THE COMEBACK

[amagruns]

Week 19 post op

I'm trying to find the balance between working hard and not crippling myself. It seems back to back days of running are difficult thus far. This week I ran 16.8 miles. According to my PT who has analyzed my running, I'm still not driving off right leg enough and picking up the foot too soon. Must continue to be diligent with gastroc strengthening and mobility exercises. At this point I'm not very confident about doing Ventura marathon in Sept. I'll continue to try to build base this month and if I can run absolutely pain free by May then I may have a shot at Marathon. If not then I'll just continue this process and possibly wait till Los Angeles marathon 2017 to race.

[amagruns]

Week 16

Sunday morning : walked to beach and back. Total of about 5 miles. Held up decently, just a bit tired and sore the last couple miles. Walking on the soft sand was a pretty good workout in itself too. I am absolutely determined to run one mile continuously next Sunday or Monday(my bday) . As of right now the range of motion is there but the strength isn't quite yet. Spoke to Dr T on Thurs over the phone and he reassured me tendon is now structurally fine and that I just need to work through the soreness. I have pt on Wednesday and I really hope I impress her with my progress so I get the green light to run!

[amagruns]

Week 15

Progress is still slow. On Saturday I tried a few sets of "trotting" . Didn't hurt at all but I sure was sore the rest of the day. Continuing to do my rehab exercises and working on glutes/hips. I have 6 months to get to the start line of #venturamarathon. I'm noy afraid to pull the plug on it if my Achilles doesn't hold up in the upcoming months but I sure would like race it. It's a completely flat course so it shouldn't put unnecessary stress on tendon. Been doing a lot more body weight exercises with TRX as opposed to hitting the weights daily. I know I'll need to shave down at least 12-15lbs to reduce the pounding on Achilles.

[amagruns]

Week 14

Well. All hell has broken loose in last couple weeks. Achilles has been SLOWLY coming along. Frustrating as hell. I keep waking up every morning hoping I’ll be walking 100%normal with zero discomfort. But NO. I’m working my ass off in physical therapy but mostly on my own. They weren’t kidding when they said this would be a long slow process. I still have hopes I can start to jog slowly within next two week somehow. What’s derailed my spirits is a diagnosis of Prostate cancer. In January I began have issues with my bladder. Chronic urinating and never seeming like I can fully empty my bladder. I avoided telling my oncologist these symptoms as I knew this was gonna open up a new can of worms. Well in some recent blood work he saw something. Ordered some more testing (psa levels, more blood tests, blah blah blah) . Saw him today to confirm, and he felt a good size lump on one side of prostate. Combined with my extremely elevated psa levels and we now have a problem. Tomorrow I’ll schedule a biopsy and ultrasound and then we’ll sit down with a plan of action. As brave as I can pretend to be at times, I’m not sure I wanna fight this battle. I’m absolutely drained physically and have lost so many years dealing with this shit I feel like I’m done fighting and just wanna enjoy my time left with my lady and Lola, and train for one more marathon injury & health permitting. I wanna go out on my terms.

[amagruns]

12 weeks post op

Despite the setbacks I had with the incision and blood clot I feel like I’m right where I should be. Originally my OS and I had a goal to start light running by end of march. At this point I think I may have a solid shot at it. PT with my actual therapist has been productive. At this point it’s consisting of electro therapy, a warm up on Elliptical, ROM exercises and most importantly she massages the Achilles/foot/calf to break up the scar tissue. I’m kind of calling my own shots on the strengthening. Throughout my normal weight lifting I’m using rest periods for things like calf raises, strengthening the Tibialis anterior and other boring crap. Using the precor elliptical is getting more and more comfortable. Homework, per PT, this week is to stop limping when I walk. Part of it is my brain trying to protect my foot and also not having full ROM in plantar flexion. Therefore I’m stretching calf & soleus all day long. These last 3 months have sure been trying. More difficult than I imagined it would be. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

[amagruns]

Week 11

Incision finally healed. Green light from Dr T to start pt again and stretch past zero degrees plantar flexion. Said to wait a few days for pt to do massage on scar tissue. I'd really like to begin "jogging" on alter-g by the end of March!

[amagruns]

Week 10. Its sure been frustrating to say the least. Tiny spot on incision still not completely healed. It wasn't weeping any plasma or anything for a few days and on Sunday it did, again. And this was after a week of stopping all foot/ankle exercises and just having my PT do Low Level Laser Therapy on it to help it heal. After going and seeing my ortho on Monday, he ordered me to go back in the boot for a week. Now I'm starting to fall behind rehab schedule and I feel like I'll have a bigger hole to dig out of when I start rehab again. The boot is absolutely miserable. I'm back to either M driving me around or having to use Uber. Although I haven't gained any weight since actual surgery, feels like I'm so outta shape since I can't do legs or any cardio. Still wish I hadn't had Achilles repaired.

[amagruns]

Week 8

This week's been tough. A tiny part of incision wasn't healing so ortho is having me go back into boot till tonight. 2.5 days. We think it's the combination of blood thinners and me being overly aggressive with rehab. I had already forgotten how much I despise the boot! Also kills me to take a couple days off from my rehab exercises. But PT is on Tuesday and need it to be healed to continue rehab. I bought some Manuka honey as I've read it has incredible healing properties. I know this isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things but this is really the first time in this process I'm having a setback other than the blood clot. I think if I could do this all over again I'd definitely rest more and not get back to exercise as soon as I did. I've definitely learned my lesson the hard way

[amagruns]

50 days post op

Finally out of Boot! Follow up with ortho today. Took xrays and everything in heel looked good! Went into his office and to my surprise he asked me to take boot off and walk! Scared as hell but was pumped! So no more boot! Pt ramped up to twice a week and I'll see him again in 4 weeks. Aaaaand I can drive finally! Walking in shoe feels scary as ankle/calf/tendon are pretty weak. Don't have much, if any, drive off ball of foot so still have a limp when I walk. But I'm pretty ecstatic about the progress!

[amagruns]

45 days post op

I've started the stationary bike this week. Feels awkward to do so with boot on but feels awesome waking up those muscles again!! Still lifting weights daily. Achilles feels pretty good as I work on moving foot around a bit. I've started sleeping with boot off for a few days now and it's glorious! I see Dr T on Thurs the 21st and he said over the phone a couple days ago I'll be in boot for week after that then I can ditch it! So need to go buy some backless Crocs so shoe doesn't irritate the scar. Only real discomfort I have when walking with boot on now is the feeling of of stepping on gravel through the heel, that I read all about as other patients go through as well. Just counting down the days till Thurs now!

[amagruns]

36 days post op

PT going well. Working on massage to minimize scar tissue and keeping the fascia in plantar nice and loose. No strengthening work just yet. PWB at 7.5° is going pretty well. The only hiccup is my INR is at 1.8 still despite the xarelto. More blood work tomorrow and we'll go from there. Life seems to be working in stages at this point. Living from getting to the next milestone which is next week being at neutral in boot. Crossing my fingers OS says I can ditch boot when I see him on the 21st.

[amagruns]

33 days post op

Just changed boot to 7.5 degrees plantar flexion. Frightened like hell. Walking gingerly. But much easier to walk with less of an angle!

[amagruns]

31 days post op

Not a good morning. The second I got up out of bed to take lola out to potty my Achilles was sore. Thought it would loosen up and it just became more bothersome. Decided it would not be smart to make the half mile walk to park with lola so called a friend for a ride and I took the damn cane for assistance . Really wanted to walk home after but it just wasn’t happening so got a ride from Richard. Really discouraged me to be in pain and regress from yesterday so I got home, ice massaged and put on some voltaren gel. That seemed to do the trick as its feel better again. Just the normal heel pain when I walk which is normal. I absolutely hate having to take a step back but I have a feeling this is how it’s going to go for the next year or so. My normal attitude of pushing through pain is not gonna work with this recovery. Was able to still hit biceps and triceps at home and tomorrow I’ll hit the gym for chest/back and the stupid arm bike

[amagruns]

30 days post op

Feeling stronger by the day. Yesterday I only used cane to the park and to gym. Today I'm not touching it. Was able to walk to park and back with Lola. Majority of discomfort is in heel when I step. Towards the end of walk it did get pretty tired though. Dr T said yesterday he would negotiate with me and allow me to move boot to 7.5% PF but not till Monday as I was scheduled to move it on Thursday. I'm icing twice a day to keel the swelling at minimum too. Really happy with my weight as I've managed to actually lose 4lbs. At this point it's just allowing the tendon do heal and fight the urge to get into "no pain no gain" . Credit to my bauerfeind brace because I really think that's what's helping with swelling and being pain free.

[amagruns]

First Full weight bearing steps. Pretty glorious. Still have a way to go before I can walk confidently but lord does it feel good to meet my daily goals!

[amagruns]

Pwb

Pwb surw has been harder than I anticipated. I had visions of being able to walk effortlessly as soon as I started. Boy was I wrong. Thurs I didn't try much. Friday only at home some. Saturday and Sunday I was able to transition to just one crutch. But soooooo slow. Having my foot down at 15 degrees is what makes it even harder. Today I made myself use the cane only. Using both hands on it for the most part though. Tomorrow I'm determined to only use one arm. When I walk alot im Gettin some swelling so I'm making sure I'm icing a few times a day. My goal is to be fwb on Wednesday even though Dr said Thursday. Im getting a real glimpse at how much work the whole road back to running is going to be. Trying my best to not get too frustrated. I'm trying to focus on the progress I'm making daily instead.

[amagruns]

24 days post op. Thursday's follow up didn't quite go as expected. I had an ultrasound done first and blood clots were found in my leg. Non occlusive thrombosis. So some blood as still getting through. Which explains the pain I've been having all this time in my quad/hip flexor that I always assumed was just tightness from using the iwalk. Dr put me on lovenox injections and I'll see my dr this week. As far as my Achilles, everything looked good. Incision looked great and he changed my cam boot to 15 degrees plantar flexion. Also said I can start partial weight bearing but boy has that been a challenge the last 2 days. I have absolutely no confidence in my leg. He said to progress to full weight bearing by next Thursday so I'm gonna have to stop being such a baby and really get to work on it today. My workouts have been going well. Cardio is getting done with the arm bike and battle ropes.