I had my follow up on Thursday June 2nd. It was actually with a different doc because mine was on vacation. They cut my cast off and checked out the incision. My tech snapped a pic for me. I looked back at my leg and realized that I had staples not stitches. I suppose I should have known that at some point before then during this process. No big deal though. Those bad boys came out and the doc said he was putting me in another neutral cast. I lobbied weakly for a boot but he said they never let anyone out of the cast before 4 weeks. “It’s just not worth it.” So, we scheduled a follow up with my original doctor for Exactly four weeks post op (June 22).
By week 3 post op I was fed up with having the cast on. My leg shrunk a ton and didn’t really swell much anymore and the cast was bouncing around as I crutched (I’m using this like a verb now). So, I called the docs office and rescheduled my appointment to 5 days earlier. She didn’t even check with the doctor and made the changes for me. For the next few days I felt like I really pulled a fast one on them.
June 17th - I couldn’t contain my happiness to the prospect of finally getting the cast off. I took the entire day off from work and prepared myself. I had a huge breakfast. Got a haircut and then headed to the doc. The bottom of my crutches could have caught fire from how fast I was moving through the hospital center’s lobby. When I got to the waiting room, there was a young girl of around 8 years of age who also was getting a cast removed. Hers was on her arm and extended above her elbow. She was all smiles when she asked if was getting mine cut off too and I replied ‘yes’. Heck, I was all smiles too. We both sat there grinning like…well, like little girls.
A tech took me back and went to work cutting off my cast. It swear when it finally broke apart it was like one of those cryo-sleep pods in sci-fi movies opening. Dust shot out the sides as the two halves opened up slowly revealing my now infant looking leg. Despite its emaciated appearance, I was ecstatic to see my old friend again. “I missed you leg. Let’s never fight again.”
My doc came in and went to work checking out the Achilles. I was surprised at how rough he was. He grabbed my leg. He Dorsi-flexed my foot which scared the bajeezus out of me. My Achilles was super tight and I could feel the scabs on the incision ripping a little bit. But this also showed me that I don’t have to be too gentle with it. The doc gave me a CAM Walker boot and set it to stop at -10 degrees. The boot allowed me to point my toes (plantar flex) as much as i wanted. It just limited my dorsi-flexion to -10 degrees (I think others may refer to this as 100 degrees). He told me to immediately put as much weight on it as I can bear, and to adjust it to 0 degrees after a week. At first I was pumped because he was being aggressive. Then I tried to get my foot in the boot set and flex to -10 degrees and I was thinking “there’s no F-ing way I can even get to -10. 0 in a week would be impossible.”
So off I went still crutching in the boot. When I got home I started experimenting. I stood up on my feet with no crutch. Besides the pins and needles in my heel it felt okay. I then started to stretch the tendon in the boot trying to hit the -10 degree limits. A few hours later I hit the limits and nearly jumped out my seat with excitement. The rest of the week has been enjoying the simple things.
It was absolute pleasure to be able to stand on two feet while going to the bathroom.
My first shower without the cast was amazing. The feeling of water running down my leg had me giggling like school girl and washing my foot had me singing in the rain. All was well until I got out of the shower and starting toweling off. Skin was coming off of my league and foot in layers. Completely gross. It was like scraping mayonnaise off of a burger’s bun when the 14 year old behind the counter ruins your order. Luckily, this only lasted for a few days.
About a week later, I’m alternating between walking with one crutch and with no crutches. It’s been a bit akward as the boot setting makes me lock my knee a bit. Hopefully, this will be remedied when I go to 0 degrees but I imagine I’ll have to go through the pains of stretching the tendon again. No big deal though. I’m also excited because I start PT next Tuesday (June 28th). Can’t wait to get my calf back.
Until next time.
After some conversations with nickokie, I have to ask this. How was everyone’s boot set up after you guys came out of your casts?
I’m really beginning to feel I may have been given some bad instruction/set up by the tech. Kind of scary since I am still in the danger zone for re-rupture.
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