Texas Flyer Achilles Blog

Days 1-3 were hell. Days 4-7 were cool and I was getting into a rhythm.

Day 7 I went to the Doctor for my checkup with and to get a new wrapping with my splint.

As the nurse was cutting off my splint wrapping, it was weird and scary to have my leg/ankle exposed. The Doctor came in, felt up and down the Achilles and said that it was feeling great, was healing up and that my scar was "beautiful". Ok, I guess that’s a good thing! They also said there was zero blood in the bandages, which I thought was funny. During the days post-surgery your leg and surgical area is going through so much, I could’ve sworn that my scar was bleeding a few times. I felt it, I promise! But it was either just mental or nerve-endings playing tricks, or a bit of both.

My surgical scar is about 4 inches, which I hadn’t even known. As I’ve posted earlier, I went and got a second opinion before surgery from another Doctor desperately clinging on to the hope that I could avoid surgery. Well, that Doctor whom I did not go with, said I’d require an 8 inch incision from mid-heel up nearly to calf. Wow! That’s a bit scary there could be two set of opinions that different!

I asked my Dr. why it was so much smaller than the other Dr. had forecasted and he said, that "they" used to make much larger incisions. It wasn’t necessary for the most part and wasn’t for mine. So, here I’d like to reiterate that I recommend to finding a Doctor who specializes in Sports Medicine and maybe even progressive treatments and outlooks. My Doctor is young too, in his 40s and works with professional athletes. Many other Orthopedics I found were in their late 60s-70s and by my assumption might adhere to more dated practices and procedures. Just a thought.

After getting my splint back on, re-wrapped and on my way, my doctor said he’d like to keep me in splint and with stitches for another 2 weeks. So 3 total weeks post-surgery. Then a walking boot and light PWB with crutches to start, then ROM and PT and on it should go.

I realize that many here get stitches out anywhere from 1-3 weeks post-surgery. I can say that after seeing my "beautiful" scar after 7 days, it was nowhere near ready to come out, regardless of how clean it looked. It was still very much being held together and looked like costume makeup for Halloween!