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I've damaged my Achilles tendon 5 weeks ago, i was able to hear a pop sound when it did happen. I didn't go to the hospital the first 2 weeks thinking it will be all right but as i didn't see any progress, I went. They put the injured leg in a boot than said to come back in 6 weeks time. As i'm now in my 5th week since it happened and I still can't see any progress. I can't raised my heel by standing just on the injured leg. The recovery time looks to take ages. Should i see some progress by now? I'm starting to think seeing another person to re-access the damage.
If it will take times to recover, how active people manage to go through without doing any exercises?
Cheers.
months for tendons I am afraid and the two week delay in seeking treatment will mean its even slower. However go back for further tests if you think things are not healing
Are you saying that the tendon fully ruptured and you're going for non surgical recovery ?
Probably a year.
I'm just recovering from patella tendonopathy, which I did last January. Back to full strength now but not quite full range of motion after a year of daily rehab! I have probably done 10,000+ eccentric step downs / isometric holds on the bad knee over the last year and saw a Sports Therapist once a fortnight for 12 months.
A long time, sorry.
I went down the surgical route, it's been a few years so lengths are a bit hazy but was in a cast from the knee down for 2-3 months. This involved repeated visits every couple of weeks to reset the cast with my ankle at an ever decreasing angle to put stretch on the tendon.
And a lot of hobbling around and physio afterwards.
Not sure on the 'conservative' repair time lengths but wouldn't imagine it to be much less.
Good luck and take it easy.
Badly injured mine in early 2014 - no pop sound and not torn, but badly damaged. I was overdoing it running without great form and ignored the warning signs 🙁
Took 6 months before I could push off strongly on that leg and nearly a year before I felt I could return to any gentle running type exercise.
I do hugely sympathise with the "how do I exercise now" feeling. The advice I had from the NHS minor injuries unit was basically to stop all exercise - which I also found very frustrating.
I found that after a month or so of rest, I was able to swim. I also found I could do select exercises at the gym. I hurt my achilles in March, started swimming in May and gym in probably June. Back to full strength for the following spring.
I actually enjoyed working on swimming, which I hadn't done much of before. Caveats would be that your injury sounds worse than mine, and whatever you do start off really really gently. If it happened to me again, I would pay to see a sports injury specialist.
Good luck! It'll pass quickly enough but I know that isn't much help right now!
Thanks all ! not fully ruptured as far as the ortho expert said (no scan was made) and no surgical operation was suggested.
So it looks like months. Got to find a new hobby.