Texas Flyer Achilles Blog

Today, I had my 3 week checkup post-surgery. A brief examination, stitches out and would have been fitted for a boot, but mine won’t arrive until Wednesday. But most importantly, I found out that I’m to be Non Weight Bearing (NWB) for two more weeks!

I’m bummed about this.

This was my second post-op visit, the first being after 1 week and, as I detailed in a previous post, my stitches looks "beautiful", clean and had not bled at all. This time, it actually looked a bit unsightly but the nurse and Dr said it still looked good. There had been some small bleeding which had to have been from my Days 8-10 of wicked heel pain, little sleep and much moving, shifting around (read from earlier).

The stitches, which I was a bit nervous about, were next to nothing. The area is so dull right now, there isn’t much feeling there. I could sense a tug here-and-there, but it was as painless as possible. I’m also surprised about the brief touch-test examination by the Dr., he prodded the Achilles up and down with some slight bending of the foot/ankle and it just feels…dead. I thought I’d be squirming in pain or yelping, but it just felt odd. Not many nerve endings there are active at the moment to tell my brain "yay" or "nay".

On still being NWB:
Originally, before surgery, both the PA and Dr had told me that after their standard 3 week in splint/stitches out appointment, they try to get patients into very initial, light PWB with crutches (of course), have first PT appointment and, I assume, begin the light foot/toes/ankle exercises at home.

But this was not for me. Apparently, his opinion on this does still relate to the severity of my injury (once they opened me up), the location of the complete tear (above the ankle) and the fact that I went 18 days after injury to have surgery (which included walking/hobbling on it for 4-5 days).

So by my first PT appointment in 2 weeks, I will have been 5 weeks NWB (3 in a splint, 2 in a boot). Based on what all I’ve read on here and also by the protocol that I was thinking about following from University of Wisconsin . It seems a bit long. Not only am I concerned about it being too long, I’m also a little bit disappointed as I thought I was going to be able to actually work on a few things in order to see some progress. Instead, it’s sofa and lounging for another two weeks.

As I’ve said in my previous posts, my Dr is young (40s), was a previous collegiate athlete and is also a team Dr for a local professional sports team. I mean like real-deal stuff. They’ve worked on Hall of Famers and very well known athletes. So while I don’t discredit a word he (and they) say, I am just frustrated at still being NWB at 3 and then until 5 weeks.

So here are my questions to the community:
1. At what point is the Achilles "healed"? What state is one at 3 weeks post-op? I realize that much of rehabilitation and PT is simply working your Achilles back up to a normal standard.

2. Should I attempt some simple home exercises? If I do something as seemingly low-stress as the toes-alphabet exercise, what should I look out for in terms of pain, swelling or bad signs?

3. Any other homeopathic remedies, supplements or dietary considerations that I could potentially look in to? Whether it’s anti-inflammatory (berries, cayenne, turmeric), blood flow (massages, acupuncture), other vitamins or anything that could promote muscle/tendon growth or strengthening, I’m all ears!