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i snapped my achilles on the 1st May and was put in a cast as the consultant thought the conservative method was best. My doctor refered me back to hospital for a ultrasound which showed a tear in the original injury anyway been to see another consultant on wed who is now going to operate on me using the tendon to my big toe and grafting it onto my achilles. There was a guy on here that has had this done does anybody know him.
Snapped mine late 2009, although took the surgery route. Its been fine but would hate for any more probs.
Good luck and hope the surgery goes well 🙂
That would be me. Had it done a couple of years ago following an infection of the initial repair. It's a very successful procedure and in some ways the result is better that the original repair. Any questions fire away.
Hi im getting it done next month doc has said two weeks in cast than the boot in total she has said i will be back to doing drops and jumps in 3 months barring any complications whats your expierance as i dont want s break down again.
3 months back to doing drops and jumps sounds very optimistic. I think three months back to riding a bike on the road is maybe a more realistic target. You are already on "plan B" with a tendon transfer and there is no "plan C". You really don't want it to rupture again so just take it easy and listen to your physio. They will get you mobile as soon as possible without further damage.
Having said all that, I don't know the details of your injury and it doesn't sound too bad. They are probably just augmenting the existing damaged tendon with a short piece of FHL (Flexor Hallucis Longus - big toe tendon). They will probably make an incision in the side of your foot and up your calf and you will probably lose all or some of your ability to move the end joint of your big toe downwards but that's no big deal for the majority of activities.
My situation was different in that the entire length of my achilles had been removed due to infection about 9 months previously and during this time my calf muscles had atrophied to nothing. The surgeon then used the entire length of the FHL to construct a replacement achilles.
To do this, they detach the FHL from the end of the toe, pull it out of the calf, drill a hole through the heel bone, run the FHL through the hole, secure with screws, double the FHL back on itself and stich it to the calf muscles. My full recovery (i.e full confidence on a mountain bike) took about 18 months but like I said, your repair sounds more straightforward and recovery will be far quicker.
Biggest problem is getting strength back in the calf muscles, firstly so that you can support your weight on bike pedals and later, so that you can put all your weight on your outside pedal when cornering. I still havn't really got to this point.
My top tips are firstly: if it is at all possible see a physio that specialises in sports injury privately (they will spend more time with you and have higher expectaions for your recovery).
Get an indoor turbo trainer and also buy or borrow one of those trampette things (mini indoor trampaline). They are great because you can run on them long before you can run on a hard surface and they mobilise the calf muscles quickly.
All the best.
That's all very interesting. I had my Achilles surgically re attached 8 weeks ago. I've got one more week in my cast/ boot. A week without at home, then back intro the big wide world!
jonM thanks for the advice. My surgery as far as i can tell is to cover the part of the tendon that has not healed as i can walk about fairly easily and go up and down stairs it just that i have this constent pain and swelling in my calf and ankle