Texas Flyer Achilles Blog

So, I’ve said earlier that (I think) I have a pretty high tolerance for medications and perhaps pain. I walked (or hobbled) on my torn Achilles for about 4 days after it happened. Medications, pain relievers, alcohol and other uh, things back when I was younger seem to not always take effect in a typical way.

Day 7 - I went for my 1 week checkup, scar inspection and re-wrap of splint. Everything was just peachy.

Day 8 - I woke up with pretty intense pain in my heel. It seemed to be the middle of my heel, then the bottom, then all over. It became INTENSE and painful. So turn the clock back a week and I was in wicked pain once more. I was out of my pain meds and didn’t bother to call for a refill since I thought I was home free from the pain.

Now, I must say that the pain wasn’t at my surgical area or on the Achilles, for this I was thankful. But I know the Achilles runs down to the heel and attaches to all sorts of important stuff, so I didn’t know what was going on. It was only 12 hours or so after my 1 week checkup and re-wrap of my splint. The wrapping didn’t feel too tight, it was the same splint and everything still appeared to be the same.

I called the Dr. office and the PA just told me that it was pretty normal. Since I had been elevating my leg and on my back (or butt) pretty much for a week, my heel was the first real contact with the bed, pillow, etc. and was absorbing all the weight from my foot and making contact with the none-so-pillowy cast. Well, that made sense, I suppose.

So, unfortunately I had to get back on the pain meds. Day 8 was intense pain, it was near awful. Couldn’t rest and couldn’t find a comfortable position. My heel was on absolute FIRE. I tossed and turned, yelled a bit and popped pills. This time some whiskey in addition helped soothe my body down.

Day 9 - The pain was still there, but it was a dull pain. A pain where my heel and the nerve-endings there was tired of fighting. Dull throbbing for all of this day and into the night. I didn’t sleep until 4am.

Day 10 - When I woke up from a deep, medication-induced sleep, the pain was gone and I think my heel had given up. My heel was still a bit sore to the touch but thankfully I could rest my leg up in any position and not be in pain.

And this is where I am now. Day 14 and no pain at all since Day 9, no pain meds since then and I’m back to getting around the apartment, showering, preparing some easy things in the kitchen and sleeping. Ah, it’s wonderful.

Regarding the intense heel pain, I read on here that it seems to happen with people are first getting into their walking boots to the beginnings of PT. I don’t know if it’s the exact same area and if I’ll have to go through this again when my heel and nerve-endings wake back up with PT and some movement. But it was not fun and the pain and discomfort was almost as bad as days 1-2 post-surgery.