I am really hating these crutches around this time of year in the snowy and icy weather. Have already had a few close encounters with some slippery steps and sidewalks. Plus I have to finish my shopping too. Ugh. The crowds and the crutches should make for a fun trip.
I think the one thing that i am most bummed out about is that I have to miss our annual christmas eve hockey game. One of the few things I really look forward to this year. And I am stuck being a spectator. At least I can go and document it, but would rather be playing. Will just have to shoot for next years get together.
7 responses so far ↓
normofthenorth // Dec 22nd 2010 at 1:53 am
Are you really ~22 weeks post-op, and still NWB on crutches? Ugh is right!
Can you install the “ATR Timeline” Widget, so we can all see your key facts without having to re-read your first few blog entries?
napatom2005 // Dec 22nd 2010 at 9:31 am
Well, I was off crutches and in my boot, but had a recurring infection, so the doctor did another surgery to clean the infection out and he wants the incision to heal up, so he has me NWB. HE thinks that the pressure on the incision was keeping it from healing correctly.
GerryR // Dec 22nd 2010 at 2:51 pm
You need to get a second opinion. You probably have a hole in the back of your ankle right over the internal suture knot and I am willing to bet money that your problem is caused by the internal suture material, commonly called fibrewire. I had recurring infections for months, had one surgery to clean it out - FAIL, had a third surgery(Z-plasty) to force it to close - FAIL and finally in May I had my fourth surgery to remove the internal sutures. Healed right up without any problems. You no longer need the internal suture material so removing it doesn’t present any danger to your Achilles. Talk to your surgeon about that and get a second opinion if necessary, 21 weeks and not healed is way too long. I personally think your surgeon is just guessing. My third surgeon even said I was causing the problems and refused to even consider the internal sutures as the culprit. My fourth surgeon looked at it, took me into their MRI room, did the MRI, looked at it and said that knot has to come out. I had a rather large abscess with the fibrewire knot at the bottom of it.
napatom2005 // Dec 22nd 2010 at 3:07 pm
Hey Gerry,
They said that they cleaned out the infection and took the internal sutures out when I was in about 2.5 weeks ago. And Im sorry if I didnt make this clear earlier, I was FWB for a short time, but the internal sutures kept causing the infections. I am currently NWB after the 2nd surgery.
GerryR // Dec 22nd 2010 at 3:10 pm
Cool, you should heal up pretty quickly with the junk out of there.
napatom2005 // Dec 23rd 2010 at 9:49 am
I hope. Did it take a while after your fourth surgery Gerry to start to heal? Im just getting tired of being on the curtches and the wound taking a long time to heal. The incision is still seeping fluid. The pad I keep on it is soaked by the end of the day and the incision looks attrocious. I try to keep my leg up as much as i can at work and home.
GerryR // Dec 23rd 2010 at 11:24 am
After the fourth surgery I woke up with a cast which was removed a week later. I then went back to my boot which the surgeon wanted me to use until the incision was completely healed. But, I was FWB immediately after the surgery. I had drainage for 9 days after the surgery and what was left of the sutures were removed at 20 days and I was back on my bike for a 22 mile ride 5 days after that.
Did the surgeon close it or did he leave it to granulate in from the bottom? If he left it to close on its own, I understand that can take a while. That was what my third surgeon wanted to do but he never got the chance, plus he didn’t believe the internal sutures were the problem.
BTW, I discovered the internal suture material is called fibrewire from reading the surgical report from my second surgery. My surgery dates were 8/3/09, 8/25/09, 10/3/09 and 5/20/10.
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