Tuesday 14 July 2015

3 Weeks Post Op

I had my 3 week check-up today with the consultant - this was basically just a quick check to make sure that everything is healing correctly and I am continuing with the exercises.

Everything appears to be healing nicely at the moment; however, I have started to get quite a bit of pain towards the top incision. This is not where the rupture occurred but the area where the Achilles was anchored to. This area is particularly painful when stretching which could have something to do with the stitches present.

I start physio on Friday so this is when the real work (and pain) begins!

Wednesday 8 July 2015

2 Weeks Post Operation = Cast Removal!

Yesterday I finally had my appointment to remove my plaster cast and switch into a removable boot.

The foot felt very strange when the cast was first taken off - I was very surprised about how stiff the foot was. It really did not want to move in any direction initially! Surprising there was not much swelling and very little pain even when the  foot was getting pulled around by the medical staff. The stitches were removed at the 3 incision points and the wounds were healing nicely.


The doctor did a couple of basic tests to see if the achilles was healing OK - first my calf was squeezed and the foot definitely had a bit of movement in, then he put his hand on the bottom of my foot and asked me to press down onto his hand which I just about managed to do. So it looks like the healing is going OK at the moment.

I then saw a physio and have been given a few exercises to undertaken - these are very basic and only really involve moving the foot up, down, left and right. I have also been asked to start very carefully stretching the tendon a bit.

Next thing was to get the boot on with my foot in the neutral position! - never in a million years was my foot going flat!!! After trying for a while the physio decided to give me 4 wedges to put in the boot so the foot could still be slightly angled. The plan is to start removing the wedges over the next week until my foot can go flat again. I have actually removed the 1st wedge today and it is feeling fine. Still not full weight bearing but can put a very small amount of weight on it now. Also just to note that the boot is quite heavy, especially compared the cast I previously had on the leg.

Next appointment in a weeks time.







Friday 26 June 2015

One Week After Injury

It has now been just over a week since the injury and 72 hours since the operation.

Not really too much to report - pain has been quite low whilst laying down with the leg elevated, however, moving to a standing position is a slightly different story. It seems that as soon as I stand up all of the fluid from the swelling concentrates exactly where all of the damaged tissue is and makes it feel like my foot is about to explode! This is not too much of an issue though - I just do not stand up much!

I have not taken any pain relief since the operation as I haven't really been in that much pain. Today my calf muscle is quite sore which is the first time this part of the leg has been hurting!

Next hospital appointment is the 7th of July where I am expecting the temporary cast to be removed and a removable boot fitted.

Thursday 25 June 2015

Operation Day!



I have to admit that I was slightly nervous about the operation and had seen that a few different procedures were possible. I hadn’t previously discussed any of these with the consultant so was not sure what their preferred option was.

The two main types are – 1. Open surgery – where the leg is opened and the tendon is essentially stitched together. 2. Percutaneous procedure – 3 incisions are made along the Achilles, the broken Achilles is stitched at the top and then at the bottom incision and the two ends are pulled together at the centre incision.

After viewing this video on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1jRfgwX7n8) I was quite keen to have the percutaneous op which fortunately turned out to be the procedure they used at the hospital I was admitted to.

The speed of the surgery was very impressive - I was getting prepped for the operation at 10am and it was all completed just after 11am! As this was all done under local anaesthetic I was out of hospital before lunch time! The pain has been very low since the operation so have not had to take any pain relief (yet!!).



The procedure I had undertaken was similar to the one in this YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0I3ahkp9Mw. In my operation I could definitely feel the tendon being pulled together when the surgeon tightened the nylon and tied the reef knot at the end of the procedure.