Captain’s Blog stardate 5 weeks+1 day
for the past several days, I’ve been walking around the house mosty with a crutch on one side.
My wife doesn’t like it but I told her I’m not feeling anything in the heel. I do feel a little ache on the right side of ankle here and there but it’s more like a mild sprained ankle pain. Sometimes the bottom of my feet get kind of tired. Last night, I thought I would probably go another couple of days with crutch on good side, but it’s been tossed today.
At first, I would take a long stride with my bad foot and then small stride with my injured one. If I always keep the feet parallel or the good foot behind the bad, I felt nothing. Throughout the day, I gradually put the good foot a little ahead of the bad and it seems I practically have a normal gait! I am FWB at 5weeks+1. I try to get up every 30 minutes or so and walk around for a few minutes. My foot does get tired (mostly bottom) so I stop and work some more.
I have the vacocast at 1 (10 degrees) and tried both hinged and locked when walking. Locked seems to feel more secure. I will probably move it to .5 in two days and leave it there before my 6 week followup, where I will see the DR for the first time since surgery (say PA at 2 weeks). I’m wearing my height increasing shoe on the good foot (along with a heel insert) which gave me close to 3 inches but I’m still about .5 inches off from being truly even. I do feel it in my back (but I have low back issues before the ATR). I may try to go to the flatter sole when I move to 5 degrees.
I still use steristrips on my little horizontal incision (mostly to help with future scarring) and still use the micro current machine twice a day (1 hr morning, 1 hr before bed). I still have that sensation on my heel bone but that’s going away gradually. I also massage some aloe oil into the cut a couple of times a days. Aside from the incision and a bump right about it (not sure if its scar tissue or sutures), my AT seems to be smoothing out? I do like the micro current even though I can’t feel anything from it. if you search for tendonworks, there is some good testimony from it, including from rugby player Dan Carter.
The only real discomfort I have is a dull ache on the ankle for the past several nights which wake me up and the I toss the boot. I took two aleve’s before bed last night but it didn’t seem to do anything for it. It was the first real med I have taken since 4 days after surgery, unless you count a baby aspirin. I still get some pain sensations occasional from the top of the foot and that’s due to the boot pressing down on it.
As far as therapy for the achilles, I’m doing mostly just range of motion flexing and walking around. I do some upper body and core every other day. I did try 1 rep of standing on 1 foot for about 5 seconds and didn’t have any issues with it(used kitchen counters to balance). May do some more of that this weekend.
feeling stronger bit by bit!
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We are in almost the same spot (even though I had my surgery one week earlier). I moved to .5 on the vacocast today and am hoping to lose the wedge sole soon. I might try it today. I have an evenup with a hiking boot and I’m still not totally level. My OS has me scheduled to move to 0 on 6/9.
Wow, you’ve progressed a lot in the last week! What a relief it must be to ditch the crutches. My doc uses a slower protocol that starts PWB at week 6, which seems ultra conservative, but I am on board with because my fear of re-rupture exceeds my hatred of the walker / crutches.
Did anyone else’s doctor say to stay away from naproxen (Aleve) and ibuprofin? Those are my go tos, but he mentioned something about acetominophen (Tylonol) being better for tendon healing.
i feel like a noob… can’t figure out how post pics.
Posting pics is buggy for me, too. I can only get it to work by uploading, copying the URL from my “media library,” and pasting using the “img” link from the post’s HTML editor. Pics wider than 600 pixels don’t look good, either.
Congratulations on the FWB! It feels really nice to ditch the crutches doesn’t it?
I find walking is much easier and more natural if I only take small steps. As soon as I take bigger steps it gets a bit more uneven and lopsided.
I am still having the electrotherapy 3 times a week at my PT. I have no idea if it is doing any good but it doesn’t hurt and isn’t expensive so I figure I should keep going. Thank you for posting the link about the study on rabbits.