Me,my ankle and I: Week 2 Post Op

My consultant said I could try to flatten my foot in the boot when it was comfortable. To help the Achilles heal initially they put a wedge in the bottom of the boot so that your toe is locked in a pointed position i.e. pointing down. So on Friday I removed the wedge and gently stretched out my foot to flat, it seemed a bit too much of a stretch so I put in a half wedge and wore that for a day first. After a day, I noticed that when I went outside and put the outside boot and full wedge back on, that I was able to put a lot more weight on the bad leg. So much so that I could walk with just one crutch. I stuck with the small wedge inside and in bed for two days until Sunday night and then took out the wedge and allowed my foot to go flat in the boot. By Monday it felt comfortable and by Tuesday I was doing short trips without the crutch - not exactly walking smoothly but comfortable enough. I have continued doing weights with the resistant bands at home every second day just to make a break from the lethargy of lying down.
On Thursday I had to go back to Jame's Hospital to get the stitches out. I got a lift up and was there fairly early. I had to wait for the doctors to book me in for stitch removal and dressing. Once this was done, the nurses sent me down to the dressing clinic. There they removed the dressing and bandages from the operation. These are usually black from the congealed blood that seeps out through the stitches. The nurse was really impressed with how well it had healed. I was pretty strict about keeping it elevated and not letting it swell - I really hadn't left the house in two weeks.
I had a good chat with the nurse and she told me a good bit about how they have changed how they dress the wound for Achilles repairs after stitch removal. There was a problem where sometimes the wound would open after the stitches were removed. This was due to the fact that this type of operation causes severe swelling. So they tried a type of dressing called an Unna boot. This is essential a zinc oxide pasted bandage with a compression dressing on top. Typically these were only used for treating ulcers but over the last year my consultant has started to use them as standard for Achilles repair.
Anyway, the nurse put the dressing on and it felt tight and secure and then I went back down to wait to see the consultant. I had a very long chat with the consultant and he answered lots of questions. I need to have the Unna boot dressing removed in week and come back to see him in 4 weeks. I have to continue to wear the boot for the 4 weeks and only take it off when I'm sitting or lying down. I can bear weight and do whatever feels comfortable with the boot on - as long as I have the boot on its difficult to do any damage. The injury will start to feel a lot better than it is and I had to be careful not to be lured into a false sense of security. If I try to put any body weight on my toes then I will probably re-rupture. The real danger period for re-rupture is 12 weeks so I need to have patience. To illustrate the need for patience he compared my recovery with that of a premiership footballer who will have 5 or 6 physio sessions, daily ultrasound and cryotherapy. They will be back to running after 6 months whereas I will be back in 6 and half months (€120k gets you a couple weeks).
I left the hospital pretty well informed and happy with my progress. However, on Thursday evening I felt a throbbing pain down the side of my ankle which got worse as the evening went on. I struggled to sleep that night and took a few pain killers but still the side of my ankle was really sore. I called the hospital on Friday morning and eventually they called me back and said I should come in. So I got a lift into town and hoped on the train to Dublin and I met the dressing nurse on the way in and she brought me straight in. She took the dressing off and it turned out that the compression bandage was pushing against two screws from when I had the plate put in two years ago. This was basically pushing the skin into the screws and hence the pain. So she redressed it with some padding around the screws and less compression overall. That's it for this week. Dressing comes off next week and then three weeks before anything much happens. I'm back to work on Monday - working from home so I'm probably over the most boring part. I still have to sleep with the boot on for another 4 weeks which I'm not really looking forward to.