4 Months Post-Op. (The Plateau)
It’s hard to believe that 4 months have past since suffering the ruptured Achilles. I still remember the actual rupture like it happened yesterday, but most of the recovery has started to become a blur. I guess that’s probably a good thing - maybe an indication that the mental recovery is progressing along with the physical. Attached below are a couple of pictures comparing the injured and healthy legs.
As you can see, there isn’t too much difference since the 3 month post-op pictures. That’s actually a bit telling for where I’m at with recovery right now. I seem to be on this endless plateau. I can feel some of the strength has returned to my calf and I’m moving around pretty well. But, I just can’t seem to completely shake the limp. I have days where it is almost unnoticeable, but then follow that up with a couple of days where I don’t feel much better than I did a month ago. These are the days that I have to remind myself that a ruptured Achilles is a serious injury, and you can’t expect to be bounce back right away. I’m also trying to find that balance at the gym of doing enough that I feel like I’m pushing myself and rebuilding the strength in my leg, yet not doing too much that my leg is sore the rest of the day. Hopefully I find that balance soon.
One step of progress that I can mention is that I’ve started to do a little bit of “jogging”. It certainly isn’t pretty, but I’m moving faster than a walking pace. I’ve done a few interval sessions on the treadmill where I jog for two minutes and then walk for two minutes, only lasting a total of 20 minutes. I actually made it up to 12 min. miles! I don’t feel any pain while jogging, which is good, but the lack of strength in the calf means that I can’t stay up on my toes long enough to get a good push off. However, this was to be expected at this point. It will likely take several months before I return to good running form.
I’ve also hit the 8 mile mark on the marathon tracker! The parallel starting routes have now merged and I’m making my way through Brooklyn. Relating recovery back to an actual marathon, this is the point where you need to regain your focus. The adrenaline and emotions from the start have died down and there are less people cheering you on. You have to remember to relax and try and enjoy the ride. Set your focus on making it to the next water stop.
Also, I’ve updated the poll on the left sidebar. I had a suggestion to post a question regarding feeling any precursing pain in the days/months/years leading up the actual rupture. As I’ve previously blogged about, I’ve felt minor stiffness in my Achilles for years and had a feeling that I’d experience a rupture at some point in my life, but I didn’t expect it on January 3, 2008. What was your experience prior to the rupture? Did you experience any pain or tendonitis/tendonosis? Feel free to click on the option that best describes your Achilles experience.
Summarizing the previous poll, the results were, frankly, inconclusive. 19 people responded to the poll question asking if you injured your dominant or non-dominant foot. The non-dominants held a slight lead at 10-9. Obviously this is too small of a sample size to draw any conclusions. But, it is kind of interesting that we were right at a 50/50 split.
Happy healing everyone!
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Tom
Congrats on hitting the 4 month date. Glad to here you have started to jog..that’s exciting. Have you started doing seated and standing calf raises??
Just keep chugging along.
Doc Ross
Doc Ross - Thanks. I’ve been doing bilateral seated and standing calf raises since about week 10. The good leg still carries a little bit more of the weight, maybe 60/40. I’ve also been doing unilateral calf raises in the pool. I started out in about 5 feet of water several weeks ago and have progressed to about 3.5-4 feet of water.
Tom, and All -
I see what you mean by hitting a plateau. I think I’ve hit it. I walk with a slight limp.. sometimes more pronounced than other times. There really seem to be no pattern to it. Heel gets sore if I’ve had an active day.
I also think I may have adhesion, where I feel like my tendon is sticking to the skin and other parts of my “insides”. Feel like someone spilled glue in there. It felt better after the massage at the PT, but I still feel it. It’s quite annoying.
So I guess I just have to work at it. Slow, steady, and patient.
Tom - when I met with my doc today and talked about the future recovery stages, he mentioned that he calls the 3-6 month “no mans land”…he explained that there is still a ton of healing going on, but no “real” progress is made or seen. Seems like this is exactly what you are describing. It seems like we can never get away from “patience” in this injury. Maybe we should all have that word tatooed vertically along our AT’s?
Brendan - you first. If you do…then I’ll think about it!
Tom, Hey there! Hope you are having a good day. Thanks for your comments re: my wound. I have confidence in the wound ctr. So, Monday morning I get to tell Dr. that for a couple weeks let’s wait and see how this healing goes…then if not going well after a while we’ll go to plan B. Thanks again for your kind words.