Week 10: Achilles Tendon Rupture Non-Surgical - Best Week So Far! 

Thanks Anne. How is your recovery going? Was your protocol similar to what I'm using?

Hi SJ, I’m a little behind you because I had surgery in January, but our protocols look very similar. My surgeon takes an aggressive approach to rehab because he wants the my tendon working again. My surgeon says that the more tendon is used the stronger it will heal with a reduced chance of re-rupture. Early movement also reduces the build up of scar tissue, The day after the surgery I was in a boot and I was walking PWB on it as tolerated. The transition to FWB to shoes was straight forward. I am 7 weeks post op. I am still doing ROM exercises with my ankle. No dorsi flexion until 8 weeks after surgery. Seated heel lift exercises as much as possible. I have a heel riser in my shoe. I was told that this keeps the tendon short and reduces the stress on the tendon when I am walking. For the same reason I have been told that when I am going up and down the stairs I am still to go one step at a time with bad leg leading when descending and the bad leg following when I ascend. My physiotherapist also massages my scar to increase blood flow and to break down the scar tissue. Thanks again for the videos, they are really helpful.

Looks like a great protocol. Definitely agree with the aggressive rehab!

Any updates?

Any updates?

Hello Andy I’m on week 7 post achilies , How is your recovery . I’m more or less out of vacoped now and walking with a limp but pain free at the moment first physio appointment Tommorow My rupture was 1st April

@@zakariamaster7717 Hi Sounds like you are doing well! I am in week 12 and have another ten days before first physio. I have not been avbised to walk without boot and spend most time on crutches partial weight bearing. My Dr has given next to no advice on how to progress - initilally he refused to even assess my injury when I was in hospital having boot adjustments - they were just reading instructions from a protocol taped to the wall from another NHS trust. I have a copy of my own I could simply read it and action myself - I feel like simply trusting my own research. I am in no rush as I want to get it right bu t feel totally frustarted with care/advice given. Are you in the UK or elsewhere? Keep going! Andy

When did you injure yourself? Was it a complete tear?

@@slimduncan8022 September 25, 2020, yes complete rupture. 3.5 months out now

@@spencerfarrow2963 ok I ruptured mine on Halloween and it was a 75% tear. Had a hard time finding an XL boot until someone suggested amazon. I'm going to give it about a month before I try to transition to shoes.

@@slimduncan8022 I hope you have been following with a physician and therapist, and employing an early weight-bearing and ROM protocol. I hope you heal well. I finally achieved a single leg heal raise, my goal was 12 weeks but didn’t get it until 15 weeks out.

Thanks mate. You'll improve a lot over the next few weeks!

Hey I also went into normal shoe after my cast I hope that is ok . Mine was surgical.

Oh my goodness!! That’s EXACTLY how I felt!! I was sooo relieved & happy to see my walk was normal when beating myself up for not walking more smoothly. Gosh it’s so encouraging to have others that have gone through this. ❤️🙏🏼🙏🏼

Hi, good to know your recovery is going well. To be honest, I don't really exercise much in my normal life outside of my weekend sport and daily walking. But from about week 7 I started doing sit ups and push ups but even lately I've gotten lazy with them. Anyway good luck!

Walid Masri how are you now?

SJ is a life saver! I appreciate you for taking the time, while going thru the pain, to make these videos. You helped so many people (as i read in the comments), and myself. I am in my 12 month recovery and i feel fine, just some stiffness, due to me going back to normal life around month 4, and i stopped stretching as much. thanks you so much, and for the newbies that just tore, FOLLOW HIS INSTRUCTIONS, Stay a couple weeks ahead (still follow week by week) of SJ videos, and YOU WILL BE FINE!

I reckon you can play with a cart from about week 12. You will be limping but its not too bad.

Hi Joe, are you based in Australia?

Hi SJ I'm actually based in the UK. The protocol here on the NHS is not to operate unless you are a top altlete or sportsperson .You can of course decide to go down the private route ,but I was more than happy like yourself to follow the non operative path. It's actually 8 weeks today (2nd June) that I completely ruptured my achilles tendon in a motorcycle accident. It's been hard,I've been in 3 casts since (non weight bearing ) & moved into the boot 4 week's ago . It was such a relief to finally get fully mobile & weight bear on my injured right leg! Having done an Internet search ,I have purchased a set of foam rollers pretty much identical to yours from physique.co.uk they arrived yesterday & am very pleased with them . Thanks for posting all your videos they have been a great source of information & have helped a lot in my recovery up to now.

Probably 9-12 months.

Sorry to hear that mate. Thats one of the reasons I never take the boot off in the shower. I put a plastic bag around it and shower like that.

Any update on your recovery

I have it, since this question was from 2 months ago, what did your doctor say? Did the divot go away?

Are you still healing?

Correct: I'm at 9 weeks and starting to transition. I wonder how I'll be at 10, I hope to be as far along as you were at 10 weeks.

Around week 10 i reckon it was exclusively in shoes by then. Transitioning from boot to shoes took around 2 weeks. But i agree you are definitely vulnerable until week 12 and probably a little further than that. its the key re rupture period so you need to be careful. In terms of walking distances i just kept increasing the amount of walking each day or week and built on it like that. Also i definitely was nervous about the kids so i always kept the shoes on at home and once they were asleep i went barefoot.

Hi SJ, Thanks so much for that useful advice. Looking at my protocol I am due to wean off the boot from weeks 8 -10. I also noticed that is said avoid walking in bare feet until at least week 12?

I’m in 9 weeks and still stiff. I hope you are doing better now

That is absolutely not true. Whether you get the surgery or go non-operative you are definitely not running until the earliest months 3 to 6. Not sure where you got that information from.