I had my visit to the specialist yesterday to see what the plan is with the new injury.

First thing he did was check the damage himself. He was really happy with how the tendon feels, so that's good.

Then he decreased the angle on the boot. He said the angle I had it on (which was erring on the side of caution) was too extreme. If it was at that for too long I would have risked all the muscles shortening even more and having further problems. So it's at 15 degrees now, but I'm to try to go to 7.5 degrees later in the week. The goal is to be at 0 degrees in the next few weeks, and to be out of the boot in a month.

It's feeling quite good now, with just some discomfort when the calf is stretched past where it's happy to go. That's one other thing I have to do in the next few weeks, is give it a stretch every now and then.

So the next month shouldn't be too bad - the current angle is almost manageable, but in a few days it'll be coming up some more. By then I should be almost walking normally on the boot just using a crutch or two for balance.

Overall it's set me back 6 weeks in the boot, then a further 3 months on my total recovery time. So no sports until 6 months from the new injury. I think I can handle that.

Labels: achilles

I was doing really well last week. I was walking without the boot, although I was still using one crutch most of the time and strapping the ankle just for a bit of extra support. I was resuming my life. I even went to a couple of open inspections last Saturday to check out some units.

Then Sunday night I had just finished cooking dinner and before I sat down to eat I decided to answer nature's call. As I was walking into the bathroom to wash my hands and just before I got a chance to turn on the light, I discovered my cat was asleep in the doorway. By "discovered" I mean "stepped on". Gave me a hell of a fright, and in trying to get off him in a hurry I must have kind of jumped, and I heard a snap. :(

I immediately assumed the worst, and put the boot back on amid waves of pain. After I recovered a little from shock, I tentatively tried moving the foot, and was surprised to find that I could move it. That and the fact that there was more pain in a different location to what I remembered. In the next few hours I had talked myself into believing that I was wrong and that it was the achilles again and that the last 3 months work had been completely undone. That was a seriously depressing thought.

Fast forward to today and after a painful ultrasound yesterday, I find out that it's not the tendon itself this time, but the musculotendinous junction: that's where the tendon becomes the muscle (or vice versa). The muscle has a 60% tear in it.

It's a good result in that the achilles seems undamaged this time, meaning its healing process should be continuing fine (still 3 more months before it's finished healing), but it's a bad result in that I've got another period of time on the crutches, and possibly in the boot. I say possibly because I haven't seen the specialist yet, so I don't know what the recovery procedure is for this sort of injury. There's no surgery option, so it will be a rest-it-and-wait process, but I don't know if the boot will be needed, and if so what angle it needs to be on etc. All I really know at the moment is that if the foot comes up much at all from where it is (boot is at 22.5 deg again) there is pain. Quite a lot of pain. So as annoying as the boot is at this angle I'm leaving it where it is for now because I figure no pain means things at least aren't getting worse.

That's where things stand for now. I'm not quite back to square one, but for the time being I might as well be. At least the outlook isn't as bleak as I initially thought and hopefully in the next month or two I can be boot-free again.

Edit: Wow, hadn't realised it had been 5 weeks since my last post. The time really flew once the boot came up to zero degrees.

Labels: achilles