Bunk’s AchillesBlog

I am now 8 weeks post op, and 1 week out of the cast in the boot. I’ve had 4 PT sessions since I got my cast removed last week.

The progress I’ve made in the last 7 days:

1. I can now walk in the boot with just one crutch full time. I still get aching pains in my ankles while walking in the boot. It comes and goes depending on my stride and form. I feel nothing in the achilles area.

2. I can now stand stationary while barefoot with zero pain and complete balance. This is great for showers. When I first got out of the cast this was a very difficult thing to do. Every part of my foot would ache, I had poor balance, and I would have to extend my bad foot out about 6 inches above my good foot just to relieve the tension on my achilles. I can now stand completely straight up with my feet even with each other without any problems. I can bare probably 60% of my body weight on my bad foot before the pain kicks in.

3. I’ve upgraded from the yellow resistance bands to the red ones. The red ones dont appear to be much of a challenge either to be honest.

There are probably a few more I’ve missed, but those are the biggest. I think this is solid progress considering I’m only 7 days removed from the cast. There are some things I couldnt do last week that I still cant do, but I’m okay with that. Different parts of the foot show progress at their own pace I guess. Hopefully next week I’ll be able to say I’ve made more progress.

Never thought this day would come. Casts are evil. Casts do not represent progress, they represent purgatory. You are not on the road to recovery, you are at the bust stop waiting for the recovery bus to pick you up. But it WILL come. If you are in a cast I feel sorry for you. Just hang in there. It sucks and there really isnt much more to say about it.That’s just the cold hard truth.

I was in my cast for 7 weeks…until today. My ultra-conservative doctor wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve recently learned that the reason he is this way is because he had a string of terrible patients and has turned into a cynical asshole. But all of that is over now! Not only did I finally get put into a boot, I had my first PT session shortly after. The doc told me to remain NWB until I reached 8 weeks, by my PT team thinks he’s a idiot (they are the ones who told me about why he’s so conservative) and told me to go ahead and go PWB if I want—which I have. Crutching while PWB is a million times more comfortable. I can even go to one crutch, but that is a bit more difficult, but doable. I attempted FWB with no crutches but that’s just not possible at this point unless I feel like taking 30 minutes to walk 10 feet.

The PT was pretty awesome. I’ll be going 3 times a week and they are aggressive. We didnt do too much, and just went over a few different exercises and discussed what I have to look forward to. I had a 20 minute ice session and did some stretches with resistant bands. They also told me to ignore the doc’s heel lift plan, and instead of taking one lift out every 3 days they want me to take them all out completely in a week and save the individual lifts for when Im in two shoes.  As for the boot itself, I’ve heard people say the transition is like “starting over”. Like hell it is. I’m just as fast crutching while PWB as I am NWB. The only difference is that I’m not exhausted like I was before. I dont have to sleep in it, its about the same weight as my cast was, and I can take it off anytime I want. It does get hot, but I dont care.

Anyway thats pretty much all I have. I wish I had a better doc and was further along than I am, but none of that matters now. I’m back on the road and I couldnt be happier. I probably wont blog again until I’m done with the boot or something crazy happens.