Had my first physical therapy session today. The doctor’s prescription said nothing past 0 degrees planar flexion so there wasn’t a lot they could do, but they did a pretty good massage on the calf and worked the scar tissue a bit, and gave me some basic stretching and exercises to do. Rocking the foot front to back, side to side, and around in an orbital motion, as well as scrunching up the toes. Nothing really special, but I guess it’s progress.
Day 38 post-op: no more wedges
Had my “6 week” followup with the surgeon today. 38 days isn’t really 6 weeks, but due to some scheduling issues this is as close as I can get. He took off the last strip of tape on the incision and declared that healed. Most of the scabbing has fallen off and it there’s just a scar there right now.
He had me remove the last wedge from the boot, and also had me stand on the floor without the boot on for the first time. It felt a little weird, but no pain. It definitely felt tight if I bent my knee a bit, and he said it looked like there was noticeable loss of muscle mass in the left leg as well.
He said I can stand in the shower now, which is a relief, but I can’t move the ankle past 90 degrees. He wrote me a prescription for physical therapy and said to follow up with him in 6 weeks, so I won’t see him again until October.
Pic from this morning (pre-doctor) below.
Day 25 post-op: walking again (sort of)
Had my second post-op followup today (August 10th, 2018), 25 days after having Achilles’ tendon rupture repair surgery. The doctor took the tape off the incision, said it was all closed up but there was still a part that was “soft” so he put a strip of tape back on.
He told me I could now get the area wet, as in “run water over it,” but not rub or scrub it. So showering is slightly less of an ordeal now, since I don’t need the cast protector.
The big news though is that he had me remove one of the pieces of the wedge in the boot, so it’s only about 1.75″ tall now, and said I should start walking on it. Obviously with a big wedge in there, I can’t walk normally, but it’s a huge improvement in quality of life to be able to walk up the stairs versus going up butt-first or on crutches.
He also said I should take the ace bandage off when sleeping. I told him I had found another boot on Amazon that’s much lighter – it’s for plantar fasciitis – and I’ve been using that to sleep. He said that puts the foot in the wrong position, and I told him I rigged it up so the wedges were by the heel rather than the toe and he seemed slightly impressed. He said, “you’re an engineer, aren’t you?” I laughed and said yes, and he said “I love it when my patients solve their own problems.” This boot weighs maybe 1/10th what the heavy duty boot weighs, but can’t be used for walking at all. I use it only for sleeping – it’s way more comfortable than the big boot. My sleeping boot is the “Plantar Fasciitis Night Splint by Vive” and comes with two wedges. I’ll add a couple pictures below showing the Vive boot vs the heavy boot (the heavy boot was provided by the doctor, and appears to be this one: Procare MaxTrax Air Walker).
I have some more pics below of the incision with the tape off. Apologies again if it’s gross (it is).
Evan Hoffman's Blog 