Achilles goooorne....
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So update - less painful now than it was before the op. Think that might have a bit to do with the cast - whereas prior it was down the back of the leg and strapped on, it is now down the front and wrapped a bit, so is properly forcing my foot into a 'ballerina' pose and much more comfortable, although a bit heavier. Didn't get any outstanding drugs (unfortunately) so it's just codeine and ibuprofen (4 days worth). However because there's so little pain I've only taken one dose so far today and really just because I thought I might as well, I'm sure the ibuprofen will help with the healing?<br />
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Speaking to the doc and later a brief chat with the physio yesterday so got a bit more detail. No bone involved, think that's a good thing! First 4 weeks I'll be in a cast, go back in 2 weeks to have a check and get a new cast with my foot less pointed. Able to put 'toe-touch' pressure on the leg during this time. Then after the 4 weeks, into a boot with a wedged heel, which I assume will get gradually less and less of a wedge for those 4 weeks - walking on that so can't wait! Then 4 weeks of rehab, apparently they are quite aggressive with it these days as it has shown better results.<br />
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Anyway, big couch, thermos of coffee, ginsters slices, bottle of water, modified crutches and McCullum losing his shit at a little white ball on the tele, so I'm all good.<br />
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If anyone is [i]really[/i] interested I can post up shitty pics of the foot out of the cast 1.5 days post injury. Not pretty, but nothing like the bruising and swelling I would've expected.<br />
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And as I type, James Franklin shows he's better than Jeremy.<br />
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P.S. If Gibbit goes missing for a while, don't worry he's safe in a log cabin. -
So not a lot to report back, but get the final of my four casts off tomorrow and into a boot, so am a little excited about that. The last week or two have been more frustrating than ever, just sick of being on the crutches and so useless. Very much hoping I will be allowed to walk with the boot, at least after a couple of days if not straight away!<br />
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Anyway the last couple of weeks have been with a full cast which was much more comfortable and allowed me to get a bit of Kiwiana going for the last RC game.<br />
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Any pain I had stopped pretty much just before I went in for the last cast, and I got to have a look at the op result then too, which looked a bit more gruesome than I was expecting (but maybe just the way the stitches were pulling and I'm told it heeled well). I was told that I may experience loss of feeling in the area as a result of the op and maybe too early to tell, but that could be the case as I didn't feel a thing when the stitches were taken out, it seemed the nurse was expecting me to be in a bit of pain. For just over a week I've been able to wiggle my foot/leg about quite happily and put pressure on the leg - well as much as can possibly be done with my foot still pointed. Feeling good although definitely still feels strange - although it's even a strange feeling at first once you start to notice the achilles is there after not having one, even if it was only for a short period.<br />
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Oh yeah - and I figured out that after the injury, to get home I walked almost a kilometre including about 7-8 sizeable flights of stairs on a snapped achilles. Fuck I'm hard. And yes I have a cheesy tattoo.<br />
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Fark, that is a pretty line of stitches there bro! you got right opened up! At least your Tat isn't on your lower back... ahem<br />
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Good to hear rehab is coming along. You'll be good for the ferns rugby comp in 2013!? -
[quote name='Paekakboyz' timestamp='1350590066' post='318413']Fark, that is a pretty line of stitches there bro! you got right opened up! At least your Tat isn't on your lower back... ahem<br />
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Good to hear rehab is coming along. You'll be good for the ferns rugby comp in 2013!?[/quote]Yeah mate I was pretty surprised about the cut too bro wasn't quite expecting that many stitches. <br />
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Prob goin back in Feb so not sure I can afford two trips in the year! Sponsored right? -
Disaster. Even though the wound appeared healed over, picked up an infection somehow and stuck back in hospital on a drip waiting until they decide to operate on the bloody hole in my leg. Thank fuck for BBC broadcasting all the rugby!<br />
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Going off the pain (almost nil) thankfully it's only the skin and flesh around the achilles...although watch this space. <br />
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Again if anyone likes the likes the macabre I can post pics! -
No thanks - I've had cellulitis from a tiny scratch on my toe. Woke up with a lymph node in my groin the size of a golf ball. Cold/hot sweats, hallucinations, the lot. And the leg looked like it would be better off removed.<br />
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Good luck with it though mate. Its a bastard compounding the surgery with infection, but if I can get through the one I had after my vasectomy, you'll be right <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/rugby/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' /> -
Good news that the meds worked mate - a good outcome aside from the scar... but chicks dig scars!! Hope it heals quickly from here on out.
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So progress all going pretty well considering. Seems the infection was caused by suture material still left behind in the wound - I alerted them to the top of my scar which had developed an almost blood-blister like thing just over a week ago which seemed to be how the original infection started and they cleaned it out, taking out suture material and is all good there now. Rest of the wound still healing but going really well I guess.<br />
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Physio seems to think I'm making pretty good progress, reckons if all keeps going as it is I could possibly be back playing rugby in Jan. I had my eyes kind of set on Feb for any kind of sporting activity so I'll take that! Still in the boot whenever I'm outside, but more of a speed and precautionary thing than anything as I haven't worn it indoors for a few weeks now and am getting to the stage where I can almost going over properly on the front of the foot rather getting a duck/quasimodo shuffle on.<br />
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Pretty tough trying to train myself to start using the muscle actions though. 2 weeks ago the physio asked me to try and go up on my tip-toes to see where I was at. I hadn't tried that yet so thought it sounded a good idea, got up all keen, stood next to the wall for balance and promptly stood dead still with a puzzled look on my face. Couldn't for the life of me budge, just seemed a large disconnect between thought and motion. Can now do this easy as pie - exercises I'm up to now are lunges, which are actually really daunting and a lot of balance activity, trying to get used to uneven surfaces and getting all the muscles around that working in preparation for no boot.<br />
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One thing I'd never thought about was the amount of pain you're in after a couple of hours of walking around, boot or no boot just purely due to all your weight going through the heel only, every step. Will be good to get the rest of the foot taking some of the strain. -
I have this past weekend ruptured my brad pitt.
Felt exactly like Bones described and i turned around to start a fight with the c*nt what hit me. No one there.
I have opted for no surgery and have a moon boot for 6-8 weeks. Odd though I expected a lot more post injury pain but its dull at the most.
Long rehab ahead but thankfully my sporting days are over and work barely gets interrupted.
My son was massively upset as he thought i was bullet proof haha.
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@raznomore classic, I still remember turning around to have a go, saying "are you fucking kidding me" then falling over.
Interesting on no op, any particular reason? Get some padded gloves for your crutches bro! Or wrap some material around the handles and tape it on.
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So been a while. Had a number of issues with Achilles. All minor re-ruptures. Still managed to avoid surgery though. Im back in normal shoes now and starting to rebuild the muscle in my lower leg. I am your typical poly and have large calf muscles so its odd looking. One skinny leg and then a tree trunk.
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just roll up the pants leg on your beefcake calf bro, no one will know! Chee Hoo!!
But awesome to hear things are tracking well even if it's slow progress. For something like a busted achilles slow and steady to make sure you don't push too hard too soon sounds like a good idea!
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Damn nice to know of others on the Fern who have also joined the "Brad Pitt" club.
(@raznomore BTW, took me a few moments to figure this out and once I did it gave me a good chuckle", thanks)I first did a complete rupture of my left achilles tendon more than 20 years ago, when I was around 28 yrs old and I'm now approaching 50 in June this year.
Similar to the other experiences here, when it went, I was in the middle of basketball training. I went to take a jump shot and felt a massive blow to the heel. It was of such force that I had thought one of the guys from my team was screwing around and had tried to block my shot from behind and ended up landing full force/body weight on my heel. I immediately started turning and went... "who the fuck..." but when I realised no one was even near me I just knew it was the achilles.
I went straight to hospital and it was surgically repaired the next day. As it was a full and complete rupture, surgery was the only option at that time.
8 weeks on crutches with the foot in a half cast and the foot in a fully pointed position, and yes the first few days hurt the hands, wrists and arms like hell. Every two weeks the half cast was changed and the full pulled back into a new position. After 2 cast changes, the foot was in a normal 45 degree position.
After two weeks like that the cast was finally removed and I had my foot placed in one of those early "moon boots" for about another 4 weeks. After that was removed I was just told to keep walking but do NOT run or perform any weight bearing exercise.
It took a year before I was able to run normally and I have to say, it was a pretty horrible year.
Prior to the rupture, I was playing both League and Union in the Southerland Shire in Sydney as well as Basketball and touch comp. I was really fit and very healthy with a playing weight of around 83-85 kgs as an outside back with a lot of speed.
At the end of that year of recovery, I had put on at least 10 kgs and my whole body had changed. Body composition and shape wise I was quite different and I've not ever been the same since.
In the passing years, my left achilles has not given me any issues at all and has always been solid. A massive external scar and an even larger amount of internal scarring has left the achilles very enlarged when compared to the right and I always rub through the heel of any shoes on the left before the right is even properly worn in.
My right achilles however, the one that was initially fine, has given me nothing but absolute grief since that time. I blame the fact that during the year of recovery I was favouring the left side so that my right side took a larger burden.
I returned to sport at about 30 playing only League and OzTag. Not long into my return to sport I found my right achilles was always sore and tender and was diagnosed with achilles tendonitis. With physiotherapy I was able to make it through a season of League but it was never very good. At 32 I gave up on League and pretty much most sport.
Over the next 7-8 years, my weight would fluctuate in the extreme, getting down to 90 kgs or up to 100 kgs and for someone who is 179 cm tall, that isn't a good look. During that time, my prefered form of exercise was walking and as long as I rested and iced the right heel down, it was okay but never good.
I then returned to playing touch twice a week and got fitter and just put up with the achilles just never being right.
In that time, I've had all sorts of treatments at various physios such as alternating heat and cold, acupuncture, etc without much relief.
3 years ago, I decided to give up alcohol for 3 months, eat right and exercise daily, mostly walking and I got fit and lost a lot of weight and hit the high 80's for the first time in 20 years. At that same time I found GO's rugby and I fell back in love with playing the game. It really helped that I was as fit as I had been for 20 years and absolutely killed it my first game back scoring my sides only try (a 70 run away) and being given the man of the match award.
However, on the down side, playing GO's rugby and a lot of touch footy has brought the issues with the achilles to the fore and have made recovery so difficult that playing has now become a chore.
I went off and found a Sports Medicine Specialist and she has been treating me for the past two years. Two things that have really helped has been cortisone injections and ultimately, what helped the most was a PRP treatment. PRP for the uninitiated is Platelet Rich Plasma. The Doctor takes blood from your arm, many vials, then puts the freshly drawn blood into a centrifuge and spins it for around 5 minutes.
This separates and concentrates the heavy particles in the blood from the water medium and you end up with a thicker rich red layer at the bottom of the vial and mostly clear but with a yellow tinge fluid filling up the rest.
The Doc will then consolidate the rich red stuff into a single needle and inject it into the affected area.
The theory goes that all the rich plasma will include growth and healing factors including stems cells. These various factors plus the inflamatory nature of the injection is meant to help injuries to areas where blood flow is poor of which the achilles tendon is a prime example.
So I had a PRP in the right achilles two years ago and it was absolutely fantastic. The procedure itself is very uncomfortable as the Doc has to position the needle very close to the tendon, inside the actual sheath that surrounds it so it requires quite a deft hand and in my case, it was done being with the aid of an ultrasound machine to ensure the PRP was delivered to the right area.
You are required to rest and avoid any weight bearing exercise including walking as minimally as possible.
After the 4 weeks all I can say is... "I was back baby". Back to being pain and discomfort free!
Then in late 2015, after a good 8 months without any discomfort, my left, the one which had ruptured on me all those years ago suddenly started to ache and got steadily worse.
I went back to my sports medicine specialist and said... WTF, after 20 years and now with the right heel finally feeling good, the left is now even worse than the right ver was. She sent me off for an MRI and found that not only do I have a bad case of tendonitis, I actually have Haglunds Syndrome.
As per Google, Haglunds Syndrome is:
"Retrocalcaneus bursitis is inflammation of the bursa at the back of the heel bone and Achilles tendonitis is inflammation of the Achilles tendon. Over time a bony growth can appear at the back of the heel bone. This growth is called an exostosis (a benign cartilaginous growth) and is known as Haglund's deformity."Basically achilles tendonitis, bursitis and a haglunds deformity which is really just a bone spur.
Damit.
Over the past 14 months I've had on the left tendon the follow treatments:
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Physiotherapy consisting of all sorts of stuff which doesn't really help
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2 times cortisone injections
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Shock wave therapy which can be explained as; Shockwave therapy is a multidisciplinary device used in orthopaedics, physiotherapy, sports medicine, urology and veterinary medicine. Its main assets are fast pain relief and mobility restoration. Together with being a non-surgical therapy with no need for painkillers makes it an ideal therapy to speed up recovery and cure various indications causing acute or chronic pain.
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and finally, a round of PRP
The PRP really helped with the tendonitis but gave little relief for the lower part of the heel where the tendon and bone join and fuse. The problem is that where my deformity, bone spur, is located is right near the area where tendon and bone join and it aggravates the bursae causing the bursitis.
At the end of last year, after suffering for a year and not getting much relief, I told my Sports Medicine specialist that I had enough and wanted the operation to remove the deformity as that was what she thought would be required. Apparently that is quite a reasonable operation, as reasonable as any can be, where the recovery period would be around a month.
So off I went to see the orthopedic surgeon and he read my referal and said, yup, you have tried everything, let's see if surgery can help. Asked if I had an X-ray to check on the deformity itself and I said surprisingly no, but I had an MRI and plenty of ultrasounds.
So off I go for an X-ray and once that's done, and $120 lighter in the pocket, I was back at his office and he takes a look and says...
What the MRI and ultrasounds haven't and can't show, is the amount of calcification surrounding the heel at the point where tendon joins bone.
Based on that, the only recourse for an operation is for him to remove the tendon from the bone, clean both up, clean up the tendon and even the calf muscle as he recons that a part of the cause of my achilles issues are that I have very strong calves but lack flexibility and length in the calf and hamstrings.
Then reattach the tendon to bone with some screws and this will require the same recover period as a surgical repair of a ruptured tendon - 6 months in total, the first 2 weeks in a cast and crutches and avoiding movement. The next 4 to 6 weeks in a moon boot and then from the 3 to 6 month mark, lots of physio and slowly working up to running.
6 to 9 months depending on recovery before I could play any sport.
Fark me dead. As I mentioned earlier, this year I turn 50 and I it has been my goal to play a full season of GO's rugby, every game this season baring any other unforeseen injury. If I elect for the surgery now, then that is gone and I'm unlikely to be ready to play anything until September/October.
Or I go with plan B and "suck it up princess" and just play on regardless and have the operation once the season is over. This means due to the pain and discomfort that I'm unlikely to play every game I can.
Or plan C is that I work with a physio (always expensive) to treat things as best they can, work on increasing my flexibility in my calfs and hamstrings and lose weight as that will always help take some load off with a view to playing a full season and the operation once the season is over.
Or plan D and just forget about playing any sport for the next year or two, see if nature will run its course and that the issues may resolve themselves but it wil mean not playing any sport and forgoing any weight bearing exercise.
Gentlemen, I'm choosing Plan C and will now move the rest of this sorry tale into a "seeking advice" thread in the Oversized Fitness Forum as I look to improve fitness, lose weight and increase flexibility over the next few months.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Brad Pitt issues can clearly run in a family as one of my brothers fully ruptured his achilles and one of my cousins has had several partial ruptures.
My brother did his and had it surgically repaired when he was living up in Brisbane. Poor bastard ended up getting a golden staph infection in the wound site so for 6 months whilst he battled that infection, the surgical wound was kept open and had to be debrided every 2 - 3 days and his recovery took more than 2 years because of it and I have to say, and he would agree, that he never fully recovered and his achilles to this day is totally farked up.
So anyone with achilles issues, full or partial ruptures, I understand and can feel your pain.
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