I had achilles tendon surgery yesterday

dmm13,

Good to hear you have no pain at the insertion. That's great! It must feel good to be able to start running again no matter how much of an effort it may feel at this time. I can hardly wait! Thanks for the update.

well, that's good, but why doesn't anyone heed my words about ESWT. It's non-invasive, and I was back to running in one month. You've been out since Jan.

I am completely rid of the tendonosis; it's as if I never had the injury.

djavelin,

I had ESWT last summer. You are right -- it helped immensely. Within 3 months I was running with no pain. Unfortunately the bump on my heel continued to dig into the tendon and reinjured it/kept it from healing completely. In my case surgery had to be the final option because of the structural issue I had.

For anyone else, I would highly recommend ESWT prior to surgery. It really can help.

My Haglund\'s Deformities were too extreme for anything short of surgery if I wanted to resume high mileage running. My second surgery was on May 1st (see link below for details, if interested). I ran about 2 miles a week ago on the track, but the swelling and pain were so great for the following day or so, and even using an elliptical for 15 minutes had a similarly aggravating effect, that I\'m going to wait until later in the month to try easing into running. I want to get up to at least 75 mile weeks by the beginning of September (as I managed to do two years ago after Haglund\'s surgery on my other foot) but without having to mess with the elliptical. We\'ll see. Healing is damn slow; I can track it week by week, but not day by day.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=1970233&thread=1970233

I had surgery to repair a tear in my achilles tendon just before Christmas. I started light jogging at the very end of March after about two months of PT. I'm up to 25 to 30 mpw now. I'm still icing after every run and it still gets a little sore. The bump, which was never all that big to begin with, has gone down a lot. I'm not sure if I started back too soon and I worry about it but when I run it actually feels better than when I'm just walking around. Go figure!

robsica and jayhawk,

It was almost 5 months before I ran a step. I am almost 6 months out from surgery now and today I was up to 3 1/2 miles for the first time. My doctor is really pleased with the progress but I think it is going to be 9 or 10 months before I can do a 50 mile week. I was a high mileage runner as well and hope to be able to do 80-100 mile weeks in the future but it will be a while I can tell.

Jayhawk -- like you my foot feels better running than walking. I have very little pain now, just some soreness in the tendon above where the bump was, but my calf/tendon feel very weak. I limp a bit because I just don't have the strength to walk normally.

I am doing the eccentric stretch/lift several times a day to strengthen it. Does anyone know any other exercises for getting strenght back after this surgery?

Dmm13,

I'm unclear as to what type of surgery you had. Was it -- as in my case -- for Haglund's Deformity or for achillies tendon? I regularly notice that a lot of folks on this message board confuse the problem of Haglund's -- that is, one of extra bone that needs removing -- with other sorts of problems related to the achilles that are far more receptive to conservative treatment than Haglund's.

I was surprised when I saw that you waited so long to start running. My PT cleared me for fast walking about mid-March. About a week into I found it a very slow jog was easier. When I told him about it he just laughed and said he was shocked that I had waited that long. I only had a partial tear which probably aided in my recovery. But I'm running really slow still... 5 miles at 8:50 pace. If I wanted to push it I could run 8:00 pace but in SW Florida with the heat and humidity it's not worth the heat exhaustion.

I had both. My tendon was badly damaged from years of abuse. Part of what was causing the problem was the bump on the heel. So I had the bump removed, a bunch of damaged tissue cut out of the tendon, and TOPAZ. TOPAZ is a therapy where the surgeon sticks a probe into the tendon at 1/4" increments and electrically stimulates it to promote healing.

I was in a cast for a month and a boot for most of a month after that. I cannot imagine that I could have run much sooner than I did.

Thought I would post an update. It has been 8 months since surgery. Things are progressing well although slowly.

Today I did a 10 mile run for the first time. I am now running 6 days a week, with 3 runs of 5-8 (now 10) miles and 3 short runs of 2-3 miles in between. Last week was 28 miles total and this week should be about 30. My longer runs are all at easy pace, have gotten most of them down to about 8:00 pace although I went slower for the 10 this morning. On the short runs I have been doing 5-6 strides/accels of about 150 yards during the last mile just to start getting the feel of running a bit faster.

I don't have much pain but my calf muscle is still very weak so I usually walk with a bit of a limp. I am doing toe raises and eccentric stretching to work on that.

So all in all I am glad to be running regularly again but still have a long way to go to be able to race again. Maybe by next spring...

I tore my achilles tendon spring 06..had surgery and have been following through with just gettin back. Sounds like you are a having a great recovery and that you are well on your way back...just like reading the recovery process to see how mine differed or compared.

fstknynrunner,

What kind of procedure did you have done and how far along is your recovery?

slow but sure progress. once again, i would urge you to try eswt first before surgery if the other tendon goes.

i returned to racing 11 months after treatment but could've done so earlier.

i'm 2 years past treatment now and i haven't heard a peep from the achilles for over 1.5 years. it feels as if it was never injured.

and all that on 50 year old tissues.

djaveln,

That's great -- glad you got back so quickly and are having no problems. I would definitely do ESWT if the other tendon has problems. I had it for this one a little over a year ago and it helped alot. Unfortunately for me, the bump on my heel was so pronounced that it started chewing up the tendon again. So surgery became the only remaining alternative.

I am almost 47 -- hoping that at 50 I am no longer hearing any peeps as well.

It's great to see the update. I had my first 40 mile week last week. It was my first one in exactly three years (due in large part to other health issues) and my achilles is doing beautifully. I've added some extra stretching which is really helped with any running related soreness. The swelling is about half of what it was the last time I posted. I expect other than the scar it should look normal by Christmas.

oh yeah, i forgot about your haglunds bumps. will you or did you have the bump shaved off the non-surgery heel?

I do not have any plans to have it shaved off of the other heel. Believe it or not, I have never had any problems with the other achilles tendon. All of my problems have been with the left foot, even though there is a natural bump on the right heel as well. Must be something in my mechanics -- one doctor once told me that my left leg is somewhat shorter than the other so maybe that has something to do with it.

I was wondering if anyone who has had surgery for Haglund's Deformity could share what, if any, post-operative physical therapy they had consisted of. Thanks.

Last week marked one full year since the surgery. I would say that my foot is probably 80% of normal and gradually continuing to improve. Yesterday I did a 13-miler, my longest run yet. My average mileage for the last 3 months or so is about 25-30, with a few weeks at 40. I am hoping to start stepping it up from here.

As far as fitness, I have started to see some good improvement. 8 minute miles were tough at first but most of my runs are now in the mid 7's without alot of effort. Two weeks ago I did 2 miles in 12:00 as a test. Hoping to do a 5k at that pace in early spring and then go from there. We will see.

Longer term I am starting to think about Chicago this fall. Seems like sub-3 is possible this year if I stay healthy.