Hi Everyone, I live in New York City and I wanted to post my progress during the next couple of months since I completely tore my Achilles tendon on my right leg playing Squash on June 13, 2007. It felt like my friend fell on my heel but unfortunately he was a good 5 feet away. I was lucky to have the Doctor who performed my ACL surgery on my left knee on Sept. 2006 available the next day to check the injury. Luckily it was his day in the hospital for surgeries. I went to the hospital, saw the doctor and he performed a test by making me sit on a chair on my knees with my feet sticking out and my torso holding on to the back rest. He then squeezed my left calf muscle and you could see the foot move, he then did it to the right calf muscle and there was no movement (sign of torn achilles). He stated that the achilles tendon extends into the bottom of the foot and that's why the foot moves when the tendon is intact. After the diagnosis, we proceed in having the surgery done. Anesthetia was a remote block which numbed my leg below the knee with a mild sedative. OP took about 50 minutes, they fitted me with a boot with straps at it's highest angle so the tendon does not get stretched out. Doctor told me that when he saw my tendon, it was like a taught rope that snapped. Fibers everywhere. He cut a little bit off each torn tendon, then stitched together the ends. After surgery on the 14th, at 1am on the 15th the anesthetia wore off and the pain began. Took a bunch of Oxycodone (pain killers) and also antibiotics (in case of infection) and managed through the night. Ended up on the couch so I could prop my leg up to reduce the swelling and pain. The night of the 16th, same problems but now it's 8pm on the 16th and the swelling in residing and so is the pain. I've been instructed to do no weight baring for at least 2 weeks, then after that begin putting weight. Therapy will begin in 3 weeks and that should last 4 to 6 months. From talking to a friend who had this surgery already, he said most of the time is spent stretching the tendon out since it was cut shorter, then build up calf muscle strength. I'll keep you guys posted, my mood is a little better but still very aggravated since I just finished ACL rehad 3 months ago and that was a 6 month job. One recommendation, the more tollerable to pain you are the faster you are going to heal. When you do an exercise, the initial pain is strong, but it will subside, just breathe and concentrate on something else.
Talk to you soon.
