Under The Knife
After a slight mishap last weekend and 4 trips to the hospital later, we’ve all decided that the best thing to do is it have surgery on my Achilles Tendon to sew it all back together. The ultra-sound scan revealed that I have indeed re-ruptured it.
The chances of re-rupture after surgery is significantly decreased as opposed to passive treatment and apart from the usual complications involved with surgery, the benefits are clear. So, next Tuesday morning I go under the knife.
The big draw back is that the recovery time is the same and I will be in a damned cast for 6 to 8 weeks, so I will have to relive the frustration of being immobile all over again.
This isn’t the case at the moment as they’ve given me a brilliant piece of kit called an Aircast. The cast has a heel raise and you pump up the cast in 4 places to surround the injury with an air bladder. It supports the whole leg and you can put your full weight on the leg without any discomfort whatever. Robo-tracker or what! (Cost £110-00 per boot!!)
I really wish that they would give me one of these after the Op but it seems this won’t be the case. This is really annoying.
Billy doesn’t really care what cast I have. I think we’ll borrow him for a couple of months to keep me company.
Apparently, the surgeon won’t know exactly what he’s going to do until he opens up the ankle. It will depend on how much the tendon has retracted. It might be a case of simply sewing the two ends together or, if the tendon has retracted too far, he will have to cut a bit of tendon from my toe and stitch that onto the Achilles. There’s two in-between procedures which he tried to explain to me, but I was a little bored by then (having already spent 6 hours at the hospital on this occasion) and resigned myself, in a slightly self-pitying manner, to my fate.
[Image from www.pyroenergen.com]
This state of mind didn’t last too long and, even as they were extracting vast amounts of blood from my arm for the pre-op tests, I started planning a “last” trip to the woods on Sunday and a project or two during my recovery period.
At least I know what to expect and I console myself knowing that all being well, I fully expect to be out of the cast on 20th March, just in time for spring! Let me see that’s 16 twice weekly blog posts…or… 56 days… or … 1344 hours…
Thanks for the visit.
Pablo.
Welcome.
This is the home of Woodlife. You will find links to Pablos Woodlife (blog) the Woodlife Social Network (forum) and Woodlife Trails (courses) all on this page.
Best of luck Pablo. Hope everything works out and your return the the great outdoors comes quickly!
Decado.
Pablo,
My condolences. My kid brother is wearing the same cast right now. He broke his leg and ruptured his tendons on Dec 23 while carrying the Christmas tree into his home. He is 45. Is this some 4x year old thing?
Get well soon and listen to Mrs. P, she may actually want you to be healthy.
Regards from Toronto,
DAn
Sorry to hear the News Pablo. I hope that the operation goes well and that you have a speedy recovery
Really sorry to hear of your misfortune again. Hopefully this time with it being sewn it will be stornger and less prone to rupture.
Sean
Oh Pablo – I am sorry to hear this. Wishing you well – and remember that you can spend some of this time catching up on reading and listening to music and eating but no tap-dancing. Plus you can just sit and listen to the outdoors – very relaxing.
Take care and good luck,
Mungo
I am very sorry to hear of your pain..it is probly for the best if u do have the surgery..that way the tendeon will be stronger and u will recover stronger…all the same..i wish u were camping and writing instead of sitting again…best of luck to you sir..may this time pass quicker than the first one
Oh my Pablo, this is not good news. Hang in there though, feel free to e mail me any time and if there is anything I can do to help give me a shout. Hopefully you will be on the way to recovery by the spring. All the best for the op. Dawn.
Thanks for your comments everyone. Dan – actually achilles ruptures and other ankle injuries do happen more to middle age men than any other age group. A lot of it is to do with the relaxing/ageing/atrophy of the calf muscle (apparently). So get exercising!!
Sorry to hear about your misfortune my friend, Best wishes and prayers.
All the best with your op fella.
Andy.
My sympathies again Pablo….but if anyone can turn this into something positive you will..complete with giving a load of enjoyment to your readers with your insight and imagination. Keep the faith mate…we’ll be in touch
Pablo,
I participate 2 evenings a week an aqua fitness classes specifically to keep my leg and foot tendons in shape.
BTW, I am 57.
Get well soon, Dan
Oh dear Pablo, I’m very sorry to hear that. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the surgery will be of the easy kind, and that the healing goes much faster than expected.
/ Karl
Pablo, that just sucks. I’ve been a long-time reader of yours but have rarely commented. But this time, it seemed appropriate. I really feel for you. Get better soon.
On the plus side, you’ll probably be posting more.
Maybe you can get a jumpstart on some 2009 kit reviews.
Get better soon.
Sorry to hear you have to go through all of that again.
May the surgery go well, and the recovery be quick.
Nice ski boot!! Never seen anything like that on the slopes before.
Dan’s suggestion of aqua fitness classess is a fine idea. I’m sure there’ll be fine views to take your mind off of any pain
Bummer – I’m sure you’ll be thrashing around in full CEFO before you know it. All the best
Ali
Best of luck with the operation, I will be pulling for you. While you are recouping maybe you could share a fish story or two to keep the mind in top form for an earily spring start. Blessings to you for speedy recovery, Tom.
I wish you a good recovery. Fortunately the woods will still be there in 6 weeks time.
All the best for the operation Pablo