Ruptured Achilles tendon this afternoon, what's next...

[DIBBS]

61 yrs old, reasonable shape. I wasn't even doing anything stoopid. I was walking the dog with a 45lb pack in preparation for fire season at a 3-4mph pace and BOOM, face down on the ground with a fair amount of pain. At first I thought that my German Shepherd had tripped me, but it felt like I got hit in my calf with a 2x4. Just back from the ER. Foot is in a hard splint, and I will speak to an orthopedic surgeon on Monday.

Just wondering from those who may have gone through this, what's ahead and what I am I looking at for recovery time. Thanks

 

[eklarsen]

Yes, you are. 6 months minimum if you do the appropriate PT. Good luck man, sorry this happened to you.

 

[BLEE]

Do exactly, what the Dr. tells you to do. I haven't had a ruptured Achilles, but I did have a distal biceps tendon rupture. The surgeon used a couple of titanium screws to reattach it. It took 6 months before I could do any heavy lifting. The Achilles tendon can be very tricky to heal. Once, again, do exactly what the Dr. advises.

 

[Jefe's Dope]

The irony though.


Good luck with your recovery. There seems to be no rhyme or reason these rupture. One day your'e good and, just like you, you're face down wondering WTF just happened.

 

[Centuriator]

Dang....sorry to hear it!!! Hang in there and God bless. I'll pray for you.

 

[spamassassin]

I ruptured my bicep at one point as a kid. I don't remember how.

Later on I completely detached the patellar tendon (and a little bit of bone) from the front of my tibia while walking casually through a parking lot. Don't let 13 year old boys body build. A little knifey knifey fixey fixey and a few months later and I was back on a skateboard.

As an adult I did something really wrong once (we are still uncertain how it happened) and detached my subscapularis tendon from my shoulder. Unfortunately, I had so many dislocations that I wasn't really sure what a not-injured shoulder felt like. The shoulder is/was the worst injury I'd ever had to recover from. I didn't figure out I was hurt for months. Once we figured it out I got the surgery to reattach it promptly and was as a result properly stumped with agonizing non-stop pain for a month, major unrelenting pain for 3 months and notable pain for over a year. After a year it stopped hurting quite so much or as constantly. It took me 2 years of quite hard work and a good whack of continuous pain to get 90% of my range of motion back. Now the bicep is my weak one, the knee is the worse of the two but not a real problem most days and my shoulder is my strong one.

Of the tendon shreds, the knee hurt the least. Hopefully you'll be on the more pain free side of things. Good luck! Don't take the pills a second longer than you have to.

 

[Scarface26]

Like many here I had the bicep thing in '97. Got it sewed back on, started deadlifting with a hook grip and surpassed previous numbers. The same is in store for you. VERY IMPORTANT: do what they say WRT PT. If they tell you to rest, rest. When it's time to go, then don't take counsel of your pain. Go as far as they tell you and no farther.

I only took my pain pills at night. During the day I could hack it, but at night the throbbing kept me from sleeping. As soon as you can sleep without them, flush those things down the toilet.

God bless you for getting ready for fire season. Don't know you, but I think I'd look up to you. Anyone who rucks while walking the dog is A OK.

Whatever you do, keep training. Upper body stuff, one leg stuff, swimming when able: all good. I trained with a safety squat bar and dumbells with the good arm while my injured arm was healing.

One final thing, if you haven't already done so, surrender this whole thing to God. You will be pleasantly surprised how HE works our momentary misfortunes for HiS glory. And thank God again that this didn't happen to you on some hillside in Afghanistan.

You got this.

God bless America

 

[PO3JDA]

I strained mine real bad in a motorcycle fall.... Too slow to say crash, about 3 years ago. Still hurts now

 

[Maxduty]

Complete rupture? Surgery, recovery and a bout of PT. Don't over do it as it heals and you'll be fine. Try to over do it and you'll get another surgery and recovery period.

 

[PO3JDA]

Riding a bicycle helps with rehab

 

[DIBBS]

Surgery two days ago, nerve block has almost wore off, Yes it was a complete rupture. Based on my research, it would appear that my plans for the next 6-12 months have changed substantially. I think my first follow up is in 2 weeks. No weight bearing whatsoever, and foot is in a boot with foam inserts to keep angle as the healing begins. Gotta be positive.

 

[DIBBS]

Appreciate the recommendations and thoughts. Gonna have a nice scar for sure! IF it had to happen, now is as good a
time as any I suppose.

ar.

 

[sharpshot50]

Crazy. I’m in my mid thirties and am generally healthy, but I’ve had three different times where I’ve been walking or running and had that sudden 2x4 to the calf feeling. Twice, I was walking or running with my dog when it happened.

It was never my Achilles, but my gastrocnemius calf muscles tore and rolled up twice. Each time, it was a boot for 4-5 weeks just to be able to walk with any sense of normalcy and one of my muscles never fully rolled back out before reattaching, so now the muscle bunches up on the inside of my leg when it becomes flexed. It functions okay, but definitely isn’t quite right. Doc doesn’t recommend surgery on it, though.

Stay on the PT regimen as others have said, and definitely don’t overdo it out of boredom or stubbornness—you don’t want that thing healing weirdly.

Good luck.

 

[TriggerHappy0125]

My senior year of high school a guy fell on me just right in a high school football game and ruptured my achillies, put me out the entire season. Mine was no where as bad as yours, i did not need surgery just physical therapy, which sucked. We were also poor so I dont think i got as much therapy as I should have. Good luck with it, therapy will suck but if you work hard at it you won't regret it later.

 

[JRaven]

I had a mid-patellar rupture and it took about a full year for a full recovery. And I came back stronger that any doctor expected.

The one thing I do know about achilles ruptures is you have to let the tendon heal before you start stretching it. I had a friend that was pretty aggressive on his achilles tendon rupture rehab and ended up stretching the tendon a bit too much and the longer lever reduced his ability to push off.

Hard balancing act.

Check out Dr Keith Baar at UC Sacramento. He does all the really jiggy research on tendons and connective tissues. He has a ton of stuff on collagen intake as a means for healing connective tissues.

I put up some links and podcasts since you have some time on your hands.

Minimizing Injury and Maximizing Return to Play: Lessons from Engineered Ligaments - PMC

Musculoskeletal injuries account for more than 70% of time away from sports. One of the reasons for the high number of injuries and long return to play is that we have only a very basic understanding of how our training alters tendon and ligament ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Tendon Rehab – Advice from Tendon Expert Keith Baar

Tendon injuries are very common and often hard to rehab correctly. Strengthening is part of rehab but it has to be right to get the right results. Tendon strength is different to muscle strength. T…

optimal.bio

Dr. Keith Baar on Building Bulletproof Tendons - Robertson Training Systems

As a former athlete who considered himself mediocre, Dr. Keith Baar became curious as to why some people respond well to a training program and grew stronger while others didn’t adapt the same way. He followed this curiosity into an internship in strength and conditioning at the University of...

robertsontrainingsystems.com

EP 352 – Dr Keith Baar Engineers Tissues – Power Athlete

Best of luck and heal up quick.

 

[SalomonQST99]

If you're on painkillers, take lots and lots of fiber. Your bunghole will tell you how you did.

 

[mavrick10_2000]

61 yrs old, reasonable shape. I wasn't even doing anything stoopid. I was walking the dog with a 45lb pack in preparation for fire season at a 3-4mph pace and BOOM, face down on the ground with a fair amount of pain. At first I thought that my German Shepherd had tripped me, but it felt like I got hit in my calf with a 2x4. Just back from the ER. Foot is in a hard splint, and I will speak to an orthopedic surgeon on Monday.

Just wondering from those who may have gone through this, what's ahead and what I am I looking at for recovery time. Thanks

Did you happen to be on CIPRO for any prolonged period of time, or a high dose within months prior to this?

 

[mavrick10_2000]

If you're on painkillers, take lots and lots of fiber. Your bunghole will tell you how you did.

LOL. True Story!

 

[Gatorshark]

Achilles tendons take forever to heal, unfortunately, in the best of conditions. You'll gain mobility back pretty quick, but it takes a while to heal. Mine still acts up periodically like arthritis or something. I don't even know how I hurt it. Good luck with recovery.

 

[DIBBS]

Did you happen to be on CIPRO for any prolonged period of time, or a high dose within months prior to this?

No not on CIPRO at any time.

As part of the rehab/strength building, the Physical Therapist has me exercise on an "adjustable slide" that uses my body and varying slope as the weight. Both single and double leg. This has / is causing pain in the knees, which I would describe as moderate to severe. I am taking glucosamine/chondroiton supplements, but am wondering if there is something available (CBD oil or something) that might help with the pain as I would like to continue with this exercise and strength building. Anyone with personal experience with this type of product? I am still attempting only minimal/sporadic use of NSAIDS. Thanks.

 

[Maxduty]

No not on CIPRO at any time.

As part of the rehab/strength building, the Physical Therapist has me exercise on an "adjustable slide" that uses my body and varying slope as the weight. Both single and double leg. This has / is causing pain in the knees, which I would describe as moderate to severe. I am taking glucosamine/chondroiton supplements, but am wondering if there is something available (CBD oil or something) that might help with the pain as I would like to continue with this exercise and strength building. Anyone with personal experience with this type of product? I am still attempting only minimal/sporadic use of NSAIDS. Thanks.

Depends on the cause of the knee pain. If it's joint related, then no, there's not a lot you can do other than surgery. There are, however, plenty of exercises that you can do that don't involve squatting that will still strengthen the lower leg.

 

[E-Tool]

Sorry man, this has been one of my unreasonable fears since I watched Hostil and they cut that dudes achilles open.

 

[mavrick10_2000]

No not on CIPRO at any time.

As part of the rehab/strength building, the Physical Therapist has me exercise on an "adjustable slide" that uses my body and varying slope as the weight. Both single and double leg. This has / is causing pain in the knees, which I would describe as moderate to severe. I am taking glucosamine/chondroiton supplements, but am wondering if there is something available (CBD oil or something) that might help with the pain as I would like to continue with this exercise and strength building. Anyone with personal experience with this type of product? I am still attempting only minimal/sporadic use of NSAIDS. Thanks.

I'm not aware of any CBD type of product for pain. Good choice on avoiding NSAIDS, don't need probs with the ticker while you're recovering from this.

Ice when you can to keep inflammation down, as often as possible for 15-20 mins. Something like Biofreeze is a topical works fairly well when you can't do ice and need to be more mobile.

 

[JRaven]

The CBD stuff is interesting. I have friends (and my wife) that swear by it for pain and swelling. My wife blew out her ankle recently and put CBD rub/cream on it while taking CBD gummies from NeuroXPF and the healing was pretty dramatic.

NEUROXPF | XTREME PERFORMANCE FUEL

All Neuro XPF products are THC FREE! We use a special CO2 Extracting process to isolate the CBD, working hard to preserve the terpenes to modulate the effect of our Hemp-Derived CBD. This adds that little extra punch to Neuro XPF product so they taste better and provide more beneficial qualities.

neuroxpf.com

Worth a shot. I would recommend taking collage protein at least once a day. The research is compelling for the healing of connective tissues.

I have it every morning before training.