sure the difficulty of those will amp up once they put a weight on the towel.  Finished up with some ice and they told me i can do those exercises a few times each day on my own before my next session Tuesday.

I’m settled into a pretty good routine in my boot and life is actually starting to become pretty routine.  I know how much time i need to give myself to complete my day to day activities and haven’t had any issues with my crutches or near accidents in a while.

Today I found myself at the top of a short staircase, roughly seven steps, no big deal.  From the top i put the crutches down a step and my healthy leg followed only my body continued to lean forward…farther and farther….somehow my weight shifted too far forward from the top step, the crutches had wedged too far up in my armpits and i couldn’t move them to catch myself.  There was no way around it….i was going down.  I made the split second decision to jump down the remaining 5 or 6 steps rather than falling and certainly injure/embarrass myself.  Somehow i managed to twist my body in the air, toss the crutches and stick the landing without my boot so much as touching the ground.

I calmly picked up my crutches as shocked onlookers asked if I was okay to which i responded, "athlete," then went on my way.

I start physical therapy tomorrow morning…..hopefully it’s on the first floor.

Had my first follow up appointment today to get my cast removed and sutures taken out.  I’m now in a cam walking boot at neutral with 3 heel wedges.  Doc said everything is healing up nicely and i can start PT next week.  He gave a prescription for 2 PT sessions a week for the next 4 weeks.  Hopefully my body responds well to those and I’ll be able to get some extra sessions in with our athletic training staff on campus.

The incision from the surgery was actually a little shorter than what i expected, only about 4-5 inches, but i could not believe how much my calf has atrophied.  I knew it would be small but it has wasted away to nothing.  Not surprisingly i can barely move my foot at all when it’s out of the boot but man it feels good to get a little air down there.  I can’t wait to shower tonight and be able to wash my leg.