The below is my personal account with a ruptured Achilles tendon, suffered on my right leg. Some background: I am 31 years old and tore my tendon while playing in a recreational soccer game. I am a very competitive athlete who competed in Division 1 track and field in college, however I have not remained as active over the past 6 or so years. I had no symptoms (tendinitis, sore tendon, tight calf, etc) prior to my injury. I am documenting my recovery below in hopes that it can help ease the mind of anyone who recently tore their Achilles as I found there were not a lot of well documented accounts on the internet.

Week Zero

I ruptured my Achilles on a Wednesday evening. To recount the incident, I was back-peddling and went to take an aggressive forward step toward a soccer ball coming in my direction. It felt as though someone kicked me and made a loud popping noise. As I am very in tune with my body and familiar with a lot of different types of injuries, I knew immediately what the issue was. However, I went straight to the Emergency Room where the injury was confirmed. The doctor did not conduct an MRI or X-Ray. They simply did a palpation and Thomson Test. I was splinted with my foot in a dorsi-flexed position and sent on my way with a set of crutches.

I was able to get in to see an orthopedic surgeon the next day and I elected to have my tendon surgically repaired. I was scheduled for surgery one week from the day of my injury. He removed the splint the ER had put on and put me into a walking boot with crutches. The boot was just to protect it but he told me I wouldn’t really injury it any more as it was already torn. I did not try to walk in the boot at all and just used the crutches.

Over that week, I was not in any real pain, however the crutches were already driving me nuts so I elected to purchase a knee scooter to assist in my mobility. This turned out to be the best decision I could have made. I chose to get the Knee Rover Economy Scooter, however I wish I would have purchased a more expensive model. The economy scooter cushion was not very comfortable so I ended up purchasing this yoga mat and cutting it to size for the cushion part and taping it on with electrical tape. I also purchased this bike water bottle holder to act as a cup holder on my scooter handle bars. If I had to do this again, I would likely purchase this knee scooter and more specifically one with a basket on the front. My insurance covered the full cost of this scooter so I would highly recommend requesting a prescription from your surgeon for this device prior to your surgery.

Bathing was another thing that quickly became a real pain. I was fortunate that I have a walk in shower and did not have to make a big step into my shower. To make my life easier, I purchased a shower stool and i’m certainly glad I did because standing is just not an option. I used this to shower every day for the first 8 weeks to either sit on or kneel on. The top of the stool is pretty uncomfortable so I ultimately placed a folded washcloth on the top to act as a pad when kneeling.

Side note: During my week until surgery, I attended work (desk job) as normal and also flew on a commercial plane for approximately 2 hours and experienced no issues.

Week 1

Day 1 – 7 after surgery. My surgery took place very early in the morning and was very quick and efficient. According to Dr. Akshan Lahiji, my ruptured Achilles tendon was repaired percutaneously. I was placed in a cast, however the cast was cut in half to allow for expansion due to any swelling. Prior to going into surgery I was given a nerve block in my lower leg (below the knee) and left surgery in no pain at all. My nerve block ran out 22 hours after surgery and I found myself in a lot of pain. The pain primarily resonated around the incision. I intentionally avoided taking any pain medication unless I absolutely needed it. I only ended up taking it for the first day and a half after my nerve block ran out. Additionally, my doctor prescribed low dosage aspirin to assist in preventing any blood clotting.

I was told to keep my leg elevated as much as possible and found myself essentially living on my couch for the next week and moving very minimally up until my 14 day mark. At night, I slept with my leg elevated on a pillow. When showering, in addition to my stool, I purchased a cast cover to ensure it stayed dry.

Week 2

Days 8-14 after surgery. Nothing really changed for me from day 7 to day 14 after surgery. I returned to work (with my knee scooter) at 13 days after surgery. At 14 days after surgery, my split cast was removed and a more permanent cast was placed on. Prior to applying the new cast, my leg was cleaned with an alcohol wipe and my staples were removed from my suture. This was the first time I had seen the incision. I did not have any real swelling, but I could tell my Achilles was “thicker” than my other leg. The doctor had me raise my foot as far as I could until there was significant tension, and my leg was re-cast at that angle. I chose the color red as it would help people notice it and not run into it and also because it was college football season and I was going to be attending a game.

I was fortunate for my new cast as it was thinner than my initial cast and actually allowed me to wear pants. This was an important step for me as I was attending a wedding that was a black-tie event so I needed to fit into a tuxedo. The wedding was actually one of the reasons I wish I would have purchased a more expensive knee scooter. The wedding was outdoors on the grass and I had a difficult time pushing my scooter through the grass. Most of the more expensive models are designed for “all-terrain” and actually have almost small bike tires on them. This would have been useful for me in this instance and many others!

In terms of my leg, I still had no pain and was able to wiggle my toes. When moving my toes I could feel a little movement in my tendon, which felt funny, but nothing that felt painful or uncomfortable.

Week 3

Days 15-21 after surgery. During this time period I flew on an hour and a half flight and spent an entire day moving around with my scooter on a college campus tailgaiting. I had some minor issues with my foot swelling during the flight but not to the point that my cast became too tight. I tried to do my best to continue wiggling my toes to keep blood flow up.

After this trip, for whatever reason, my right calf was really sore. I decided (stupidly) to try my Theragun on it to see if it would help. In hindsight this likely made my soreness worse. It was sore for about three days. Sore to the point that I began to get concerned on whether or not I had a blood clot forming. However, I didn’t have any of the other signs of a clot (redness, warmth) and this soreness eventually went away.

Week 4

Days 22-28 after surgery. My leg was beginning to show some obvious signs of atrophy at this point. My cast was starting to become pretty loose and I could tell my leg was getting skinnier. Additionally, my cast really started to itch quite a bit at this point.

At the end of this week, I had a follow up appointment with my doctor in which my cast was removed and I was placed into a walking boot with air bladders in the heel and heel lifts. I was given 2 heel lifts and told to pull one out each week over the next 2 weeks.

On night 28, I had a minor accident and fell in my kitchen. I was wearing my boot but the way I fell, all of my weight was put onto my injured leg. My immediate reaction was that I had torn open the sutures as I was suddenly overwhelmed with a burning sensation in my Achilles area and top of foot. Thankfully, after icing and elevating overnight, all seemed well again.

Week 5

Days 29 – 35 after surgery. On day 29 I removed my first heel insert and had no issues with the new angle. I also started to try to walk more using just one crutch to help support my weight so that I was only putting about 30-40% of my weight on my injured leg. If you’ve had any sort of surgery, you’re likely to develop a scar. To prevent this, silicone scars sheets can be worn to prevent the ugly appearance of these scars. I purchased a 4 month supply of these and began wearing these during week 5.