Fall after Achilles tendon surgery

[Esther]

Hi everyone,
Sorry to hear about all the other ACT ruptures - I didn't realise it was so common!
I ruptured my tendon 2 weeks ago in a martial arts class, but I blame the tennis I played the weekend before where I felt a slight impairment of the tendon. I never thought it would rupture.

I was operated on just about 7 days ago and all went well. However today I managed to slip and fall and put my full weight on my injured foot, which is currently in a polyester plaster. I'm in quite a bit of pain mainly around the ankle but also in the calf.

Did anyone get advice from their doctor/hospital what to do in case of a fall? Should I wait it out and see how it feels tomorrow, or would it be advisable to have someone medical to have a look at it asap?

Thanks for any good advice!

Esther

[nobleduke]

[QUOTE=Esther]Hi everyone,
Sorry to hear about all the other ACT ruptures - I didn't realise it was so common!
I ruptured my tendon 2 weeks ago in a martial arts class, but I blame the tennis I played the weekend before where I felt a slight impairment of the tendon. I never thought it would rupture.

I was operated on just about 7 days ago and all went well. However today I managed to slip and fall and put my full weight on my injured foot, which is currently in a polyester plaster. I'm in quite a bit of pain mainly around the ankle but also in the calf.

Did anyone get advice from their doctor/hospital what to do in case of a fall? Should I wait it out and see how it feels tomorrow, or would it be advisable to have someone medical to have a look at it asap?

Thanks for any good advice!

Hi
The key word is " full weight" ....I would be worried if I were you as it has been only 7 days after the surgery ,,,,,,and landing on your injured foot full weight it can be cause for serious trouble....Call yor dr asap....

[Esther]

Thanks for your speedy reply. The pain has gone down a bit and as it's late (I'm in the UK) I think I will wait til the morning before calling the doctor. Hopefully no serious damage was done!

[Elmoblue1964]

Hi, hope your ok after your fall........i,d get it check out as well ASAP......AM 4 WEEKS POST OPP.......but i must say , i was getting alot of pain around the calf and the rest of my leg for the first 2 and half weeks.....thinking it could of been DVT.....I GOT IT CHECK OUT....am in the UK as well.....and we seem to do it a lot different than those in the USA..for the same reason......it ended up being ,not usingthe leg musles as much, so thats were you must do your physio.....ITS HELPS.....(were you in a front plaster ) as i was 4 the first 2 weeks. Then put in the rom boot,.i go to physio tomorrow and they will tell me 2 start planting my foot down......(i had a complete rupture) some of the thead i,v read say there not even in a boot at 8 weeks......WOW...any way hope things get better and you return to full fitness.......bye for now take care ,,,,,,,catch you soon .......

[nobleduke]

Thanks for your speedy reply. The pain has gone down a bit and as it's late (I'm in the UK) I think I will wait til the morning before calling the doctor. Hopefully no serious damage was done!
are you ok? did you have your foot checked out?

[damian]

Hi Esther,

How did you go after putting weight on your leg, I did the same sort of thing (partial weight bearing) last night 16/march/07 going to bathroom (1 week after surgery), but everything feels OK so far, spoke to my surgeon and he says don't worry about it. It will be fine. Very frustrating when things like this happen, and hard not to get worried but sometimes we are in the hands of fate and just need to be ultra careful!

Feel free to join my support group thread.

Damian

[dougdigital]

Esther,

All you can do is call your surgeon or have the surgeon look at it to make sure. I did almost the exact same thing during the second week of my recovery. One of my crutches slipped out from under me and I put nearly all of my weight on that foot. It felt soar when it happened but I had the doctor check it out and he said it was fine. It didn't bother me anymore as well. It didn't slow down my recovery process one bit. Let us know how your progress is going?

[Esther]

Dear all,

Sorry for not replying earlier - I thought I would be notified if there were further posts in my thread, but somehow I wasn't. I'm not used to forums, I guess.

Thanks for asking about my progress!
It turns out that during my fall I didn't hurt the tendon, but damaged my toes a bit. When the doctors tried to move my foot into a more neutral (or 90 degrees) angle, I experienced excuciating pain in my toes & it was not possible to readjust my cast to 90 degrees. My physio really helped me sort out the problems in my toes - so that 2-3 weeks later it was possible to move my foot to nearly 90 degrees.

Recently, 2 months after injury, and 7-8 weeks after surgery - I had my cast removed. I didn't have a transition from cast to boot in which I could weight bear, so it was a rather strange feeling to have 2 normal shoes and put weight on my foot!

This happened about 2 weeks ago & I am trying very hard to walk normally. As it goes, I can only shuffle (painfully). So I'm getting around with crutches mainly. I wonder if I am progressing rather slowly? I still have a lot of pain, unfortunately & very little flexibility. My foot also always seems to swell in the evenings.

Having said that I am trying to still live my life & get out and about. Public transport is difficult though.

Thanks for your posts & hope all is well,

Esther