Looking for some feedback from people who have partially or fully torn their Achilles and how their recovery went, timescales and tips.
My sister thinks she has fully torn hers during a gym workout day before yesterday. Been to the hospital and they have fitted her a plastic boot and booked her for ultrasound but this can be up to two weeks away so not sure if it's fully torn yet. Defo at least partially torn though. Sounds aweful from the way she described it.
She is pretty downbeat and emotional right now. Not sure I helped the situation by offering to have her Glasto ticket off of her either 🤷🏼♂️
I've had a partial tear. It needs full recovery otherwise - as mine did - it will keep re-injuring.
Recovery time will depend on the extent of the injury obvs but a complete tear is usually 12 months I believe with a fair amount of time in plaster.
I partially tore mine - and was offered surgical snapping of it as one option.
Initially I was told that it worked be 3 months , and it would be more or less ok but it look 9 months until I stopped limping.
Stupidly , after about a years, I decided to start jogging again - not in a big way but 5kms or so. On day, I felt a little twinge - and bugger me it was back to square one.
The long story short - rather than have it snapped - the aim being to generate new tissue, scrape the scar tissue out and release the crap from the endemas, mine was dry needled under a local. The surgeon spent about 15 mins pushing a horse size needle through my Achilles - breaking down the scar tissue.
Over night my Achilles shrank from 3x normal size just just a bit thicker than normal.
But I won't be running again - and I have been told not to stand up to pedal a bike.
As he was doing his stuff , he said that there is a high probably it will snap at some stage ( but he was a keen bowler, had his done 5 years ago, and it was fine)
Basically, its a long road ...
Yikes, I don't think I'll show her this thread.
She was saying yesterday 3-6 months and I thought it sounded pretty optimistic. I remember an old 5 a side friend who snapped his on the pitch and he was in cast for way more than 6 months and never came back to play.
Ok, thank you for the replies.
I snapped my left Achilles in two casing a jump 10 years ago.
Went to hospital the same night, given a splnited semi cast to keep my foot pointing down and was transfered into a vacuum - Vacoped - boot the next day.
I was treated without surgery and it took 8 months before the boot was fully off and I was walking, with a fair bit of pain and anxiety inbetween.
Provided she listens to the professionals and doesn't do anything stupid, it won't break again and she'll make a good recovery - it just takes time.
If needed I'm happy to share my experience in as much detail as required, either here or directly with her, as it can be mentally challenging at times.
A couple of take away bits of information if nothing else are to give it the time it needs and to keep up with stretching and physio when it is healed. Mine healed ok and I can do everything I did before but, I was rubbish at the physio and am still suffering because of it now !
Thanks twonks. Feel free to post as much info as you would like.
I think she feels quite frustrated at the moment and she has just been fitted a plastic velcro strapped leg cast with a ratchet on the side. She said it's two weeks before she will be given an ultrasound to see how bad the tear might be and kind of feels like she is wasting time until then as it will probably end up needing surgery as she thinks it's a total tear. But, it's early days and it might not be I guess.
Snapped mine playing badminton in 2011. The doctor tutted and said I'd be far better off with a broken leg (like I had a choice!) as that'd be sorted in 6 weeks, an Achilles takes many months.
Interestingly, having not walked on it for months as I was 100% non-load bearing, my calf on that side is still significantly smaller than the other, and probably always will be now.
In short, it's one of the worst ruptures as it's soft tissue which is v slow to heal. She'll need Netflix etc.
As an aside, the Dr also said one of the main reasons for Achilles ruptures in men is dads races at school sports days when all the unfit dads step forward, thinking they're still 21. Apparently it's a thing!
It's been a very long time since I ruptured mine playing badminton, so long I barely remember the time frames, I think I was in plaster for around 3 months. From then on it was a long steady recovery.
Every fortnight I'd go back to fracture clinic to have the angle of my foot reset to stretch the tendon, they had to manually angle my foot as I couldn't lift my toes - man that hurt!
Probably not what she wants to hear but it was the most difficult injury I've had to get over, on a positive note it got be back into riding bikes and I've not looked back since.
Best of luck, it'll turn out well.
There's a big difference between partial and complete tear in both treatment and recovery time so prob should get that established first
How did she do it? Did she feel or hear a pop? And, also, squeeze test
Not that I'm advocating that you assess your sister without adequate training fyi. Prob best to leave that to professionals
booked her for ultrasound but this can be up to two weeks away
I'd be surprised if this doesn't happen sooner tbh
Achiiles tendons are actually super tough, I'd be surprised if she completely ruptured it if it was a normal workout tbh- it normally takes something with a bit more force
full rupture for me 14 years ago. i opted for surgical repair, i got surgery 2 or 3 days later.
i was in a cast for 2 weeks and on crutches. i was back to work 2.5 weeks later in an achilles boot with heel wedges! there were 3 wedges and i had to remove one every 2 weeks. i was off the bike for 6 months and just missed the 2.5 weeks work. i had a great recovery and i went to physio a for about 8 sessions. good luck to yer sis.
Ruptured mine at 23 playing racquetball. Surgically repaired that night and plastered for 12 weeks with plaster change after 6 weeks to move the foot to neutral. Unfortunately, the plaster tech couldn't read the registrars instructions and my foot position wasn't changed so I had 12 weeks in plantarflexion.
Rehab at home and a few physio sessions, back to some sports/able to run tentatively after 7 months but didn't go back onto a squash court for 7 years. Not because I wasn't physically able to but mentally I struggled.
Tell your sis to be patient, they take a long time even when you're 23 and indestructible.... Age plays a part in recovery times I'm afraid
Pain is not a reliable indicator of degree of damage. Complete rupture can be relatively painless (once it's happened) unless someone does the Thompson test on you.....
Anyway some good came of it.....I became a physio 🙂
Yeah I'm hoping she will get seen sooner.
Atbr your story seems much more positive, thank you.
As far as I know she said that she felt as if someone had thrown something at the back of her calf, then felt something creep up the back of her leg (presumably the tendon) and she suddenly couldn't stand up.
Very little word from the hospital on the potential the extend of damage and when she was initially assessed they just left her to hop to the waiting room with no cast or support and she thought she was gonna to either pass out or puke. She a bit of a tough cookie so I know this must have been bad for her.
I'll update on here perhaps, once she's been given more news.
Thanks all.
I partially ruptured mine when I was 34 playing 5 a side footy. No-one around me at the time and as I moved towards the ball there was a loud popping sound and felt someone had thrown a brick at my ankle.
Went to the hospital day after and they noticed straight away what I'd done.
Anyway 2 weeks in a cast then had the boot fitted, and had the angle of the boot adjusted every two weeks. Think it was 6 months in total. Was back at work within 3 weeks.
I also had a good recovery and have had no issues since.
The specialist I saw mentioned that there can be complications if you have the surgery, luckily I didn't need it.
Good luck to your sister, it's a long process. I started a thread years ago on mtbbritain forum. There was loads of useful info on that but unfortunately I don't think it's alive anymore.
@peter1979 I'd completely forgotten about my blog, but it is still up and can be found on the below link. It is a bit of a read in total but as it captured my mindset at various points I believe it may help your sister.
Quite a strange site to navigate. Most of the posts can be found by clicking chronologically through the archives in the bottom right.
http://achillesblog.com/adamp/
Should probably give a better insight than posting now from memory but, if anything is not clear please let me know and I'll try address it.
I fully ruptured mine in February 2018, and initially enrolled in the UK STAR trial which compared casts to boots. After a week or so of checking out the literature I decided to withdraw (I checked first that they were easily meeting their recruitment targets). I chose to go with a simple boot to start with (the one being used for the trial) but then to move to a Vacoped boot (which cost me something like £240) that allows for controlled movement.
The UK STAR results are now published:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)32942-3/fulltext
That showed no difference between simple boot and casts on the ATRS score.
I definitely recommend the Vacoped boot. I decided to go for it after discussing it with the author of this paper:
https://online.boneandjoint.org.uk/doi/full/10.1302/0301-620X.97B4.35314
My tendon actually healed pretty well, but I had a load of other issues around my ankle and foot (I assume caused by the immediate collapse when the tendon ruptured) that meant that it took a long while to get back to overall fitness. There's a kind of chain reaction action of atrophy and I ended up having to do a lot of work on hip and glutes in order to be able to do work to rebuild calf strength. It was around 9 months before I felt like I could really start working on cycling fitness again. 16 months after the rupture I cycled ten centuries on consecutive days, and it feels pretty fine, though it is still markedly weaker and visibly smaller than the other leg.
I broke my hip (same side) 4 weeks ago, so now it's all wasting away again... but I'll be back!
Ta! If she does end up wanting a Vacoped boot and having to buy it herself, they do come up occasionally on eBay and are often really quite cheap. They are unlikely to be worn out, and replacements liners can be bought to avoid any foot ick factor!
I considered selling mine but couldn't be bothered, partly because I figured if I did then there's a chance I'd end up knackering myself again and needing another.
Full ruptured mine 2 weeks ago whilst trail building. 2 days in plaster then saw the consultant and have a Vacoped boot on until May hopefully. Got my next appointment in 3 weeks time, 2 days after my 50th Birthday so the timing sucks. Wife is having to do all the dog walking and ferrying children about aswell as working whilst I laze around with my foot up.
I've been doing some floor exercises for the first time in my life which I hope I can stick with as its less fun than watching paint dry and have stopped necking the booze.
4th time I've been on crutches with same leg so I'm kind of resigned to just biding my time and seeing what happens once I can start the recovery / physio.
Best of luck scruff. It does indeed suck being on crutches for a protracted period and having to sit about instead of doing stuff, but in a few months it'll just be something to that you look back on.
Managed a partial tear of the tendon itself. Was lucky and after ~3 months was ok to get back cycling and begin running.
Fair amount of physio with a guy who previously worked at professional football clubs. He manually worked the tendon to break down the scar, each time I left battered and bruised, but it did the job.
Rehab program itself involved many hours on an elliptical trainer.
For comparison 5 months ago I ripped an ankle tendon and that's been far far worse. A lot more pain, recovery has been a lot slower and I've ended up with lots of side effects (knee, hip, back pain). Saw a very good sports injury specialist and now a great physio but it is just not recovering how anyone would like.
Wish her luck.
Isn't this what happened to Rachel Atherton? She opted to have a child in the downtime, so 9+ months as a minimum!
