Achilles Rupture

[EBR]

On May 21 I ruptured my achilles tendon playing baseball. I am now close to 5 weeks post-op, and will have my hard cast removed at the six week mark.

I have a few questions, about exercising, vitamins, and the strain of the rupture.

Is it true that if the gap in the rupture is small, the recovery could be faster? I suppose versus a complete retraction into the calf. I had a complete tear, but the tendon retracted minimally. Surgery was performed three days after the rupture.

Has anyone taken any special vitamins to help the healing, or even perhaps HGH?

I look forward to any feedback.

Southflabaseball

[EBR]

Ahhh, the cast has been removed, and I am now in a walking boot. Does anyone know if the rupture was minimal, meaning about about 10cm, am I more capable of healing faster?

Southflabaseball

[Morfergus]

I am a pretty active 34 year old Aussie currently livinging in Montreal, Canada. I ruptured my achilles playing softball last Monday night, 24 July. As I pushed off on my right foot to field a ball a few metres away, I felt like something hit me in the back of the leg - just like almost everyone else. Then I turned around to see who had thrown the ball that hit me but could see no one near me and no ball!

So I went to Emergency that evening and was in surgery the next evening for the operation. This seems pretty quick compared to some people who have posted here who had a wait a few days for surgery, so I consider myself lucky. The doctor advised that surgery was the better option for me because the chance of re-rupture is much lower and I would recover most of my power and strength in the tendon, probably about 90%.

Now I am in a half-cast around the back and sides on my leg and foot, wrapped in bangades. In two days time, nine days after surgery, I have a follow-up meeting with the doctor for him to inspect it and discuss the recovery plan. Hopefully I will not be in another cast for too long because I really want to be able to walk without crutches and have a shower (baths are annoying me already!). The doctor did say before the operation that I would not be walking on for at least four weeks. While that is hard to take, I certainly don't want to re-rupture it or affect my recovery so I know I have to be patient.

Fortunately I haven't had a lot of pain with it, although I have had my fair share of sports injuries so I am probably used to it now. This is the worst one but adds to my list of hamstring tear, calf strain, adductor (groin) tear five times (three on left and two on the right) and multiple ankle sprains. Those are the result of many years of basketball, volleyball, sprinting and touch football and probaboly trying to push myself a bit to far. This achilles rupture will slow me down for a while tough.

I don't have an answer to the question in the post aboveabout the effect of the length of the tear (or amount of tendon retraction) on recovery but I will try to remember to ask the doctor this week when I see him. I a not sure of the extent of mine yet and will discuss it with him also and report my progress here.

Good luck to all with your recovery.

[anigee]

Vitamins--MSM with Glucosamine will take up to a few weeks off of ur recovery.
My achilles retracted minimally as well, but being misdiagnosed as a contusion i
was stretching it and the gap got larger. Still, if the tendon didnt roll all the way up,
your recovery will likely be smoother (based on my research).
Start up on cardio as physio allows you to, start withthe bike, then elliptical, even stairmaster before running.you will lose a LOT of calf muscle, so begin doing resistance
toe points as soon as you can as well as double leg heal lifts on a stair
recovery should be fairly pain free if done properly, best of luck, just ask if uve got questions!