Week 6 Post Op

9^th May 2015

So it’s been nearly three weeks since my last post. There was not much happening for the first two weeks. I became increasingly mobile and could walk further and further on the boot. Generally, swelling has stopped and I don’t need to elevate my leg anymore. If I went on a long walk or was doing a good bit of gardening then my leg would get sore but this was more in the sole of my foot and I would need to rest for 10 or 15 mins after this.

There was very little that I could not do in terms of day to day activity, I could cook, pick up and walk with the kids, get around nearly everywhere on foot, etc. I even tried driving a few times with the boot on but decided it was a bit too clunky to take the car out on the road. I have been doing the resistant band weights every other day which has kept me some way active outside of the walking.

Then the last week has been a bit different. The consultant had told me to take off my boot occasionally when I’m sitting at my desk and do some exercises with my foot. These involved pushing my foot up with my toe to start very gently activating the tendon. So I did this for two weeks and then in the last week I progressed this further to putting on a runner and walking up and back really slowly in the office. I knew that they were going to let me take the boot of this week anyway so I didn’t see the harm in taking it off early and starting to walk.

I was back in at the clinic yesterday and the consultant seemed happy enough with progress. The wound has nearly healed up completely so I no longer need to dress it. I can take the boot off and walk in runners with a good heal and a heal raise inserted. The best news is that I can drive, swim (provided I can get into and out of the pool safely) and I can cycle on a static bike with flat pedals. All of which is great and better than I was expecting this early.

The real danger now is the risk of re-rupture – most people re-rupture between 6 and 12 weeks. The tendon has approx. 25% of its strength at the moment (although it feels much more to me) and this will build to 50% by 12 weeks. So I need to be really careful on stairs and uneven ground and to make sure that the tendon is not accidentally extended or I will be back to square one. The consultant also advised me to take the screw and plate from the break two years ago out – he said they don’t serve any purpose and so they booked me in to get those removed in Oct/Nov.

I saw a physio briefly yesterday at the clinic but I had to go back and see her earlier today in the physio department. She measure the degree of dorsi-flex (when I pull my toe towards me). Its 90 degrees on my bad foot and 84 degrees on my good foot. The initial aim is not to stretch the tendon any more as it needs to strengthen first. We will work on evening the stretch after the 12 week stage. She gave me 3 strengthening exercises; rubber band dorsi-flex; rubber band plantar-flex and then a supported heal raise). She also showed me how to massage my calf and try to loosen up the tension in that.

My aim over the next couple of weeks is to try do the physio exercises 3 or 4 times a day and also to focus on my walking gait and try to get walking without a limp. 

Calves at 5 weeks - I was expecting my right calf
to be much smaller