First Visit
Initially, the morning I went to the Occupational Medicine Doctor I was told I had a 10% tear in my Achilles tendon, and that I should be able to return to work in a couple of weeks. The Doctor said I didn't need an MRI because it is very difficult to see soft tissue damage on the MRI. He gave me some crutches and told me to sit and do nothing for the next couple of weeks. Absolutely no weight bearing at all. So, this is exactly what I did. It was extremely boring, but I knew I was going to go back to work soon.
Keep Sitting
After returning to the Doctor several times he just kept telling me to keep sitting and letting it heal. The fourth visit I let him know that it was still really bothering me and that it was making it difficult to sleep at night. This was about a month and a half after the injury. He was surprised when I told him how things were going, and he thought maybe this injury was worse than expected. So he bumped the tear percentage up to 15%-20%. Although, still not ordering an MRI.
2 Months of Crutches
I thought I was going to return to work after 2 weeks, and here I am 2 months out with no load bearing and using crutches everywhere I go. Not much fun. I'm glad this injury happened at work because otherwise I would be in the poor house.
Lite Therapy
I Started therapy October 14, 2010. The first couple of weeks I was still on crutches. I was restricted to do very simple stretching. Once I started to make some progress in therapy and could actually put some weight on my foot they decided to get me into work conditioning. My lite therapy session ended on December 9, 2010. I still had to walk slow and had a major limp. If I made a full stride it felt like my tendon was going to pull completely out of my foot. Something still wasn't right, but what do I know! I just kept doing what I was told.
Work Conditioning
Work conditioning is therapy that gets you back into shape for work. They do an evaluation and customize your program based on your injury and the type of work you do. It's basically a workout program you go to 3 times a week. They show you everything they want you to do, and then you are on your own. These sessions usually last 2 to 3 hours depending on how many people are there and how quick you are between exercises. They also do massage and ultrasound after each session. My sessions started December 13, 2010.
My sessions began with riding an exercise bike for 10 minutes and then moving to the elliptical for 5 minutes. A couple of other exercises included:
- Total Gym - Two leg squats, one leg squats, two leg heal raises, one leg heal raises
- 25 pound single arm curls
- stair climbing
- ladder climb
- balance beam
- ball toss - two leg standing on foam, one leg standing on foam
- slant board stretches - one leg and two leg
- soleus and gastroc stretching
There are more, but you get the idea.
Making it Worse
I felt like I got run over by a train after the first and second session. I still had a lot of pain in my ankle. I could tell it wasn't getting better, but the Doctor and the therapist said this was normal. I was told the pain may never completely go away. I was in a ton of pain after each session. My workouts were in the morning, and they basically ruined me for the rest of the day and the following day. It wasn't much fun. I couldn't go anywhere or do anything with out pain. Not to mention I limped and walked very slowly. I felt like a prisoner in my own home.
About 2 weeks into work conditioning my therapist introduced me to a new stretch, the soleus stretch on the slant board. This stretch was the beginning of the next chapter of this never ending injury. When I explained to my therapist how I was feeling she began to rethink things. After seeing how I was reacting she could tell I wasn't getting better. So she contacted my Doctor and said I need an MRI and reevaluated.
Waiting Game
Sometime around the first of the year they decided to do an MRI. Once I had the MRI the Orthopedics Doctor I was recommended to couldn't see me until February 25,2011. That was going to be a month and a half of waiting. Ridiculous! My therapist had been seeing a patient that had a similar problem as me. This lady had her peroneus longus surgically repaired, and absolutely loved her surgeon. That's when I caught a break, because this Doctor could see me February 1, 2011. I could stand waiting 2 weeks.
During this 2 week waiting period my therapist thought It would be a good idea to see an orthotics specialist. His name is Bob. He had one look at my feet and said "holy cow you have really flat feet". I've known this my whole life but never thought it would be a problem. Bob said my flat feet are probably the reason why my ankle is not healing. They cause the tendons in my foot and ankle to be under tension all the time. If I were to step wrong this puts even more tension on the injured tendon weakening it and making it difficult for the body to heal.
Custom Orthotics
Bob crafted me some custom orthotics that I thought would be a major pain to deal with, but they actually helped ease the pain a little. Check these things out.
I have to wear these in both shoes, but I don't mind because they actually help. I will get into more detail about the bottom picture later on. These things don't fit into dress shoes, they are to high.
Orthopedics Doctor Appointment
This Doctor is really good. He showed me the MRI and explained everything in it. I went into the appointment wondering what was going to happen. My therapist didn't think I would need surgery, but this Doctor acted like I already knew I was going to have surgery. He explained in the MRI that he saw some fluid accumulating but still couldn't make anything out as to how serious it was. He said he would have to expose the whole tendon to see what was going on, and that was the only option I had at this point.
He had me do a couple of stretches as he poked around to see where the most pain was. This is when he pinpointed exactly which tendon it was. The peroneous longus!
Surgery!
Ironically, they scheduled my surgery for February 25, 2011. The rest of the story can be found here
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