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.

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.

Consultant Appointment

On the 21^st of June I went to the hospital to see a consultant about the best treatment for a ruptured Achilles. I have seen that there are two potential options – 1. Put the leg in a plaster cast and let the body heal on its own. 2. Operation!

My rupture was fairly high in the leg so there were some concerns on whether it could be operated on. After more painful prodding from the consultant he concluded that it could be stitched together and thought an operation was the best option. The other option wasn’t really discussed, but to be honest I don’t think I would have gone down that route based on what I had read.

The NHS is criticised quite a lot in this country but the speed at which the operation was booked in was  incredible. I first went to the hospital on the Saturday, saw a consultant the next day and was scheduled to have the operation on the Tuesday! - I even looked into private treatment (insurance through work) and they couldnt even do it this quick!

I was also given a course of blood thinners to take over the next 6 weeks which involves injecting the drug into your stomach daily! This is to prevent blood clots from having the leg fixed at a strange angle for a long period of time.

Achilles Injury

I am a fit 35 year old male who has been doing quite a lot of long distance running over the last 5 years or so. Earlier this year I decided to get back into a sport that I used to do up until my mid-twenties which was track and field athletics. I picked up a few injuries when I initially started to get back into it but these were nothing serious and I always recovered within a few days.

On the 18th of June, I had just begun sprinting and felt a snapping noise in my lower left leg which caused me to fall to the ground in a panic. I just about managed to drive home, applied ice to the injury and started googling what the most likely injury was. As soon as I sustained the injury I knew I had snaped my achilles but was still in a bit of denial at this stage!

After 24 hours of trying to convince myself that it was a calf tear, I finally went to A&E on the 20th of June and had it confirmed by Ultrasound that I had fully ruptured my left Achilles’ tendon! Not really the news you want to hear!! I was put in a temporary plaster cast and given an appointment on the 21^st of June to see a consultant and discuss what my treatment options were.