Posted on April 2nd, 2014 by teek22
Hi All,
It has been a long while since I checked this website to be honest. I was getting to the stage post ATR where I was doing almost everything and no longer thinking about it. I was pushing myself in the gym, I could run and jump without thinking too much of the ATR.
To celebrate my one year anniversary I booked myself onto a rock climbing course and began picking it up. I was really enjoying it, until I had a fall from an indoor wall from about 4/5m up where I landed badly and got a hairline fracture in my fibula bone on the same leg as the ATR.
The reason I got the hairline fracture was due to badly landing as I was spinning when I fell and not bracing my fall properly.
Upon landing I Immediately felt pain and heard a cracking sound, my first thought was, %$£@ not the Achilles again. I checked the foot and counted my blessings to not have a re rupture. Initially I thought it was a sprained ankle and walked on it for a while before going to the hospital to get it checked out.
It was there when I found out that I have a hairline fracture in the fibula bone and also a high pain threshold for walking on it to the hospital, after catching a tube and train home! So I was given the treatment of 5 weeks in a cast non weight bearing. I have less than 2 weeks left now until the cast come off at which point I can put weight on it.
I am looking forward to recovery and imagine I will be able to push myself quicker than I did post ATR. It will be an interesting journey though getting the leg back up to full strength after suffering 2 injuries to it.
I havn’t looked too much into protocols for my injury as I did with the ATR as my understanding is that its not too important. I imagine many of the strengthening exercises will be the same as they were post ATR, so having been down this road before I have a good understanding of what to expect. I have just been ensuring I eat right to allow the bone to heal as quickly as possible.
23 Comments »
Posted on November 3rd, 2013 by teek22
Hi All,
It’s been an awful long time since I last posted. Well I can say that my life is now pretty much back to normal. Small things that I wouldn’t have done like running for a bus or a train, I now don’t think twice about doing.
I have been on many late nights out where I have put my ATR repaired leg under strain busting moves on the dance floor. I have done some running and got up to 1.5 miles, however I decided to stop with the running as it was aggravating my knee on the ATR side. I can now do a calf raise on the bad leg and have been to able do one for a while now.
I still get the occasional pain in the area but its rare and it can feel tight at times. But it quickly loosens up after a brief period of walking or activity.
So I have a few questions for those of you at the year plus mark.
I still find I don’t quite have the push off strength on the ATR leg. I think this is partly me being cautious about it as well. Does this ever come back?
The main query I have is that I plan on going skiing in January, which will be 10.5 months post surgery. For those of you that went skiing after the injury, what was your experience? Is there anything that I should focus on these next 2 months leading up to it? I think flexibility will be important.
I have currently began strength weight lifting again in the gym to prevent the loading that the calf has to take on the trip which I think will help aswell.
5 Comments »
Posted on May 21st, 2013 by teek22
Well it’s been 14 weeks until I was surgically repaired. It’s a long period of time when I look back upon everything and the progress may be slow but is definitely there in leaps and bounds from the beginning.
Currently I am walking almost daily 1.25miles and every other day cycling for 15mins. I have been increasing this my one minute each time I cycle over the last week. Last week I took things a bit easy as I began to feel a lump appearing on my tendon. The area around the lump began to feel really tight and sometimes sore. I found with some gentle massaging and taking it easy it reduced significantly in size within a few days and the tightness went. I feel this is probably from overworking the area and trying to do too much every day. I was reminded by the physio that I can only heal and recover as quickly as my body will allow. I feel this is something great to remember for everyone as we are all keen to back to 100% health as soon as we can. I think this week I am going to increase the mileage in walking and hit 1.5 miles.
I was told by the phsyio to ensure I continue to massage the scar area as sometimes scar tissue can stick to the surrounding area and cause tightness.
With regards to my ankle mobility, stretches etc. My ankle mobility for the ATR foot matches my good foot. I have been working on my dorsiflexion and calf stretching. I have seen some people use a scale on here to determine their dorsiflexion progression. Currently I can have my foot about 4 finger widths away from the wall which is 6/7cms and still touch my knee to the wall. I feel like my dorsiflexion and general tightness of the foot isn’t improving drastically anymore. I guess I have reached the “plateau” people mention on here where progress seems slow. I guess I just need to keep doing what I’m doing and not loose motivation as my physio says I am progressing well.
I do have one question for the people on achilesblog! When can you expect to get the same dorsiflexion back in the injured leg as you have your good leg? Or something near to it. I guess the people further ahead of me in recovery will be the best people to answer this question.
I didn’t feel like my dorsiflexion was limiting me too much until today when my phsyio asked me to try some lunges. When I put the good leg forward and tried to do a slow lunge. The tightness in the ATR leg prevented me from doing it which is what sparked the question.
1 Comment »
Posted on May 8th, 2013 by teek22
Since my last update, I feel like things are improving again and I am almost back to the same level where I was a week ago before I had the setback which is good news!!
I managed to travel up to London on Sunday to watch to Iron Man 3 in the IMAX in Waterloo which was really enjoyable. Had a catch up with some friends that I had not seen in almost 4 months! However during my entire journey there and on the way back I was constantly worried about having another setback from over walking again, maybe even causing some serious permanent damage or god forbid a re-rupture. Even whilst sitting still watching the movie I was very aware of the foot and it didn’t feel comfortable as I couldn’t keep it raised. I kept on shuffling the foot to find a comfortable position but I was unable to do.
Luckily everything was fine the next day, however I had a lot of swelling when I got back that evening as I wasn’t able to rest my foot properly the entire time during my trip.
So my main question I have to all the people that are ahead of me is: When did you feel comfortable in going out again to see people on trains? Maybe even going to bars or crowded places?
I’m just looking for a guide as to when I can get my regular life social life back again.
Would you say it’s probably best to wait until that niggling voice in the back of your head goes away? Because I felt on the day when I caused myself to have a setback last week, I ignored that voice even though it was there.
11 Comments »
Posted on May 4th, 2013 by teek22
Hey all, I have some questions that I would really appreciate some advice on.
So on Friday I was feeling great, was walking at a good pace with good improved GAIT. I saw my physio on that day where I did some balance exercises on a wobble board, tested the calf strength and looking at how I am coming along. That all felt great and nothing beyond what I should be doing.
I then came home and went for my daily walk, this week I been doing 1 mile, so on Friday I thought I would slightly increase it and did 1.25 miles. Then I came back, did some seated calf raises, went for another walk to read my book in the park which was probably 0.5miles round trip. Then some more balancing.
Basically I did a lot more than I usually would. In the evening, after I ate my dinner around 8/9pm my foot felt really sore and my Achilles was tired. When I first went to step up and walk off the foot I had a very brief pain through the Achilles which went away. However this has all made me worried and concerned today and am taking it easy. The pain has gone now, however I’m just being cautious.
I feel like I already know why it happened to me, and is because I was being too keen and tried to do to many things in one day that I wasn’t used to.
I was just wondering if people have any pain around the 11 week mark in the Achilles? I haven’t felt anything like that in a few weeks :/
Also when I walk I can sometimes feel a slight tug in the Achilles itself due to tightness. Have other people experienced this?
After worrying that I thought I damaged the repair, it seems fine today and has not caused me any issues. However I have taken it slow today and am moving a lot slower deliberately. I guess the road to recovery can be a bumpy ride, up until this moment everything was always improving. It’s just frustrating when a bump occurs.
Just annoying because it’s a blow to my confidence, which I guess can be a good thing to keep me inline and not over do things.
As always, thanks for reading. There’s something about writing about your problems that makes them seem to be a lot more manageable. This site has truly kept me sane over the last few months!
3 Comments »
Posted on May 2nd, 2013 by teek22
Its been a while since I posted so I thought I’d update you all on my progress.
The main parts are that my doctor wanted me in my cast for just under 8 weeks, so I didn’t get the opportunity to go into a boot which so many of you talk about on here. After the cast was taken off, I was straight into walking around bare foot and the physio began. I was quite apprehensive about being bare foot and being able to put shoes on so I took things slowly.
When the cast came off, my foot seemed very weak, it seemed to look really skinny and fragile. The physio had me doing ROM exercises initially, and gave me a blue resistance band to use to exercise my quads and hamstrings. I was also doing some bridges with my feet on the floor to strengthen the gluteus maximum, and had me doing some side lifts to strengthen the hip.
Around the 9 and a half week time I was told to start adding in some stationary cycling. That felt really good as it helped loosen up my ankle after a while on it and helped me with my walking.
In my last few physio appointments she has had me focusing on my balance as she feels my weakness is my balance. She feels my ROM is as good as my uninjured foot.
My aims for this week were to improve balance and try to walk without a limp. I feel my walking as improved greatly this week, I managed to walk a mile on 2 occasions this week in 25 minutes. Additionally my balance has also improved. I am looking forward to the next appointment tomorrow to see what else I can add in.
However I have felt sometimes during this week that the area behind my knee can become VERY sore. I have noticed some soreness around my ankle too that occurs, but I feel this occurs on days when I have been walking around the house more. Apart from these things I feel that I am progressing well and have seen leaps of improvement within the last 2/3 weeks.
I think that is everything.
10 Comments »
Posted on March 21st, 2013 by teek22
It’s now just passed the 5 week mark. Since the last post I feel I have made a lot of progress. I am now able to walk comfortably with one crutch and can even walk very slowly with no crutches! I still don’t feel comfortable in doing this so I try to keep one crutch with me at all times.
When I started to put a lot of weight on the foot, due to position of foot in the cast it was causing my knee to be hyper extended which made it very uncomfortable. So I rang the fracture clinic and they said pop down to the plaster room. They removed the old cast and have actually put my foot in the 90 degree position. This has helped greatly to alleviate the pain from my knee and has helped me walk with more confidence using one crutch and sometimes none! When they pushed the foot to 90 degree there was no pain at all and I felt no tightness. So I hope this is a good thing.
This was done without seeing my doctor, hopefully he is ok with this. However in the last appointment with him they tried get my foot to 90 degrees but couldn’t due to the lack of flexibility. So I assume he will be fine with this.
3 Comments »
Posted on March 15th, 2013 by teek22
It’s been 4 and half weeks (31 days) now since the operation. Since my last post I decided to take it a bit easy with the weight bearing to prevent damage, as I feel a slower healing process with no injuries will be significantly better than a rushed approach where I reinjure myself. However I am seeing clear progress with the weight bearing at a natural rate. Over the last few days I am finding I can put considerable weight on the repaired foot, if I try hard I can walk with one crutch but do not feel confident yet in order to do this. So I am positive with the progress I am seeing. Hopefully by my next appointment I can be walking with one crutch, hopefully none! However as my foot is not at 90 degrees in the cast, I find it difficult to put weight on the foot in a natural position. When I put weight on the foot, it pushes the leg into a locked out position.
After reading other member’s posts and normofthenorths comment on my last post, I think at my next appointment I will push the doctor for a boot. I assume he will give me one anyway as it seems the next logical step. In response to your comment on my last post norm, the pain I was experiencing was around the calf area where the tendon is attached to. It wasn’t on the surgical site, heel or the rupture area itself. I felt it was more due to tightness more than anything else. But I am no doctor so I could be imagining it for all I know. I have been doing a stretch where from a lying down position, I raise my repaired leg so that it is straight from the ground. This helped minimise and eliminate the pain I was experiencing around the calf. In my opinion I thought it loosened the calf and tendon, however after reading about the possibility of the tendon repairing long I have decided to not do this so much as I am becoming concerned that I may increase the chance of this occurring!!!
11 Comments »
Posted on March 8th, 2013 by teek22
Hello all!
I guess I should start out by telling you a little bit about my injury and myself. My name is Pratik Patel. I am 23 years old and managed to rupture my achilles playing football. Luckily for me I just graduated and have a job which is due to start in september so I can focus the next 7 months on healing and rehabilition as I have all the time in the world. I was operated on within 24 hours. The dates of the rupture and operation are below.
Date of rupture: 12th February 2013.
Date of Operation: 13th February 2013.
I had by first follow up appointment on 4th March 2013 which was 19 days after the operation. Here they removed the first half cast which had my feet in a position so that it was pointing down. Then they put me in a new red fibre glass cast where they tried to get my foot to 90 degrees. It is close to 90 degrees but not quite there due to the tightness I had in the achilles. I was given an ankle brace and was told to start putting weight on my foot with the aim to get to fully weight bearing within 2 weeks without crutches.
I have begun putting some weight on the leg and it was going well, I felt I was able to put a little bit more weight on it as time went on. However yesterday (8th March 2013) 23 days after the operation I decided to try putting more weight on it with the use of the 2 crutches and found I had some pain in the leg. It was only after a good nights sleep that the pain went away. I am cocerned that if I continue to push myself that I will do some considerable damage to the surgical repair of the tendon and be back to square one. Is it normal for me to experience pain when I begin to put weight on the foot or does this mean I am pushing myself too far? I would be very grateful if people could comment and tell me how they felt when they began to put weight on their operated leg in order to get fully weight bearing. Did it involve pushing past some barrier or was it a natural progression? I am quite unsure on the matter and would really help appreciate some clarification.
Below are the images below of my foot in a cast and the ankle brace
Leg in Cast
Leg in ankle brace
2 Comments »
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And now that I’m starting to enter brittle geezer-dom (68 now), that ski-binding tradeoff gets more interesting.
